Hey everyone, I got a 2011 sportsman 500 ho that makes a thumping noise in the clutch case at idle. The bike has 2500 miles and has been running great otherwise. Today I decided to take it apart to see what's going on and I noticed that the belt was rubbing the case at the top near my intake tube. It actually started making its own grown in it. Belt looked like new with no dust or cogs missing. The belt does seem kinda loose. Called my local dealer and he told me a new belt would not fix this and I should try to turn my idle down. My idle is not even high. So my question is should I try a new belt or what else could cause this problem? Thanks

 

is it a factory belt? if it has ebs then the belt should not be loose.

 

In neutral belts can sometimes hit the cover when you give it throttle and let off because there's no load on the clutches and they flex up and slap the top of the cover.But as stendori mentioned belts should be tight.If it's starting to groove the cover,has play in the belt,replace it.I've had a bunch of the newer larger covers get sliced right at the back of the air exhaust duct because of people letting worn belts go too long.Don't go aftermarket,stay with the Polaris oem belt. Plus one other thing to check is that the front motor mount hasn't separated.This can cause problems also.

 

Had the same trouble with mine, it was the buttons in the secondary driven clutch that were worn...Did not have any luck getting them out ,(not easy they are self drilled in with the screws used and not serviceable like the snowmobile ones I worked on. ordered a whole new driven clutch from partshark..............caper,.....

 

Welcome back Caper. I haven't seen you on here in ages.

 

hello, old pal.

 

Yeh gave up th computer for awhile, wife said spending too much time on it...LOL.....Had the roof of my garage cave-in on the two Sportsman 450's last March, Mine Blue one just had the high-beam light smashed, but the wife's Yellow one took some damage, handlebars, high-beam headlight, front storage rack top and bottom, front left low-beam light, and speedo /pod ...... ........

 

By the way the two Polaris atv were about 1 inch from the garage floor and when we took the snow and roof off they lifted right back up and drove the two of them out of there......I was impressed, to say the least.......no spring damage or shocks....Caper..

 

Thanks for all the advice. I had a Polaris belt on it. Today I decided to replace my belt with another Polaris belt. I installed the belt with quite a bit of ease. It still seems to have a lot of play. Is this normal? Now you mentioned the front motor mount. Is this visible with everything back together? I didn't see any other problems. Once I have it all back together the belt was not hitting the cover anymore, but is still pretty loose.

 

Just use a pry bar to see if the motor mount is tight and hasn't separated.If the belt stills feels little loose then you may need to check out the clutches for wear items. Mainly the 3 ramp buttons and the ramp(helix) itself.Dirt Cheap Yamaha, Polaris, Suzuki & Kawasaki OEM Parts & Accessories – Cycle Parts Warehouse