Hi Everyone,

I have a '98 Polaris Sport 400L with 2 bent A-arms. One of the bars is bent in fairly far (maybe 1 or 2 centimeters). The other one just happend the other day, and only one side of one of the bar is bent in slightly. My question is, can this hurt anything on my quad (such as the suspension)? It doesn't seem to shake or anything while going down the road, but the arms deffinatly are bent. Also, I have heard that the A-arms on these quads are weak, are there any good aftermarket arms that I should get instead? That's all for now. Thanks for the help.

-Josh

 

You may not "feel" a problem witht he A-arms now, but any time metal is belt without special process' it looses strength. Replace them as soon as you can. Hot Seat has a nice set of chromolly A-arms available.

 

I just had this problem with my Blazer. The post above is right. Although there seams to be no problem now, you could have one. The bent arms are extremely weak now, and could give after a hard bump or jump. Couse you know what woul happen then.

Another thing to consider beides heavy duty arms, is to add a set of A-arm guards as well.

 

You also want to take a good look at the a arm tabs or ears look for a crack or a stress marks if you bent the arms there is a chsnce that you could have damaged this area.

 

Bent mine on my 00 500 SP and bought new new ones, that was expensive. I took the bent ones, heated and straitened them, and welded on a stronger support on the underside. Polaris makes a weak A arm compared to others I have seen. Since I have added the HL lift kit and 27" claws, never hit a thing, nor bent the arms.

 

Piranha,

If handling is find, and there are no cracks anywhere, I believe you should be fine. It all depends on if you have the extra cash laying around. If you decide to leave it that way, you may want to reset the alignment, as it may have changed. Mild steel will usually take alot of abuse before it simply breaks. Kind of like a clothes hanger--you have to bend it back and forth lots of times before it actually breaks. It is more likely that a weld would break. So, as long as the welds still look good with no cracks, all should be fine.

 

The welds wont break it is the metal next to ajoining the weld that were it will break or tear.

 

Piranha
You may wear out bushings quickly also. The bent arm may be binding on the bushing. HTH

I have a bent one on mine also (more dented than bent though) been that way over a year no problems yet.

98 Scrambler 500

 

A bent arm in itself should't hurt much by itself, but if it gives way at any speed at all, it sure will. If it were mine, I would replace the arms, likely with heavy-duty ones, and likely put some sort of guards on them. I don't ride over enough rocks to have bent one yet.
Farmr

 

Thank you to everyone who replied. I appreciate the info. I guess that it would probably be best to replace the A-arm that is actually "bent" at least. However, I think that I will just replace them both with heavier duty ones. Also, does anybody know where I could get a-arm covers for the '98 Sport? None of the ones that I have seen, actually look like they would help. Thanks for the advice!

-Josh