Do you guys that spend alot of time in water and mud seem to have much trouble with wheel bearings? If not how often do you service them or do you wait til you have trouble? Any info is appreciated!!

 

Come on no one?

 

I don't purposly run in mud but with probly a total ofover 10,000 miles on my 2 cats that all bearings will bewore out by 3000 miles some as little as 2000. Thier bearings are not of the best quality. And running in lots of water might cause them to go out quicker.

 

I got nearly 10,000mi out the stock bearings on my 400. But I have replaced the seals probably 3-4 times. I check them every winter when I only minimally use the machine. I plow with one while I do maintenance on the other one then switch. Takes me about 1-2 weeks in the evenings to go through them and some of that time can be waiting for little parts my dealer does not carry.

You are correct in the fact that mud and water that gets into the bearings will cause them to fail very early. Seals are about $4 bearings are about $50 per tire so I feel removing the axle and checking them often is justified.

Swampy

 

Cool! Yeah its better to keep the seals in good shape then to let them go bad and shorten the life of the bearing!! Thanks for all the input!

 

ive replaced 8 bearings with 3500 miles on my 02 500. neadless to say, im done with the mud. well most of it.
oh yeah, i wait till the tire moves side to side. then i replace them.

 

hey tancat500.

Is yours a manual shift or auto? The 500 cat with the 29.5s.

If it is manual i see that you have the outlaw clutch kit and was wondering what exactly it did. Just have stronger springs on the clutches to make it engage stronger. or if it was similar to a clutch kit on an automatic and reduced the gear ratio?

 

Hey devin, Mine is a manual and the outlaw clutch kit holds the clutch shoes and engages them at a higher rpm range when the motor is higher in the powerband! Works really well, but no doesn't change the ratio! Also makes shifting alot smoother.. Got back all the takeoff power that i had before the tires!!

 

i went riding last weekend and started noticing something weird with my 500 artic cat manual shift. when i am taking off it seems something in the clutch is dragging. it feels like it is holding the 4 wheeler from going. the clutch is not slipping. it bogs the motor a little during the startoff but when the clutch is fully disengaged it quits dragging and pulls fine. when the certain speed is met where the clutch is disengaged and needed no more for startoff it jerks and tries to take off because i am having to give it so much gas to get it to go while it is dragging and it quits all together when the clutch is fully disengaged and the 4 wheeler is rolling.

This was hard for me to try and explain. maybe someone can understand my problem and offer a possible solution.

 

Your right that is hard to understand! Does it make any noise when this happens?