I am looking into buying a '03 400I for utility purposes (hunting fishing farming). The AC dealer we have here states that the CVT transmission and belt is so durable that he has never done any work on the CVT and has never sold/replace a belt since he has been the dealer (4 years)! This sound pretty unbelieveable, is the belt/transmission on the Arctic Cat's that good? Any comments would be greattly appreciated ............MJSTX

 

Yes, they are that good! AC has a pretty decent system in comparison to the other brands. The belt is "constantly engaged", unlike a regular snowmobile clutch, where the driven pulley, at idle, is spinning and the belt is not, adds undue wear to the belt. On the AC the belt is under tension and is moving whenever the pulleys are moving. Which gives you less wear on the belt. Plus if you take a look at an AC belt and compare to say a Polaris belt, it is a lot more heavy duty.
This is not to say that it <u>can not fail.</u> AC also uses an aluminum housing cover as opposed to a plastic cover. It seals better.
The only problem I have heard of is the bearings in the housing cover, if they get wet, can go out on you. I never have had my bearings go out but I tend to stay out of water that is deep enough to enter the air intake and exhaust of the belt housing. Or I've just been lucky.
I hope I was some help to you. Good luck on your decision!

 

evey thing i ave read on cat belt drives is good , yo never hear much complaining hear like he said its a good set up ,

 

Hey fango, whhen you wrote &quot;bearings in the housing cover&quot; are you refering to bearings actually mounted on the inside of the cover? Or bearings the shafts that go to the drive and driven pulleys?

 

yea, the bearings mounted on the cover itself. They are replaceable, so I don't think it's the end of the world if you do flood the thing and end up having to replace them. I wish they were sealed so you wouldn't have to worry about it. My dealer told me when I bought my machine that if you do flood it, drain it and dry it ASAP. He also said that even if you do dry it right away you may have bearing problems. Mine is a 2000, I don't know if they addressed the bearings on the covers on the newer models or not. My guess would be not, though. Even so, I haven't really heard of that many problems with the bearings going out. It's just one issue that I wanted to point out. Not a BIGGY really!


Really, I think having the bearings adds to the strength of the whole clutching system. The machines with the plastic covers do not afford you with the added strength holding your sheaves. It's a good design, they just need water proofing for that one time that your &quot;depth of the water&quot; guage in you brain fails![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

The belt ventilation system was changed for the better on the 02 models. The exhaust was routed into one vent and it was raised up higher. I have heard of no water problems on the 20 and later models. The Cat and suzuki systems are the same and hold up very well. The outer housing bearings keep the clutches straight and add strength. These bearing cost around $10 and can be changed in about 1 hour. The Yamaha uses the same CVT system on their system too, meaning the belt is allways tight and the clutches only spin if the quad is moving. They do not use a outer bearing though but their clutch is more compact and closer to the iner bearings. The up side to this is that the quad is much narrower in the tranny area. For utility purposes this most likely is not an issue. As far as belt drives go they have improved a lot over the years. We all hear of the Polaris having belt problems and I have a brother in-law with a 650 Prarie he is on his second belt in 5 months. There are a lot of people that never even open their clutch housings up for years and many miles.

 

Don't worry about the auto tranny, after riding mine in fairly deep water I can honestly say it's a very well built and sealed system. I've taken off the tranny cover to inspect the belt and only have had to blow out the case (dust inside) and added a little grease to the cover bearing. I'd buy another auto... If that means anything.

 

Hey FangoElgato,
I too have read that the belt stays constantly engaged at idle but it doesn't on my machine.My machine is starting to make bearing noise now out of trans.I did sink it so I will be pulling cover off soon to see what is making noise.

 

Baboo, I am sure that your belt is engaged. It is by design. If you pop off the cover and start your machine (which by the way you should never do[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]) you will notice that when your clutch moves so does your belt. There is always tension. My Polaris Scram's belt is just sitting there still and the driven pulley is spinning. When it reaches the proper RPM the pulley <u>grabs</u> the belt and the machine moves. If, on your AC, the pulley is spinning and your belt is just sitting there then I think there is something seriously wrong.

Anybody else on the same page with me? I don't want to mislead anybody![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

Fango, you are correct the belt is engaged all the time. When the AC is at idle, pulleys and belt are still.