Well hello all! Made it back from elk hunting alive and not totally empty handed, all while managing to add another 140 miles to the 'Cat. Our first adventure involved a TON of firewood chores towing trailers loaded with logs, then skidding the ones too large for the trailer. The next big adventure involved hauling a nice 5x5 (not real big, but still very nice) bull back to camp, and winching him up the meat pole for skinning. The real kicker was winching my partners '46 Willyz Jeep up into the high country where only atv's and foot traffic had been before. The first section of difficult trail was only about an 8' climb that was VERY steep and muddy. The Jeep couldn't get over this, so I winched it up. From there, it was still a fairly steep climb up around a twisty trail to the upper main road where it was actually driveable again by larger rigs. We had to make a "shortcut" around a washout, so only atv's and people on foot had been up their previously-this was the first Jeep to see the foreign territory. Pretty cool.

The neat part was, as I was finishing winching the Jeep up, 6 guys came by on a Honda Rubicon, a Yamaha Grizzly, 3 Big Bears and a Polaris SP500. They couldn't get down as we were blocking the trail pretty good, so they sat and watched in amazement as the big 'Cat went to work. Not 30 seconds after I had got my winch locked down and ready to roll, the Jeep had slid off the muddy slope and high centered very nicely on a large stump. 'Cat to the rescue-as I hooked a 6' strap and pulled him backwards off the stump. The guys on the other quads were only slightly impressed, as it was a downhill pull-nothing serious. I said well, can you drive that thing or do I need to pull you to the top??? They busted out with laughter loud enough to wake the dead-yet when I pulled my 30' strap from my box up front, a huge silence filled the air.

The suspense arose as I hooked the strap to his front bumper, then tied off to my rear clevis hook and began to pull the line tight. Naturally, the proud Polaris owner decided that there was "No Way in Hell that my Little Arctic Cat was going to pull that Jeep up that hill". His mistake was being so loud and boisterous about the whole thing-that it "just wasn't possible". Well, I told Steve to hang on tight (no seatbelts in the thing) and be sure to steer when necessary to make the tight corners. At that, in four wheel, low range, I gave her a little fuel for the fire, we began the first climb in deep slick mud. As I increased the throttle we went bounding over the first knoll, rounded the bend and as their jaws were resting nicely on the ground, the 6 quad riders heard the gentle growl as the big 'Cat continued to pull that Jeep-yup, right up to the top-and WITH AUTHORITY at that! A few "war hoops" at the top from Steve and I signaled the guys below that we had indeed made the "seeminly impossible feat", and that my "little Arctic Cat" had indeed arose to the challenge, then stuffed it clear up that guys you know what where the sun don't shine, he was bowing down on his knees to the great Arctic Cat gods and begging for forgiveness. A sweet site indeed.

The funny part was, another guy in our group was riding a new '02 Scrambler. He stayed below with the other group of 6 and talked the the SP rider. His comments were that "there is no way he'll make it to the top", then he made the mistake in saying that "if that Arctic Cat pulls that Jeep clear to the top, I'll sell this damn SP right now and buy one of those 'Cats". At the sound of our little war hoops, Aaron says well, looks like they made it-now what do you think? The guy said well, consider this thing sold. You know what-the very next morning, he went down and sold that SP, ordered a new '02 AC 500i! I saw him riding the back of one of the Big Bears later that day, had to talk to them a bit. We had a good time, laughed a bit about the situation, then proceeded to hunt. Apparhently he had 4,300 miles on that SP-then his buddies threw in the little tidbit about that 4,300 miles being on blacktop and towed behind their pickups because it was always broken down. Apparhently he'd been wanting to trade for a while, just didn't know what to upgrade too with all the new 650+cc machines on the market now. After seeing what the 'Cat did, that made up his mind-pretty cool I thought.

Anyway, to the question at hand-what exactly are the symptoms of a blown cover bearing on the 500 auto??? I know a lot of guys were going through them for a while there, yet I forgot entirely what the symptoms are. After towing the Jeep, the next day I hooked up to a large log of which I never should have attempted to pull. Two of us could not pick up one end of this thing, as it was nearly 30" in diameter and probably 12-15' long. I pulled it down the hill, then up another smaller hill to the truck to cut for firewood, heard a small "pop", then a bit of clanking and clattering of sorts. Shortly after this happened, the tranny cover got extremely hot-burning my leg through my insulated pants in fact-I'm thinking maybe I finally blew that bearing there, the heat was radiating out threw the cover and maybe the pieces were what was causing the noise??? It still drives fine, has tons of power but makes a slight "rattling" noise inside the tranny-or around there anyway. Any thoughts on this one???

Oh-I suppose if I wanted to be a real jerk, I could tell ya all about how when going down the very steep muddy hills, I had to tie a 2 wheel drive Yammy from my front winch mounting plate to his rear rack to anchor him to me as a "dead man", while I in low range slowly lowered him to the bottom to safety. This being a 2 wheel drive machine and after towing him up this stuff, it's just a "kind gesture" to lower him back down. So, tell me then what you call it when I have to do the same thing for the "all wheel drive mighty scrambler"??? Oh yeah, that wouldn't be very nice of me would it-guess I won't mention that part! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] Needless to say, I wasn't impressed with that particular machine.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on and be "such a jerk"-didn't mean to gloat too much, but I have to admit, this was definately a nice change from towing the standard old logs all the time-and very nice for a few "stubborn boys" to see that yes, there is a little competition out there in the form of the AC lineup. Just thought y'all might be interested.

Best of Luck, and Thanks for any thoughts or tips on the possible bearing problem-or whatever else it might be,

Mike

 

Sounds like you had fun!!! Who shot the 5 X 5??

I went up to check on our deer stands today, found 2 rubs on about 8" trees about 20 feet apart right on the trail that leads to my Dad's stand. I called him at work & reminded him that he got to shoot 2 bucks out of his stand last year & that this year was my turn. I think we are going to trade stands [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img].

The question is did you have more fun hunting or showing off with your little kitty????

 

Cowboy,
Congrats on the hunt. Got my bull opening morning.
I put a small deposit down on a 500i a couple of weeks ago and was going through a little buyers remorse. Your post fact or slightly fiction put me over the top. Can't wait for my kitty.

 

Cowboy, sounds like the same symptoms I had, clutch cover bearings. Pull the cover and you can feel the bearings. I they don't spin free and smooth, they're bad. Good Luck

 

cowboy,
Bring it on there big fella! I'll put my Yammy up to your 'Cat any day[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Never mind, I'm just being a smart ***. We've been there and done that. As a result, I've gained a healthy respect for that 'Cat you ride. Looking forward to our next ride. Stay cool.

Rick

 

cowboy,

how the hell are ya?? sounds like you had some good, clean fun on your hunt. about your problem, i stopped in at my dealer this week to buy an oil filter and he was servicing a 500 auto's transmission. he said the owner constantly drags a cultivator and works his cat very hard and that can lead to premature bearing failure. he told me to look for oil in the tranny housing and a sort of sweat or condensation on the transmission breather tube. he also told me that synthetic oil could also be the culprit in wearing the bearings b/c it has a tendency to go places regular motor oils don't. don't ask me how he formulated his theory 'cause i'm no mechanic. if ya want you can call him at 512-285-5821 that's Ron Johnson's Quality Equipment in Elgin, Texas open Tuesday-Saturday 8-5 cst.

texascat