We need to replace the camshaft on our sp 500. We took the old one out to find the exhaust lobe really worn. Does anyone have any info on putting the new cam in?

 

Your exhaust rocker arm is probably worn as well and will need to be replaced.

You can go back with an OEM Polaris camshaft, or an aftermarket - but unless you already have an HO, I would not suggest trying to upgrade to an HO grind on the camshaft. There are a lot more variables involved in the HO than just the camshaft - and getting them right is not just "plug n play".

 

I just went through this with my SP500 this spring. My dealer told me to go with the HO camshaft even though it was not originally an HO. He said you wouldn't give a lot of boost but was cheaper than going with the origininal part. We also all of the rocker arms while in there. The worst part is Polaris knows they had a problem with the camshafts from around this time and if it was out of warranty it is just tough luck. That kinda of sucks even though my dealer acknowledged that they had a problem with them.
Good Luck.

 

I am thinking I will be needing to do this soon, so I have a few questions:

If I install a new OEM camshaft from Polaris, will it just do the same thing in a few years?
If I install a new OEM 500 HO camshaft from Polaris, will it just do the same thing in a few years?
What aftermarket cams exist? Are they worth anything?
What has the cost been on this operation?
What is the multiplicative inverse of 4?
Whats your quest? What is your favorite color? What is the air speed volocity of a swallow?


Mr Question continues,
SLG

 

is that the asian swallow or the african swallow!!!
whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

 

I believe the new cam will have an extra oiling hole in it for better lubrication, somewhere a long time ago this was covered. Compare the new one with your original to see if there is in fact this lube hole.

 

BikKat, Aaen and Web make cams for the 500 motor. I dont know if they work for the non HO though.

 

What I was told was that they simply had some bad cams for a few years. My dealer said they were built with sub par metal and that the new cams have taken care of this problem. As far as cost, cam was about $180, new rocker arms $150 and labor was $200. But this was a local mechanic NOT DEALER!! Plan on a he!! of a lot more if you want a dealer to do it. My guess is it would have more than double than that for the labor from a dealer but don't know for sure. My dealer is 70 miles away and was a whole lot easier to have it done here.

 

We went to a different dealer who told us that generally at 4000-5000 miles most of the 500 like ours needed the clutches redone and the cam replaced. This kind of pisses us off since we used to have 250 and 350 bikes that seemed to last forever. That 350 2 stroke 4x4 was a pretty good bike.