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Warning-first post, pretty lengthy rant

We bought the '04 500 ATP new to replace an '84 Suzuki LT230 for use on the ranch-we raise cattle in southwest MO and the ATV is an essential item, usually ridden by my wife the ranch manager. It's used to check cows, often to transport two people, a few bags of grain, fencing tools, sometimes a sick calf, rarely uses 4WD, drives through low streams and over rocky/brushy terrain, some steep hills but never at high speeds. Not what I would consider abuse for a heavy duty vehicle. The Suzuki now burns more oil than gas but has never had a clutch or driveline problem with essentially no special maintenance and still runs-let's not discuss the carb though. Figured the ATP would be a good choice, and the suspension and ride is very nice compared to the Suzuki.

We've been pretty good on oil change maintenance, filters, cleaning, and the like but didn't pay that much attention to the driveline. BIG, EXPENSIVE MISTAKE. This past winter the 500 ATP got hard to shift, to the point where it would lock up in gear so even when turned off, it can't be shifted. Since I didn't have the time to mess with it I took it to the Polaris dealer and explained the problem. They charge me $250 to clean the clutches. When I get it back, it's like they never even touched it, maybe worse than when it went in for service. I (reluctantly) take it back and now they charge me $900 more to replace both the drive and driven clutch, although they had previously told me the aft (driven) clutch was OK. I can't believe that these clutches are worn out after three years. I did get the old parts back and with the overhaul manual can probably rebuild these as spares, but this seems to be a pretty wimpy system given the service conditions. I think the vehcle has about 900 hours and maybe 3800 miles to date. The recommended maintenance for the clutches is to remove them ever 200 hours and go through a detailed inspection and parts replacement routine.

But it gets better. About a month ago the aft drive shaft u-joint exploded. That's on me, I didn't grease the joint as often as I should have (it does have a zerk fitting) but you would think a heavy duty vehicle would be designed for ease of U-joint replacement. Not the ATP-well maybe it's Polaris' idea of easy replacement but you have to remove the entire swingarm to change the rear driveshaft, and you can't just replace the U-joint, you have to buy the $140 shaft. In my case it's a moot point as the yoke on one side was damaged, but you would think that a drive shaft would be completely replaceable with individual parts. While replacing the shaft, I discovered that the swing arm was evidently not assembled correctly at the FACTORY- a big jam nut is missing on one side and the roller bearing supporting this side of the swing arm is screwed up as it should be torqued to 14 ft-lb but is actually torqued to the 120 ft-lb recommended for the jam nut. There is no way the jam nut fell off, and there was no prior maintenance that would have required its removal.

While changing the rear driveshaft, I also discovered that one front CV joint is gone. The boot ripped and the entire joint disintegrated with the remainder of the shaft flopping around and making steering dangerous. The other side boot is ripped too but I apparently got to it in time as it was intact and still had grease in it with only minor water contamination. Cleaned it up and put a new $49 boot on after wrestling with the goofy boot clamp for a while. The CV joint is $210 by itself but you also need the $49 boot kit so you're already into it for $260, the entire shaft is $290 so I ordered the entire shaft. I also noticed that the U-joints in the CV drive shaft and the front drive shaft have no zerks and cannot be lubricated, and the CV shaft U-joints appear to be unreplaceable.

I don't think the Suzuki required this much money in 20 years of operation even considering fuel! I'm very disappointed in the durability and maintenance design of the 500 ATP, and although some of it is on me, I can't square the clutch replacement after three years of what I consider to be normal service. I also can't believe the driveshafts arent designed with U-joints that can be lubricated and/or easily replaced. Anyone else had similar experiences? It appears that driveline maintenance on the 500 ATP is extremely important, something I just learned the hard (read expensive) way.

 

maintance is the one one key to these bikes.(polaris i mean) when you go thru a low running stream or what ever the water washed out the grease in where the fittings are. i know a guy w/ 7,000 miles on his clutches and i think he replaced weights and pins maybe. i think if water gets in the clutch cover it does rust up parts and wear them out faster. as we all know, no body makes anything as good as they used to be.

 

Been there, replaced that!

If you want a machine that doesn't have much to go wrong with it go with an air cooled foot shift Honda rancher 350 or foreman S. I think you would have to find an 06 model as honda has added alot of electronics to both of these machines for 07 to include the addition of EFI to the 420 rancher S and power steering to the 476 cc foreman S, I think.

A 2006 rancher S 2x4 350 (foot shift) should be the least maintenance intyensive ATV out there. The 2006 foreman S (500 class) 476cc 2x4 is similar, but it has a fancy electronic dash cluster.

 

Sorry to hear your troubles Tim.
I think you will see that many atvs (Polaris inparticulary) when they start getting up there in hrs (900!!) and running in water/mud (not necasarily muddy holes) it will see lots of wear and tear. My first sp500 and sp600 were like this, I rode mud hole after mud hole and before I knew it with low hrs on the sp600 I had to replace the rear bearings, with only 120hrs. Mud/water will tear a machine apart. Find someone with as many hrs and miles on a 04 that hasn't done any major repairs, any brand. Its the nature of the industry.

 

Thanks for the comments.

I'm coming around to the realization that this is probably as good as it gets, or the Suzuki spoiled me. That LT230 is a tough little beast, but it has carb/fuel system problems and no suspension.

The clutch thing with the 500 ATP bothers me though, its still acting up in low range even with the new clutches.
It only got wet once with the prior setup and seemed to dry out OK (parts looked OK upon removal too), this new installation has not been wet. Gonna' have to keep a close watch on this.