I’ve never had my front end up in the air before and tried to turn the front tires over, but I did tonight and found that both tires were hard to turn. The left tire was worse, almost hard to turn by hand. I removed the brake caliper and it didn’t make it any easier.
Are the bearings to tight? What else might it be?

 

Should spin freely and easily with very little effort.

 

The Sportsman is a 2000 500 and only has around 600 miles on it, mostly put on by my wife as a trail quad. I find it hard to believe it has a mechanical problem in the hubs already. If I remove the hub cover is there a crown nut in there you tighten to put the squeeze on the inner and outer bearings? I hope so, mabe the factory just over tightened them.
If its an easy fix like that, what oil do you put back in the hub, can I use straight 30WT?

 

Yes, remove the cover, cotter pin, and loosen the castle nut at least half a turn. Retorque it to a maximum torque of 144 INCH POUNDS. Any type F transmission fluid will work. I prefer Mobil 1 synthetic ATF. It's about $5 per quart, but a quart lasts a real long time. The service manual says to refill the hub until fluid will drain out the fill hole when rotated to the 4 or 8 o'clock position. Too much fluid can overexpand and and cause the hub seal to leak.

Waylan

 

Thanks Walexa, I'll give that a shot tonight when I get home.
Mabe this would explain why my Sportsman was always slower then other 500 (non HO) Sportsmans, the front bearings were just tight.