If you are having problems with your 03 bike breaking axels. call Jim Mugauero at 218-681-9851 ext 9838. He is a AC REP

He told me he knows of AC putting 04 axels in bikes and that they are holding up. HE said If I ever have a probelem with mine to be sure and let him know. He also said the new 650 is the Auto priaire engine. He also said the ATV convention is this week and to check out the AC site in a week or two to see the specs on the new 650. He also stated it has a locker with the 650.


AND AGAIN HE STATED THE MATERIAL AND LATHING WAS BAD IN A FEW THOUSAND AXELS!

SOME ARE BREAKING>>>>SOME ARE NOT!!

 

OK OK OK, explain to me how the lathing is causing the problem, because you know cousin Bob says that Arctic Cat said to him that the axles are weak from other reasons, he won't go into detail but I believe him......hehe....just playing.


A few thousand, holy crap. I wanna see that new 650!!!

 

WHAT GOOD WOULD IT DO!

Imagine you have a block of metal to be machined

Imagine machining down to size and lathing out the splines?

WHAT HAPPENS IF THAT BLOCK OF MATERIAL WAS ALREADY BAD FROM MELTDOWN?

 

It wouldnt surprise me to see the kaw 650 auto engine. Considering the new prarie is a 700. Would be a great motor for the cats. I think there could be bad axle shafts like that. Look at where they break.

 

I was just playing, lol. I knew it would get you all steamed up if I was serious but at the end of my paragraph I said I was just playing.

hehe [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

I just love your avatar icon.

 

I have noticed you two argue about this issue quite a bit. I thought I might add a few thoughts. I have not had anything break on mine but being a metallurgical/welding engineering student I don't think unless CAT comes right and says exactly what the problem was we cannot know without the mfg drawings and material specifications and then compare those to the failed axles. Catkrazy may be partly right about a bad heat(batch) of metal from which these shafts were made. It could also due to a design/machining error in which the transitions were too sharp (not enough radius) thus causing a stress riser(weak spot) in that transition. Trust me, that mistake is made in mfg all the time. I work for a compressor company that puts together very large compressors (1000's of HP) and have made that very same error in our designs. It is a complicated calculation and sometimes just takes testing. The machine shop maybe did a batch of axles and didn't machine them correctly to specs. Also maybe the shafts were supposed to be hardened after machining and they didn't do that. Many automotive drive components are machined in a "soft metal state" and then hardened to achieve desired strength. The point is that without talking to the Cat engineers and seeing all the physical evidence as before stated it could be "anything". So there's my .02 and sorry it was so long. Thanks for your posts on many other topics that have been helpful in choosing my quad and addressing other problems that we all run into.

 

creekrider is all over it. AC does not want to come out and say all the axles are bad. that is not good marketing, especially for a relatively new atv manufacturer. they had an internal problem and they are trying to fix it quietly. i use to work in a metal fab plant. those specs have to be perfect and the machining, annealing, stock material, all have to be perfect for the part to hold together under stress. trust me, the AC may make good horsepower but it is not enough the twist cold freaking steel in half. slowly but surely the bad axles will be replaced for free and all this nonsense will be behind us.

 

Well said Creekrider,
I have been an Inside Sales Rep and Project Coordinator for a large oilfield manufacturing company and thought about many of the posabilities you mentioned. If I had to guess I would say it was probably in the material itself or the procedure, ie. not stress relieveing the material at a certain time within the process or heat treating to wrong specs. We will never know but obviously it was not a problem in the design because they have made plenty of good ones that are holeing up.