2000 Xpedition 425. This machine has a new front prop shaft, wheel bearings, and hub fluid filled to the correct level. I currently have the atv jacked up with all four tires off the ground for testing. The right front wheel is getting power all of the time. I grabbed the wheel to make sure it wasn't just barely turning and there was no stopping it. The left front wheel will not engage at all. I have tried the AWD in both positions along with pushing the override button in each position. There is never a change.... always getting a turn on the right front and nothing on the left. Has anyone seen this before? Thanks

 

One more piece of helpful info. I checked the left front axle shaft this morning and it is turning. This should rule out a stripped splines on the yoke. I need help with how to test the left Hilliard clutch and why it's stuck in AWD. Thanks for reading

 

Either an electrical or mechanical problem. Check that you have voltage on the strut coil gray wire.If you have voltage,make a common ground on the awd ground wires like in this video. If you still don't have awd on the offending side,then the problem could be a weak or damaged coil, coil sleeve not being able have enough magnetic pull to keep the armature plate engaged.If in doubt on the strut coil check the resistance on the gray and brown/white wires. Should be around 25-27 ohms. Inspect the face of the coil sleeve and inner pole of the strut for damage also. If these are ground down awd won't engage.

 

I'll test the electrical this evening. Do you have any ideas on what can cause the AWD to not disengage?

 

On not being able to disengage,usually a magnetized or worn armature plate is the most common problem. If the plate sticks to a small screw driver,replace it. Do both sides as the other side will usually do the same thing a little later on. Cheap parts but they are important. About 8 bucks each on ebay or amazon. Get the cheap 5 buck manual. It goes into detail on the mechanical and electrical functions on the awd system.http://polaris-atv.brssm.com/2000-Po...ce-Manual.html

 

old Polaris tech- I really appreciate all of your help. I did a bit more reading on the grounding after you brought it to my attention. Just to make sure I am understanding this correctly, the brown/white wire is only a ground for the AWD system and by splicing the four cut ends (as shown in video) into one larger wire I am only creating a better ground for the system and not bypassing any of the factory functions? From your experience where are the wires failing to ground? I assume the coil should be grounding on the aluminum strut housing?

I wanted to take it out this weekend to help a friend on his land. Will disconnecting both of the coil connectors disable the AWD where I have a 2wd machine and not cause any issues? There is not time to get parts in by the weekend and I'd rather run in 2wd until I can get it operating as it should. Thanks again for your help.

 

If you look at the hub coil power and ground wires they're the size of telephone wires,very small and brittle. Easy to loose ground path on the wires from the awd switch to the two connectors under the front panel and then down the strut to the coils. A better common ground on the ground wires can at times solve awd problems.Even worse on later models that the awd ground path went through the speedo especially if the speedo ever goes out.Most times you loose awd when this happens. Bypassing the speedo by jumping the ground wires can at least restore awd function. Dropping power to the hub coils and running in 2 wheel drive may not always work right. If you have problems on one wheel not disengaging,it may still have problems by locking up when you least expect it to. The awd is electro/mechanical. If the mechanical side has problems such as a magnetized armature plate ,disabling the power to the coils may not always help.

 

After an evening of wrenching I have more information I took everything apart, cleaned, and reassembled. Neither of the front hubs are engaging and it's acting as a 2wd all the time. The coil connectors are getting about 10.5V. I activated the coil and there was very little if any magnetic ability produced. I could very easily remove the armature plate with my fingers. I attempted to try the grounding as shown in the video and the splice got hot real fast so I shut it down and didn't try again. I'm going to have to do more reading on the grounding and see where I went wrong.

 

I only grounded one connector as a test. Could all four wires not being spliced caused the splice to get hot? If it's just a ground I wouldn't think it would matter if both sides were grounded together or separately. I noticed the lights on the speedo went off as soon as I flipped on the AWD also.

 

Check resistance between each pair of coil wires. Should be around 25 ohms or so. Coils could either be weak or you have a short somewhere as the ground wires shouldn't be getting hot..