i'm new to this forum, but have seen several helpful posts, so I'm hoping someone can help me with my issue. I got a hold of a 97 explorer 500 and the 4x4 doesn't work(front tires - rear works fine). Heres where I am at... 4x4 button has power, coils are reading 25 ohms each when 4x4 button is in the off position, when the 4x4 button is turned on, the coil wires show +/- right at 12 volts. ATV has a brand new good battery. With the hubs off of the bike (but the hilliard clutch is still on the bike, and the 4x4 button turned on (with the gear switch connected, or disconnected from power), the armature plate sticks to the strut pretty good. If the 4x4 button is off, the armature plates come off with no issue... I can turn the armature plates fairly easily when the 4x4 button is on, not too loose, but it takes minimal effort to spin the armature plate, in other words you don't have to put muscle into it to turn the armature plates. If you turn on the 4x4 button and hold the armature plate 1/4 inch or so from the strut, it pulls it onto the strut housing... Gear selector switch I know is bad as it shows its in 4x4 all the time when it has power to the switch, but I have it disconnected from power right now. When i got this ATV every wire to the gear selector switch had been cut, so I have reconnected them... The hubs had ZERO fluid in them when I got it, but i pulled them, re-greased the gearings, and put in the correct demand hub polaris fluid...I have the atv on jack stands and when you put it in gear(high or low or reverse) the drive shaft spins going to the front diff whether or not the 4x4 button is pressed. When the 4x4 button is pressed, bike in high, low, or reverse the front cv's spin and the front tires will slowly creep (not spinning at the same rate as the rear tires), and you can hold either front tire with your foot. I'm at a loss, and thinking it must have something to do with the gear selector switch, but I could be wrong... Hilliard clutch rollers appear to be in good shape but I'm n expert...I've thought of putting on a new toggle switch to try to turn on the coils manually and disconnecting it all from the electrical board to see if that corrects things, so I would connect the two gray wires to the hot leg of the switch, and ground the brown wires. Not sure if this is a good idea, but thats all I can think of at this point. Any ideas? I really want the 4x4 to work. The ATV was really cheap so I could suffer and live with 2wd only, but that takes the fun out of everything! Any help or advice is appreciated! Thanks!!!

 

One more detail...When I take power off the gear selector switch, I move the power supply wire for the 4x4 button to the a power terminal do the 4x4 button is not needing to get a power signal from the gear selector switch (at least I've read thats how it works).

 

The drives shafts will always turn whether the machine is in 4 wheel drive or not.Always replace the armature plates even if they do look ok when you tear one down. Especially if the hubs were dry on fluid.Having the atv with tires off the ground is a good way to test if the awd works or not but that's all it does. Try the awd against a tree or post after the plates are replaced,bearings checked out along with the hilliards,Demand Drive fluid installed,hub nuts torqued to 12 foot pounds. If it still has problems on one wheel,check the hub section in the manual as to what can cause it.Worn hub seal sleeve face,possible weak coil even if it ohms out ok or distance between the hub seal sleeve and inner strut pole.This distance must be flush with each other or no more than .001 clearance. Yes you can bypass the gear position switch and awd button by connecting the button grey wire to a red/white wire terminal on the circuit board that's key switched.

 

Thanks OPT. Will work on getting new armature plates, but before I do that my manual does not show or say how to check the coils for further diagnosis...Any suggestions? Also how could I check the hilliard clutches besides visual inspection? Not sure I fully understand checking the clearance, but I don't have anything that can measure that tight of a clearance between the hub seal sleeve and the inner strut pole. Maybe I will have to take it to a mechanic for that? I'll try to take some pictures of the armature plate, hilliard clutch, etc and post them, maybe this would help.

 

Sorry, just saw the picture of the clearance, I was working from my phone, so it was hard to see...

 

I have a 2015 Polaris Ranger Crew 900 with 1800 miles on it. It has a very loud whining noise while driving it. Noise is between 10 & 50 mph. It's very loud and annoying. My machine has always been serviced at the dealer. Is this normal or a problem?

 

This can be anything from belt noise to clutches or even gear case whine. You can remove the clutch cover,blow out all the belt dust and check the belt for any excessive wear.If you've always had the dealer service it and don't feel comfortable working on it,might be best to let them check it out.

 

Just today I took the belt cover off and replaced the belt. Old one was still very good but still out a new one on. There was barely any dust inside the cover, everything looked good. Now going through the belt break in. Machine still makes the noise. It is the worst around 30 mph, noise starts at around 15 all the way up to 50 It almost is like a rear end whine you'll hear in a truck sometimes. I've mentioned it to the dealer before but they say they don't see anything wrong. They don't have n area to test drive it to get it gling fast enough to make the noise tho some I'm not sure that they have even heard it.

 

I would take it to another dealer that has room to test drive it. Given its a 2015 model, I'm assuming its still under warranty? Winding noise could be a lot of different things. Also, sometimes, even new belts are bad out of the box, but the belt doesn't seem like your problem given its consistent at certain speeds. Could be a bearing going out somewhere. Can you discern where the noise is coming from?

 

If you jack it up and rev it does it make the sound? If it does maybe you can pinpoint it.