Well, here is the story... My wife has gotten her friend interested in riding and to get the ball rolling they got a pretty decent deal on a '96 Sportsman 400 to basically learn how to ride and see if they even like riding. After riding it for a week or so, they decided it needs a little work so they brought it over to the house to kind of give it a once over and (even though I have never touched a Polaris before this) I agreed.

NOW the for the real meat and potatoes, first and foremost it is in need of both outer tie rod ends and steering stem bushings. Tie rods are pretty well beat and you could move the bars/steering stem at least 3/4" vertically. It also seemed like it smoked way too much at anything over light throttle so after talking we decided to do away with the oil pump and just run mixed gas as opposed to dealing with the pump timing/oi injection. Anything else I should look into while we have it apart?

I will admit that I do not have a service manual for this machine and am a bit confused about servicing it. What fluids does this thing actually need because the diagram he gave me shows a crankcase drain, counter balance drain, recoil drain and a starter pinion drain. Are these all different fluids or are there just multiple drains I am used to working on 4 strokes and replacing crankcase oil in the motor, gear oil in the diffs and off we go

Few other "minor" things on the shopping list, torn intake boot, new air filter, carb adapter, new grips.

Thanks for any help or advice, feeling a little lost on this 2 stroke thing

 

These are all multiple drain: crank case drain for any excess gas removal, counter balancer drain (holds 75cc 10w30,dipstick under the carb) starter drain and recoil drain for draining any water accumulation. Check first that the counter balancer fluid isn't milky colored,sign of needed water pump seals and bearing. They start smoking as they get older not usually from over oiling ,but excess gas from needle and seat wear and exhaust pipe saturated with a thick coating of oil residue over the years. Mix the gas 40-1 since you've blocked the oil pump system off (pumps do freeze from corrosion and can stick because its located in the worst place possible:the front of the atv. Plus check for any awd seal leakage in the hubs and use Polaris Demand Drive hub fluid. The transmission takes Polaris AGL or equivalent oil for chain driven gear cases. Yes it's best you obtain a manual as there are plenty of things to maintain. Good luck OPT

 

Thank you sir for the response, I have been searching around here quite a bit and I was hoping to see your name I will advise him that we need a manual, I could tell right off the bat that this thing was either far more complex than my 04 YFZ450 and 03 Wolverine.

I have read about cleaning the exhaust on it, that is something altogether new to me as well I primarily pushed for pump elimination for just that reason, it seemed like pretty simple logic that if the pump failed and stopped injecting oil this quad will get expensive way too quick. I don't know how often they fail, if they "die" slowly over time or just all at once but I'd just assume not find out.

So, would I be correct in thinking that under ideal circumstances the recoil and starter drains should yield no fluid and as they are just drains, no fluid goes back in? I felt that the fluid on the dip stick looked milky, so the bearing and seals probably just went onto the shopping list, as well as the needle and seat. I'm sure his wife will be thrilled to hear the news Any suggestions on where to shop for all this? I was just using the parts fiche on Rocky Mountain to give them rough prices.

 

Only oil for the counter balancer goes back in after you loosen all drains. Sounds like you do need the manual especially with milky counter balancer oil. There are two water pump seals that are different and have to go a certain way along with a bearing and gaskets. Hopefully the inside counter balancer bearings are not corroded from the coolant. Can get expensive. Look over the manual carefully before you tackle this. About the cheapest places I've found online for oem parts is Cycle Parts Warehouse and Cheap Cycle Parts,I'm sure there are others. Good luck. Plus you can look here at the Polaris parts website for parts you might need. Browse
OPT

 

OK, she is getting back together once and for all and I have another question, how tight does the nut at the bottom of the steering stem need to be? I would normally just get a castle nut like that tight and then tighten a little more until I can get a cotter key in place but the rubber spacer is throwing me off on this one...

 

Should be a metal spacer on top of the post block and a rubber space sandwiched in between metal bushings on the bottom. Don't tighten the steering nut to where it just distorts the rubber spacer and is hard to turn. Just tighten enough to eliminate any up and down slack on the shaft and install a new cotter pin. OPT

 

Sounds good, thank you again for your help. I made sure to order all new bushings, spacers, etc. based on the parts diagrams online but wanted to make sure about the tightness of the nut. Looking forward to getting this baby put back together and back on the trail!