OK I got it now. Your machine has a solid rear axle (ACT I think its called) mine and the one I was looking at is an FIS (Fully Independent Suspension).

If that is the boot (#32,33,34) you need to replace, push back on the shaft (push toward the rear) and drop the shaft out of the way and then look inside the yoke attached to the motor. It looks like it either has a little snap ring that keeps the front yoke attached to the output shaft from the motor (part #31) OR has a lock nut and a washer inside the yoke and then the snap ring. Kind of hard to tell from the diagram.

You should not need to take it to a dealer unless you have difficulty putting the bands on. You just about got it.

SJ

 

DONE!

Well you're a smart fella....

In order to pull it back far enough I had to remove what I would call the sway arms. Then just pulled the entire assembly off from back to front.

Now I had it in my hand... then I needed to remove a cover (much easier said than done) on the yoke and then remove a c-clamp. Once the c-clamp is removed you need to pound (and I mean pound) the output shaft from the yoke.

Cleaned it all up attached the boot and small clamp (I learned by my mistake here, put it all together and noticed the small clamp would not go over the output shaft), tightened the clamp (you don't need a special tool) and them added grease. Installed the larger clamp, greased the other end of the yoke, put the cover back on then back onto the bike. Total time 3hrs. If I was to do it again ... 1.5hrs max.

I do want to thank you very much for your help... most likely saved me a few dollars but learned a fair bit in the process.

Thanks again,

Ian

 

Fully realize I'm jumping on an old (possibly dead) thread here but I'm having the exact same issue with my 2003 ACT (?) Artic Cat 400. It's a 2-wheel/4-wheel drive, manual transmission, with solid rear axle.

The boot over the drive coupler (?) is torn and I'm looking to replace either just the boot, or the entire shaft but I can't seem to find the right one for my model. The parts diagram for the non-FIS model doesn't look the same as my machine

This is from the parts diagram for the 2003 400 FIS MANUAL TRANSMISSION (2X4), which looks more like my machine (part 35 specifically)

This seems to be the correct diagram for my machine (2003 400 4X4 MANUAL TRANSMISSION) but none of these parts look familiar.

This is an actual photo of my machine showing the torn boot.