I JUST GOT DONE READING ABOUT THE CLUTCH COVER BEARING FAILURE, FIRST, WHERE WOULD THIS BEARING BE? SECOND, IS IT HARD TO REPLACE? AND THIRD WHAT REALLY CAUSES THIS BEARING TO FAIL?? WATER?? DUST?? ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

THANKS DAVE





2001 500 AUTO, 1/2 SPACERS

 

The clutch cover bearing is...... in the clutch cover. It is not hard to change and water is what is causeing it to fail.

 

Boner is right, on the auto 'Cat, if you pull all the bolts out of the tranny housing (first remove the plastic part to the intake), then remove the outter tranny cover from the machine, you'll see two round bearings (blue in color if I remember right), centered in the middle of a round silver ring, with a screw on top and bottom. These bearings fit over the main shafts to the drive and driven pulleys. And yes, the water and combination of mud or other debris will make them fail.

Like I said though, I have over 1,200 on my 'Cat, mostly all towing miles, drown the 'Cat completely once in a river, run through mud and water rack deep quite often, and have still not had a problem with mine. Others have not been quite so fortunate however. Oh, and no, it's not that hard to replace-you can do it yourself quite easily. The hardest part is actually lining up the cover with that damn gasket seal thing they use, then getting all the bolts back in. That damn gasket thing is about 3/8"-1/2" wide, but really thin metal material, tends to "warp" real easy when trying to put it back on, and there are only two main holder things for it, one on each side of the tranny cover. It's not really hard, just takes some patience, cause I guarantee it won't line up perfect the first time! If it does, consider yourself lucky cause it ain't happening again! heh heh heh. Least that's been my luck the 3 times I've taken it apart now. (twice for cleaning, once to do the tranny mod).

Best of Luck,

Mike

 

I don't know if I'm talking about the same bearing, (I'm no mechanic) but I just spoke to my dealer about this problem last night. He said that when the motor is running, the bearings get hot. Now when you get the motor wet (i.e. run through a creek or puddle), he said that the hot bearings will "suck up" water. He said to think of what solder does when you are sweating copper pipe. When it gets hot, it sucks up the solder. These hot bearings do the same thing. He reminded me that AC says that you should not go into water any deeper than the foot rest. It can handle deeper than that, but it is not recommended.