I have a 1994 Polaris 300 4x4. Pulled apart the front hubs due to 4x4 not working and metal shavings in the oil. Replaced the armature plates, both magnetic could grab and release when I press the button. It has the flexloc nuts. So I reassembled it and the one side won't release and the other side won't get 4x4. Could it be due to improperly tightened flex loc nuts? I found metal shavings in the oil again so I'm confused. Any help?

 

Flexloc nuts are tougher to get right than the later castle nut and cotter pin. Calls for a rolling nut torque sequence which is hard to do. Most used nuts that I reinstalled ended up right around 20 foot pounds. Try that toque setting and see how it does. Plus metal shavings isn't a good sign. Even with a new armature plate if the face of the coil sleeve or strut inner pole where the plate rides are damaged/ground down it can cause problems on having enough pull on the plate so the hilliard can lock in.

 

What happens if the original toque exceeds the new rolling torque specs? Like I did 400 inch pounds and then backed it off 1/2 turn. The rolling torque was 16ft pounds or 192 inch pounds. So I did 192+100 inch pounds, tightened it to 292 inch pounds but it was at that torque from before. So should I go up to 20 foot pounds like you said or just leave it how it is? It's got some play in the hub at this torque but it's not terrible.

 

On a used nut you can just about forget about the rolling torque method working correctly. NO play is allowed in the hub. You have 292 inch pounds now(24 foot pounds) Try the rolling torque method again and see what you get. I was usually able to get them to 20 with no hub slack.There were times I did have to get new flexnuts on machines that had been taken apart several times.

 

Oh yeah I forgot to add the 100 inch pounds to the final nut torque, no play now. I just need to do the same to the other side and see if that's fixes my 4x4 problem

 

So the other side turned out to be 28 foot pounds. I just did a quick test without the oil in to see if it would engage and it doesn't engage. Does the oil affect how it works?

 

Yes you need to have hub oil for everything to work properly. May take a little running around awhile for the awd to engage properly.Try it against a post or tree. If it still doesn't and you have new armature plates, strut coils are in good shape and have a good pull on armature plates,if nut torque is too tight this can cause erratic or no awd engagement. Hopefully you don't have to order new flexloc nuts.