Hi everyone,
Thanks for looking..Maybe one of you guys can please help a fellow rider.
03 Sportsman 500H.o ,bought it from a guy that had installed Ranger springs
on it. Needless to say, It rode like an old wagon stiff as a morning tee-pee pole.lol
So on my quest of returning it back to stock, I noticed the cartridges were jacked up &
out of place.
Got replacement strut cartridges and need to know how deep in the strut holder do I need
to mount these struts?
I have an after market service manual that just says to scribe a mark on the position of the old ones and transfer it to the knew ones.
But in my case that is not any help.
Does anyone know?

 

If you got stock they should be bottomed in the housing. Kinda sounds like I had done to my old machine. Had done the hocky puck lift and puy the cutout pieces in the bottom of the strut housing. But they were at the bottom origionaly.

 

Did the guy try to put on 05 or newer springs? In 04.5 Polaris made taller 8.2" struts/springs from 6.7"

Did the guy compress the taller new 8.2 springs on the shorter old 6.7 struts maybe?

 

Thanks upnort. By the way what year was your sportsman?
According to the manual which cover 1996-2003 models states that placement of strut cartridge may vary.

TLC ,about the length of springs he had on, Yes he had them pretty compressed.
Without measuring them, they appear 3 inches taller than stock.

 

I had an 02 500 and an 03 700. Strut can be clamped up a bit I imagine but mine were bottomed out. The strut is to dampen the rebound of the springs and absorb bumps.

 

yea I just wasn't sure on how the placement would affect the up or down travel of the strut rod in terms of bottom'n out ... I'll go with your advice tho.
Thanks for your help upnort.
Hey have any idea on how to remove a stuck roll pin from the axle yoke?

 

See for yourself. http://www.powersportsnetwork.com/en...e2=13488&go=Go

 

that would explain things TLC.
I can not see what performance advantages the previous owner would get out
of doing such a thing. I mean it was so stiff that it felt It had no suspension at all, & I'm not exaggerating either.The rear has a 2" collar on the shocks which I am going to take off next. Just looking for a stock smooth ride & stock ground clearance of 11" is good enough for me. and is one of the reasons why I chose this atv not to mention the IDS.

 

The previous owner may have had bigger tires on it and tightened up the front end to keep it from rubbing when they hit bumps. That is why I did mine.

 

Yes now that you mention it upnort ,he did mention he had bigger & more aggressive tires.