Hello pride,i have a 2000 500 auto with less than 1000 miles on it,yesterday i was taking advantage of some of the new found mud holes from the recent rain we had,we have been in a pretty bad drought for around a year now,Anyway i was riding down one of the many trails around here,and all of a sudden the rear end made a snap noise and the back end went skyward ,threw me off into the woods and the qaud went on it's side,at first i thought i hit a stump or something.after i made sure i was in one piece i flipped the machine over and looked to find my rear axle seperated away from the differential,i thought i was a dead man,luckily not a scratch,anyway has anyone had this happen to them or anyone heard of this happening.i have some pics posted on yahoonull

 

I have never heard of that happening, but it looks pretty messed up from the pictures. Hope no one else has that problem because it sounds like you could really hurt riding on a trail and have it happen!!! How did you get it home after that happened?

 

it wasn't easy mountain cat,but lucky for me there was a large enough tree with a branch big enough to support the quad,so i winched it up just about off the ground ,then i removed the wheel and tried to put axle back into splines with no luck considering splines on axle were chewed up on end,thank god i had my trusty leatherman super tool in tool pouch,man that thing has a great file in it,anyway i cleaned up splines enough to get axle back in,after that i took my tie downs that i keep in my rack pouch and wrapped it around the shock mounts then i just pulled like hell,i put it back down and took it slow until it came back apart about 2 miles down the road,luckily it only chewed the inside tread of the tire up the rest of the way home from it rubbing the muffler shield,the tie down kept the diff just off the ground.the only thing i can think of that might of caused this was the twisting motion from the brakes being applied so much ,and since that is the side that broke,well maybe that caused fatigue on the welds which caused the failure,hell i don't know.i'm just thankful i wasn't killed or hurt,i called arctic cat and let them know,so hopefully they will look into it,with thier track record concerning quality and safty issues you know they will be on top of it,hopefully it's just freak thing cause if it were to happen to someone else the results may of been diffrent than mine,well i'll tell ya what this morning i felt like i was hit by a truck,thank goodness my wife had a couple tylox left over from her back problem,anyway i'm not hurting but i am starting to ramble like a bunch of women at a tupperware party,thanks for checking out my post.swampkat40[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

 

I have never heard of this happening before either. I would take it to my dealer and let them look at it, that way you will have documentation. Just from the pictures it looks like the weld didn't penetrate into the tube except in a few places. But I can't tell for sure from the pictures. If you do fix it yourself I would not get rid of the tube, but I never throw anything away. One good thing about it is the pieces are fairly cheap to replace. You are luck you weren't hurt. Be sure to keep us informed as to what happens.

 

That's pretty wicked! Must be bad welds. Unless you like to go airborne a lot. You are really lucky to be in one piece!! I would talk to the dealer. That looks like a manufacturer defect. In fact, I'm going to check the welds on my machine. My buddy's rancher had a few bad welds that he caught before they busted on the trail luckily. Hope you get it fixed and are back on the trails soon!!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

Later Fango

 

Yes,I have seen this before.It was on a 2000 model as well.My dealer at the time was the same place that the bike was purchased from.The bike was out of warrenty for 6 months and the dealer got of hold of AC tech line and replaced the tubing at no cost.So dont let anyone snow-ball you and say it has never happened.Your dealer should be able to help.The cause was a weld did not penerate the metal,it is machined welded,so the setting must of been off.Good luck and good riding.

 

thanks a bunch roys,i KNEW mine wasn't the only one out there,i dropped mine off today at my dealer,and at first he said it was only warrentied for 6 months,i then showed him where the seperation was and asked him honestly what it looked like and he said looks like it wasn't properly dipped before the weld was made,so i'm hoping he will help me,i'm sure as a professional mechanic he can spot a flaw as well as anybody,i hope all you cat owners ck that tube carefully on tube side and look for powdering rust deposits or a sag in rear,after sitting and pondering over this thing,and thinking back i recall hearing the left rear tire hitting mudflap at times,i thought it was rubbing cause i was missing corner rivit on flap,heck as often as i clean this thing i should of noticed it,but you know what they say hind site's20/20,again thanks i'll call dealer and share info with him.swampkat40

 

Never seen that. I know its common for driveshaft bearings to go out though. Not a good seal on there, and after mud and stuff gets in, it eats it out pretty good. This story here is insane though.

 

Just glad no one was seriously injured from that incident!

 

well i got my answer from my dealer today,they said since the quad was modified from it's stock factory package,NOTHING WAS COVERED,that really sucks,considering it would of done the same thing in stock trim,it just would of happened later down the road,which could of had diffrent results for better or worse,i'm going to pick up quad tommorow,take it apart and carry the axle tube to a certified welder up the road from me,since he welds race car chasiss and just about everything else he will be able to tell me in writing if theres something wrong with the weld,which anybody with any background at all in the art of welding can see,i love my cat and will most likely purchase another,i also know they are a real decent company,and have warranty guidelines like everyone else,hell if every tom dick and harry came back a year later came back demanding some kind of repair at no charge they would have big problems,hell this tube assembly only costs,i imagine under $200.00 i'll fix it myself and go on riding,onthe other hand what if i do just fix&forget and say nothing more and another member of our pride gets hurt or worse killed .i would feel terrible,so thats why i'm pursuing this further 2000 ac 500'autos are not suppossed to come apart.....period. does any one who hea seen the pics,i know their not the best shots but ican see what happened there plane and simple,well i'm backed up in a corner ,cmon cat guys what would you do in my shoes
swampkat40