IS ANYONE OUT THERE HAVING SPRING AND SHOCK PROBLEMS??? MY DEALER IS ALSO GIVING ME THE RUN AROUND....I HAVE ONLY HAD THIS WHEELER 2 MONTHS., BOTH FRONT SHOCKS ARE BLOWN AND THE REAR IS CHAFFING WITH THE SPRING....ANY FEEDBACK WOULD BE APPRECIATED THANKS DAVE

 

Are you running with A TON of weight on that thing, or doing any jumping? I've not heard of any spring/shock problems like you mention. I carry over 100 lbs. up front on my 'Cat all the time, as a result, the springs were "sagging" a little. I made some "spring spacers" to install under the spring itself, just on top of the lower base plate, which really stiffens them up, gives a small "lift" to the 'Cat as well. On the rear, I have around 200 lbs. at nearly all times, along with towing heavy loads most of the time. I used a little smaller spacers in the rear to help the back end, yet with all the heavy work I do, I have never had a problem like you mention.

If your shocks are indeed blown and you haven't been jumping or excessively working, they most likely came from the factory that way, in which case it would be under warranty. Even still, if you've only had the thing for 2 months, it is still under warranty regardless. As for the "chaffing", I haven't a clue with that one.

Best of Luck in finding a cure, let us know what comes of it. Like I said, I haven't heard of any "blown or chaffing" shocks or springs at all.

Take care,

Mike

 

I had a small problem with my left front spring sagging,allowing the front of the bike to droop approximately 1".I really haven't beaten it up either and it only has 300 miles on it.I fixed it by installing spring spacers and making the left front a little thicker than the rest.

 

I don't know anything about the spring sagging or blown shocks. Texascat and I have been know to launch all 1000 lbs of cat and driver and we've had no problems. My rear shocks rubed on the coils. Jack it up, grap the coil and rotate it a bit to gain some clearance. You will be able to see the coil move and gain clearance in some spots and lose it in others. Worked great for me. Hope it will for you too.

 

I have heard of one person in the ATV Time forums having a few problems with the front shocks on his Auto cat 500. He does jump tho, and he gets fairly good wheelies so that may be the reason for it. I would also recomend the Spring spacers and what dakotart recomended.

 

HEY COWBOY CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU USED FOR SPACERS ON YOUR RIG?? I WORK IN A MACHINE SHOP MAYBE I CAN MAKE SOME UP THANKS DAVE

 

Spacer link

 

Thanks for the link Victory!

Mainehunter-
That link he put up has a bunch of info on it. Working at a machine shop, you'll have a bunch of good stuff at your disposal [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Like I said, the steel shop wasn't open when I did mine, so I had to buy a set of "shaft collars", then just cut them down to 1/2" and 3/8" sizes. I run a lot of weight up front, so I put the 1/2" up there to compensate, then put the 3/8" in the rear. The shaft collars were stainless steel, so nothing to worry about as far as rusting or causing troubles there. Some guys have used PVC as mentioned with good luck as well. Anyway, you'll have to find out what size shock you have (outside diameter). Mine worked great using a 1 1/4" i.d. for the spacer, though like the link there said, Waco has a newer 'Cat and needed a larger 1 3/8" i.d. Once you figure out which diameter size you need, you're good to go. Try to use a pipe with about a 1/4" wall thickness if you can-just a little more "meat" to rest the base plate on.

Then, no need to remove the tire if you don't want to-I didn't-too lazy! heh heh heh [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] Anyway, remove the shock, then find a way to compress the spring a bit, pull that top retaining clip. With that off, slide the spring off the shock, then the plastic spring/shock spacer, then the lower base plate. Install your new spring spacer now, then put the base plate back on, then the plastic piece, then the spring, then find a way to compress it (it will be harder now with the spacer in place), install the clip, re-mount shock/spring assembly and you're good to go!

I wouldn't go with anything over 1/2" in thickness though-the ride would be very rough, and you won't gain any more clearance. I gained about 1 1/2" clearance with the 3/8" spacer, and nothing more by jumping up to the 1/2". With the weight I carry up front though, it sagged quite a bit, so that's where a lot of my increase came from. The 1/2" handles the load a lot better though than the 3/8" did. If you aren't carrying anything up front, I'd probably go with either 1/4" or 3/8", just to maintain a decent ride-the thicker you go, the rougher it will get. With my weight, it evens it out so it's still pretty smooth.

Anyway, Best of Luck with the work there. It's really pretty simple, shouldn't take you but an hour at most to do all four corners if you wanted-naturally about half that for just the front. Anyway, for about 30 minutes of your time, and free parts from your shop, it's a pretty easy trick that really helped me out a lot in more ways than one (that ground clearance gain was really nice!), and if you don't like it, you can always pull them back out rather easily.

Take care, let me know if you have any other questions,

Mike