Here are just a few things I have learned that will save you money.
1) Rear Ujoints on the Sp cost about $50 from polaris. They are made by Neapco and can be bought at a Auto parts store for about $14. The Neapco part numbers are Neapco 1-1275 for the small one and Neapco 1-1875 for the large one. These are the same exact part according to Neapco.
This is less than the dealers cost.
2) If you ride in water, the water will wash the grease out of the SEALED? bearings in your fan and it will start to hum. It only takes ten minutes to remove the bearings once you have removed the fan. You can buy both bearings at a bearing specialty shop for about $7 and your fan will be as good as new.
3) Water pumps go out because of grit in the coolant. Grit gets in the collant through the tiny hole in the lid of the resevoir. When you go deeper than the resevoir the motor cools pulling dirty water into the bike, the mechanical seal for the water pump sits at the lowest point of the cooling and grit eats up this seal. If you don't believe that grit gets through that little hole, take the cap off and remove the seal in the cap and look under it. Anyway, just drill a hole in the cap, put a gromlet in it, and run the vent line up into the headlight assembly.
4)TPS in Texarkana will rebuild front CV joints to OEM specs for $80. (Transmission Parts Supply)
They do good work.
5) If you have problems with your belt cover leaking, you can remove the cheesy foam seal, fill the entire groove with pure silicone ($4) put a THIN coat of grease on the cover, and replace the cover being care no to tighten it down all the way. In 24 hours the silicone will cure. Remove the cover and degrease it, wipe the silcone which will have adhered to the back cover, and you have yourself a reusable silicone o-ring. tighten the cover back on.

Please forward you check, cash, applause, or money order to gregsims01@excite.com
Just kidding, if you have questions about your sportsman, to this thread and I will try to help or email directly.

Greg Sims

 

I forgot one more. My friends will be upset with me for sharing this secret. This has to be worth some cash to some one.

When you get in water over your carb, but you don't suck water in the air box, and your 4-wheeler dies, you always hear that your plug got wet. Well why is it that you have to drain your carb to get your bike running.
Because, on the bottom of your carb there is a needle, which allows the carb to drain if your float sticks. at the bottom of that needle is the drain screw for your carb which allows you to drain the entire bowl. The problem is this...
the needle has a check valve that almost always fails. It is intended to keep water from entering the carb through the drain line and coming in at the top of the overflow needle. IT DOESN'T WORK. So, if you ride in deep water, plug the drain line and it won't happen again. Remember to remove the plug when you are not riding, this is how the carb release excess gas when you transport your atv and forget to shut off the fuel. It can fill up your air box with gas if it is not allowed to drain.

I hope this helps.

Greg (whos your daddy) sims

 

Greg, I really appreciate the tips you have offered here. The only one I already knew about was the radiator overflow bottle. What type of grommet are you talking about using? My sportsman doesn't have ujoints on the rear end. Do you have part numbers for the other ujoints? One thing I can add to sportsman tips is to go to your nearest arctic cat dealer and order the acordian-style boot that fits on the differentials of their bikes. You can use vacuum hose fittings to attach these to the vent hoses on the front gear box and rear end of the sportsman 500 so that if you "accidentally" go into too deep of water that you won't get water going down the vent hose and getting into the oil. I've used this on my sp500 successfully for a few months now. One other tip: I use Mobil 1 synthetic transmission fluid in my front hubs on my sp500. I hear of some people haveing a problem with the front hubs staying engaged sometimes. I change my fluid about every other time that I grease the bike(every 2 mud rides), and never have had a hub stay engaged. This may be due to the fluid being changed often, or it may be the synthetic ATF that helps prevent them from sticking. Either way, that's what has worked for me. One more tip, then I'll quit. You can go to your local auto parts store and acquire the WIX filter number 51358, which fits the sportsman 500. It is listed in the wix book as a cross-reference for the sportsman 500. It costs about $5, which is about half the price of the polaris counterpart, and wix is a superior filter. I could probably think of a couple more tips, but I'll quit for now.

 

Thanks very much all of these will definately
help me out. And maybe save me some $$ instead
of having to take it to my mechanic all the time!!

mudgirl
Sportsman 500

 

Great tips guys, thanks. It might be helpful to have the phone # for TPS in Texarkana.

 

The number is (903)793-5681. Actually any reputable CV joint repair shop should be able to help you. There is a shop five miles from my home here in Lindale Texas. I send my CV's to TPS because they have a $500,000 computerized cv grinder that allows them to rebuild CV's to OEM specs. Hope this helps.

Greg

 

Greg, just wanted you to know that my bike had also experienced the poor running in water. Sometimes it would even go dead. It could, however, be restarted on choke (most of the time) This morning before I left for work, I plugged the line with a small bolt. I also looked in the cap and seal of the overflow bottle, and yes, there was a small amount of crud in there. Now, I've just got to figure out what will work best for the overflow bottle. I'm thinking about using some type of hose fitting. I'll also flush the radiator to try and remove any sediment that may have entered the cooling system. What did you use in the overflow bottle cap?

 

I have an Xplorer and have come across a couple of things that may be of interest.

Freezing Starter - I spray Rust Check (Green Can) into the starter drain hole. The Green is thicker and does not run out as quickly as the Red Can. It has not eliminated the problem of the starter freezing, but it certainly cut down the incidents.

Back-Up Light - I attached a 12volt "work light" to my rear bumper and wired it to the revers light in the headlight pod. Only comes on in reverse and no switches to be fooling around with.

walexa - - be careful with what you refil the rad with. I have read here somwhere that a spscial type of antifreeze is required. I believe it is silical free and orange in colour. Chech it out though.

 

I used a 1/4 inch threaded brass hose fitting and drill a hose a little smaller than the fitting, then I used a tap to thread the hole. I connected 1/4 inch hose to the fitting. I bought the fitting at western auto; however, you can buy them at any parts store.

Just to explain how much plugging the carb help me, My bike is snorked and I couldn't go through water over the carb for more that a few seconds. After I plugged the carb, I could go through water 6 ft deep. The bike was floating, and I was swimming with one hand on the throttle. (I have 27X12X12 vamps on billet alum wheels with spacers) It floats real good. By the way the wheels, tires and spacers are all for sell $700 they are three months old. They cost over $1000 new. Anyway I hope you save your water pump, it requires specail tools to replace.

Good luck,
Greg

 

I want get upset if ya split the cash. This tip does work, come watch the GRIZZLY swim with the fishes. LMAO......................