Hi all.
I'm new to the board because a few weeks ago I bought my first ATV - a 2002 Sportsman 500 HO. It was in what I considered mint condition.

Fast forward about 3 weeks when I let my little brother take it out for a while. He rolls it a few times. We drag it down to the trailer and get it home.

So, I find that the steering post is bent, the right front tire is off the rim, the thumb peice to the throttle control is broke, the headlight pod is ripped apart, the speedo is busted up, both racks are busted along with both rack mounts.

I've replaced the steering shaft, the throttle control, the speedo and the racks, got the tire partially mounted (need to go to a shop to get it fully mounted). Everything is coming together.

Once I got everything working well enough to ride it, I notice a clunking or popping sound coming from the right front wheel area. I spend quite a while trying to pinpoint it and didn't see anything out of whack. This is the same wheel that had the tire pop off, so I'm certain it got hit pretty hard.

I pull off the tire and find the brake caliper stuck and dragging hard, so I got that fixed. The clunk/popping sound is still there.

Today I dug deeper. I pulled the hub off to look at the bearings. I examined each bearing and all seemed to look okay to me. Couldn't figure out how to easily get the boot clamps off the CV joints so I wasn't able to look at them.

I reassembled everything and re-lubed everything to see if something just got knocked out of whack. Sound was gone for a few minutes but then came back and may be somewhat more prominent than before. The sound is loud enough to be heard some distance away. I could easily get the sound to occur when in forward gear. I could push the atv and hear it a couple times every revolution. When in nuetral it didn't seem to happen as much and when I had it in reverse I didn't hear it at all. I got my ear down as close as I could and could definitely hear it closer to the hub than the differential.

In any event, I'm stumped as to what I need to replace next because I haven't pinpointed the problem. The next couple things I think I need to try are all fairly expensive so I want to make the best decision I can before having to replace everything between the differential and the tire.

So, I'm hoping I can draw upon the help of you ATV vets to help me troubleshoot this problem. What do you guys think? Should I replace the CV axle? Just the outer kit or the entire axle (inner and outer)? Or should I try replacing the bearings or hub? Are there any other things I can try before throwing new parts at the problem?

I'd certainly appreciate any other ideas or insight.

Thanks!

 

First kick little brothers **** ! Then pull the cv boots sounds like a bad joint.

 

also check your universal joint. it might be binding up at higher speeds! (just a suggestion)

 

Are there any writeups on this board or elsewhere that includes pictures and instruction on checking/replacing cv joints? I'd love to see some images of what I'm looking for and how it should look. I've searched all over this board. Also, how might I go about checking the universal joint?

 

BrainE hit the nail on the , with first part of your post ( ie don't let little brother's ride your quad ) at least unless he has a good paying job ; so he can pay for the damage's done ! And it sound's to me like BrianE is right about the CV's and maybe the axle at the very least ! I hope it doesn't go any farter than that , a hard rollover like taht can do a whole lot of damage to an ATV ; and in any case i'm glad to hear your brother didn't get injured bad ! It could have been to the emergency room or even the morgue , a swift kick in the **** and the soreness will go away in a day or two ; but all joking aside this could've ended up a lot worse ! You can repair or replace a quad but a brother is an entirely different case ! I hope you get the quad going , and that it doesn't cost a leg and a arm to get it repaired ; the price of the part's alone are enough to take out a loan sometime's just be glad you can do the labor yourself ! Tke care and have a good night and a better day tomorrow.

 

did you jack up the front and spin the wheel around and listen. when cvs go bad they start clicking faily loud the worse they get. maybe some how it poped out of the socket or damage the ball bearings in side. just an idear for ya.

 

i would jack up the quad so all four tires are off the ground and then you can check everthing out and eliminate the things that are not wrong and go from there.
with all the wheels off the ground you can run the quad and check stuff at the same time (get your little bro to help you, after all he's the one who detroyed it)

 

in 02 the the awd engaged in the hub so you have your problem in there also and this is just something im saying because alot of people new to polaris dont know is that your awd does not work in reverse without the override button put it in awd reverse and push the override button see if you dont get your pop sound then.

 

It's been a few weeks but I finally got around to working on the ATV again. I ordered a new cv/axle assembly and put that on today. It actually solved the pop and clunk problem! but... I still have a wobble in the front drive somewhere, so I'm not sure now if it's the front differential or even the other cv joint and/or axle. What a real bummer. Anyone ever had to replace their differential after a rollover? The left side seems to be perfectly okay, but the other side still seems to be lightly catching causing the wheel to spin when 4x4 is not engaged. I can stop it with my hand though, so maybe I tightened the end nut slightly too much?

 

Now did your check all you welds on the a-arms and frame??.........The wobble may just be a bent square tubing or weld!!!.......Caper........