My wheel fell off the front. I have a 98 454 4x4. Any ideals on how to fix it, or what to replace?

 

Sorry, I don't really know how to fix the problem. Just that this weekend was riding with a guy riding a 1999 500 A/C and the front left ball joint broke off and we had to tow him in. A guy stopped to help and he said he had a 2004 500 A/C and the same thing happend to his. I have a 1999 300 A/C and had the same thing to happen to me last year and had all of them replaced. Sounds like Arctic Cat has a little problem with the front ends especially the ball joints.

 

i had a 99 300 ac also. same problem as you all. damn ball joint wore out, of course i did alot of sand /mud riding. lol,its kinda funny and jewish(no hard feelings to those who are jewish)one way i fixed it was i used a ratchet strap and wrapped it around the top and bottom a-arms and it worked for the 2 weekends i rode before getting the new ball joint. good luck on gettin it fixed!!

 

They had a recall a couple of years back. I had mine replaced under the recall. The ball joint had popped out on the front left. Last week at Windrock, the c-clip at the top that holds the ball joint assembly to the A-arm popped off. I'm having them replace the entire ball joint again. It caused the A-arm to fall on the CV joint, tearing the boot. I think the replacement ball joint or c-clip was defective or was not installed properly.

This was on my 375. I havn't had any problems at all with my 650. I was able to ride the 375 10 or so miles back to the trailhead. (slowly).

This is one type of problem that makes me consider machines with a McPherson strut front suspension. (Polaris, Kawasaki Prairie). They don't have ball-joints to break and cause wheels to fall off. That is pretty unnerving.

 

Thanks for the comments? I hate to say, but I am glad that I am not the only one. How much was it to this problem fixed?

 

Could this problem be caused by the AC all time four wheel drive, which I am not to crazy about any way.

 

I don't know if that contributed to someone else's problem, but mine is not full time 4wd and has spent the majority of the time in 2wd. I believe mine was simply defective or improperly repaired under the recall. This time around, the ball joint itself did not fail, but the clip that holds it to the A-arm did. I think it just couldn't take the pounding. I'm hoping the new one doesn't have the problem. My 650 and the right side of my 375 show no signs of trouble and have undergone just as much pounding.

I'm hoping the repair will put the issue to rest. It's the only real problem I've had with either machine.

 

the same exact thing happened to my ac 250. but we got it back on with a wrench and jacked it up on a few rocks. we only replaced the bolt holding on the ball joint and it has been fine.

 

Is you 250 a 4x4?

 

nope 2x4