As most of you know, i just recently got a 2000 explorer 400. Well i have been in the mud quite alot (does awesome) but i went and did some water riding and now i believe i have done something to my belt.

I have expiriences with belts from snowmobile and go carts, but i got some water in my belt housing, and sometimes when i would start climbing a muddy hill the engine was reving out like the tires should have been spinning, but they werent. and when i parked it, a burning rubber smell was coming out of the exhaust (i dont know how it would flow allthe way through the exhaust though)

And then i started it up today just to make sure everything was intact, and after about a minute of running i noticed some muddy water running out of the bottom of the belt housing. So this leads me to think that i have a bad seal around it, that it is letting water in, and now i need a new belt. Does this story sound right to you?

A few more ?'s

1. Should that belt housing be snorkled, or have another way of keeping water out?
2. Why was the rubber smell coming out of my exhaust.
3. Is there a heavier duty belt i can buy somewhere that will take more abuse.
4. Does polaris still offer the lifetime warrantee on belts.

Thanks alot

Derek

 

Derek,
the Automatics on Polaris belt drive trannys do have a snorkle system,an inlet snorkle and an outlet.

The smell/smoke you think is coming from the exaust should actually be coming from the SNORKLE exaust tube that runs up the left side of the black belt cover.It is very important to keep this system from leaking in water/debree.

Go to Polaris and purchase a new belt housing seal,a few more compression clips[50cents each],and a new belt.

Jack up the rear of the quad.Remove the 4 phillip head screws/nuts that hold on the left side floorboard.Remove the left rear tire to.You can now pull the left side floorboard away from the belt cover.You should see some compression clips that go around the belt cover housing,remove these.You will see the 3/8 screws that go around the belt cover housing,remove all these.There will be a 3/8 screw that attaches the belt housing snorkle exaust tube to the upper frame,remove this bolt.The belt housing can now be removed.

Remove your old belt and use some 1000 grit sand paper to clean up your ramps on the priamry and secondary clutches.Use compressed air to COMPLETELY clean out all the belt dust from the clutches and clutch area.Reinstall a new belt.When you install a new belt seal,use a thin coating of silicoln on the rubber seal AFTER it is installed in the housing groove.Carefully reinstall the black cover seal,screws,and compression clips.Make sure the rubber boot that attaches the exaust snorlke tube to the black cover is NOT leaking and reinstall it to.

Best of luck,

Bill

 

Another thing to bare in mind here is the air vents for your clutch. My belt has only slipped once due to getting wet. The only reason it did get wet was because I hit a big water hole going way to fast and the water actually got forced down one of the air vents. I am sure that alot of the times you hear people complaining about their belt getting wet, they were playing real hard in a water/mud hole and got water down their vent. I have gotten quite a few machines in (not just Polaris) that have experienced this problem. After talking to my customers about what exactly happened, I learn that they hit a water/mud hole at 35mph and it started slipping. This is almost always the cause of the belt getting wet that I have seen. Try looking down your vents for signs of mud/water that might have gone down the vents.

The best thing to do for it is to not hit the mud holes so hard or find a better way of keeping the air vents from taking in water. I guess more than anything I'm trying to make you aware that 99% of these problems I get in my shop aren't the case seal that let the water in, it was the air vents. I do see bad case seals but they are far and few between.

In the words of Bruce Lee,"be the water my friend", where would you splash if someone hit you at 25mph? (everywhere!)

 

The next time you get water in the belt, put it in neutral, and throttle up the engine to about half speed for a little bit. Now try driving around. If it acts normal now, you will be fine. If the belt seems to be slipping again, repeat until it acts normal.

 

HPD sells a new High Performance belt. Right around $40. I took my belt cover off, and took a tub of marine grease, and applied a nice bead around the gasket. I did this twice a year, and never experienced a wet belt. The clips are worthless. My local mechanic doesn't even put them back on when he does clutch, belt work.