The steering shaft on my 03 SP500 HO BROKE! I was out riding at a fast pace for most of the day. At one point we stopped for a rest. As I started to pull out my bars came almost completly off in my hands. The weld on top of the steering shaft broke off. Im lucky I did not get hurt.
My dealer contacted Polaris and they said they wont do anything for me. I have 100 hours on it.
Polaris should have fixed it for me and insected my broken part for R&D.

 

i'm sorry to hear about your issue. i hope you get it fixed soon.

 

theres almost nothin that polaris will not charge. they charged me for my back axle bearings today and i got pissed off, raised h*** in there after that one guy (last post i did) and they still charged me. i payed and left. gonna do it my self for now on

 

i would sugguest that you buy the parts and do the work yourself. you will save money.

 

true that, true that. thats wat im goin to do for now on.

 

This is definitely a weakness in the Polaris ATVs with this particular setup. I know two people who have had this exact same problem on two different ATVs. One was a Scrambler and the other a Sportsman like yours. The part in question is identical. It's just too weak and over time weakens from pulling on the handlebars. When my friends broke off it was actually a good thing "after we got it home and bent my rack up hauling him in ;-)", because I was able to weld the hell out of it and put another piece of plate underneath it. He won't ever have to worry about it breaking now. Here is a pic of the Sportsman's failure that I got off another forum I visit. Broken Handlebars Sportsman

 

Thanks for the info guys. I may just go ahead and strengthen mine up before I get much riding in this summer. I will pass this on.

 

Well I went ahead and welded my broken steering plate and added a nice metal plate to it. I needed to buy longer grade 8 bolts. Strong now.
Fellas keep an eye on yours.
I only had 100 hurs on mine.

 

My Broken steering stem is completly back together. Thanks to my brother, he did all the welding and work.
**NOTE** All Polaris owners, take a little time and CHECK the welds on the steering stem plate that your handle bars mount to.
I COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!!
Remember, mine showed NO signs of needing attention UNTIL they broke off !!!
Polaris could easly used thicker metal as a plate. Not only was a weld cracked but so was the plate.

 

My buddies 05 700sp did this also, but he rolled his in a field. He still complained that they should hold up better than that, even in a roll over