boner,
my stock tires rub the shocks when you turn hard. I have a bunch of pictures but I need to scan them. How do you set up a link like you did? The best pictures I have are the day that the rear end came apart. The other front wheel drive cat!! Are your claws the same size all the way around? I have been kicking around the idea of putting 27x9 on the front and 27x11's on the rear. Any other input on that idea?
As a side note, don't volunteer to put a superlift 4" kit under a 99 Super Duty F-350 4x4. The kit is horrible!!!

 

Billy:
"The front wheel drive 'Cat"??? "The rear end came apart"? Did you break the axle, or something else? Man, hope it was under warranty at least. As for the tires, if you're thinking about running the 27x9's up front, with the 27x11's in back, that's probably a wise choice if you don't do pure mud riding like Boner does. Andy and I, and DreyMac if I remember (haven't seen him in a while) are all running 27x9.75 Bi Claws up front, with the 27x12 Tri's in the rear. I think they'd all agree that the steering is sooo much lighter with the 9.75 up front, compared to the wider 11" tires. Hell, the larger 'Claws steer a ton easier than the stock 489's in fact.

If I was riding pretty much nothing but pure mud or swamps, I'd probably go with the wider fronts, but for trail riding, breaking your own trails, just cruising around, I think you'd prefer the narrower 9" fronts.

Anyway, just my opinion, Best of luck! Let us know when you get the pics posted, would love to see them.

Mike

 

Billy,

I run 27x12x12 Tri-Claws all around, aired to 28x12x12 I I said earlier.

I do not recomend these tire for you, if you think the Tri-claws are abit too much for you, then 12" wide tires period would be over kill for you. If youwant the same size all around go with a 10" wide all around.

 

Cowboy,

About the front wheel drive thing. I guess he must have had the same bearing as I did go out on his. There is a Pinion bearing on the rear end that is kinda known to go out on the old nonwheels stud type rear ends(you have studs). When this bearing goes out you lose rear wheel power.

 

Boner:
Thanks for mentioning that-I wondered if his might have been the same type of thing you had, but wasn't sure if the newer machine (isn't yours a '98?) had the same problem. hey, did you ever get all your snorkeling and stuff done? How's it working?

Mike

 

No, mine is a 99. THe early model 2000 models are the last one to my knowledge to have this kind of rear end.

I have not even started on the snorkels. I just wanted that information cause you had brought it up at the time. I'm probaly gonna wait till I get a power kit to snorkel my exhast. The intake snorkels will PROBALY be done after Marengo(june), but since my dad is a plumber and we have pipe around here ALL the time I can do it when I chose to(have the time to).

 

About the front wheel drive thing, My bike is a 99 also and the dealer told me that it was pretty common for the "pin" or soething like that to shear in the rear pionion. I don't know exactly what it was because it was fixed under warranty. I do know that it made all sorts of hellish noises on the way back to the truck, but did awesome burnouts with the one wheel peel front end. By the way,that makes about $4800 worth of repairs since 10/98.Aren't warranties great?! I think that I got the friday afternoon upset employee bike, because I have had all sorts of weird problems with my bike. I think it was put together very hastily. Thanks for the input on the tires, I think that I will have to wait a while to finish that project due to school. I am trying to finally finish this Mechanical Engineering degree and they are trying to kill me in the process.

 

Well Mine was covered underwarranty and it came out to about $550 with parts and labor. But they replaced every seal and bearing in the rear end while they were at it. Also the drive shaft and a few other things.

BTW-- YOu are the one with the transmission replacement?? Wasn't it like about 3k for that??

 

Boner,
I am the one with the transmission replacement. I finally got the answer to all that, the spring that holds the reverse cluster over broke thereby allowing the reverse gear set to meet the forward gearset, they didn't like each other too much. The big dollars came in with the cases that had to be replaced, therfore having to split the motor and replace ALL the gears and shafts except the main output shaft which resembles something out of a truck, it is massive. I think the total bill was $2864. Again, the dealer told me that it was a manufacturing flaw. My bike is the only one that they have ever seen the inside of. By the way they had to purchase $3500 worth of special pullers to fix it and six months later quit being a dealer.
Didn't you say that you had hub bearing problems onthe front? If so fix them fast because mine went out on 2 consecutive weekends first the left then the right. And when the bearings go south so do the boots and then the axles, then the hub, then the rotor, then the caliper, then the shock mount gets round. Again under warranty, different dealer.
Sorry for the long post but the AC 500 will pull a suzuki samauri out of the mud with the help of two bikes parked sideways in front of me.
Again sorry for the long post, great thread.
Billy

 

Well my left front bearing went out and the left cv tilted up and grinded a good grove in the Knuckle, but it's nothing to worrie about since its above the seal's seat and it realy won't make it weaker the way it was made.

I'm currently working on getting a ball-joint and Bearing. The bearing might be able to be made, but mostlikely not.