Has anyone taken an automatic in deep water. I was told that if water gets to the belt you are toast. How well is the belt sealed?????

 

Ruffinit, go to my photo's site and look in the "Red Top" album (under the "ATVs" one). It has a photo of my brother's 375 over the wheels in water. It took us a half hour to winch him out of there and in the process, we got it even deeper. The machine NEVER quit running and NEVER slipped a belt. We rode for about 4 more hours after this happened.

The belt is sealed very well and the tranny is vented very high under the front and rear end. Note that it's important to keep on the gas to maintain some pressure in the system when going this deep, otherwise water WOULD have made it's way in.

 

Water just makes the belt slip. It does not toast the belt. Works perfectly after it dries out.

 

The 2000-01 models were very bad for water entering the belt drive. I have had to make modifications to my wifes to somewhat eliminate this problem.

 

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] Well, I have managed on several occassions to make my 500 Auto 'Cat a water cooled tranny- including the time I found out that it would float ! Open the drain plug and drain out all the water, put the plug back, and run it carefully. That way ,you're generating heat in the tranny that helps to dry it out. Don't tackle anything too rugged or it will slip. I don't know if that will cause a problem or not; I just try to be easy on it for a while. After you get back to civilization; take off the tranny cover and thoroughly clean things- especially if you've been in mud or dirty water. Unless you've really been abusive to the machine, the 'Cat belt will be alright- it's a purpose built, heavy duty belt designed for a long life (10,000miles I read somewhere; can't confirm it though...). Cowboy or Minehunter may be able too add some more to this; I probably missed something.

Keep the rubber down and dirty ( or wet! ) Later, 8r

 

I buried my 01 Auto 500 in the sinkhole at Red Top. I got it out w/o winch assistance. I had water/mud up to the handlebars. When I got out, I drained the Tranny and ran it in neutral as directed in the manual. I still ruined the bearings on the cover as they rusted. This may have been because I never removed the cover when I got home and cleaned it out and re-greased the bearings. You definitely don't want to go any higher than half way up the fender as the exhaust for the belt is just under the gas tank towards the fender on the rt side. You can run your hand up the plastic pipe and feel the opening towards the middle of the machine. If you are going to run much deeper than that, you will need to pipe the exhaust for the belt up higher as AC has done on the 02 models.

 

Cracker, my brother had his 375 up over the wheels in the same puddle. That's the photo in the album. It seems AC did a much better job with the '02s on waterproofing the tranny's because we never had any water in his, even though he spent a bit of time in there.