I have had another bad day of riding my 97 400L. Some of you may know from my past inquiries that I have had many different problems. Only to fix them and stumble upon another the very next time I ride my quad.

Friday I finally got my brake issues worked out with a master cylinder rebuild. I ride today and broke/shredded a belt.

Symptoms.

I bought new rear tires for it shortly after buying the quad. I think they may have to much grip, and burning the belt. I bought ITP mud lites. I notice on the road or on grass. If I do a HARD acceleration I get this gripping/poping noise. If I look down at the rear wheels, and launch. I can see them jurk back and forward a hair when it makes the noise. I have been searching this problem for a long time. I replaced the motor mounts and everything. I pulled the clutch cover off and sat on my leg then launched the quad to see whats going on in there. I can see the belt pull tightly around the front clutch. I looks like it rides up the back side of it and then pops free. I guess this is the poping feeling I am getting.

Well today I took it trail riding and it lasted for a few miles. Then I noticed the poping getting louder under a load. I went up a small hill and it didn;t make it to the top. I pulled the cover and the belt completely came off the back clutch and all the ribs were pulled from it. It was also wound tightly in the front clutch. I pulled it all out of the front clutch. It was still intact. Just no ribs under it. I am expalining all this so maybe it might tell you guys something you need to hear to be able to let me know what is wrong.

I am guessing the belt streached from being heated or something then came off the rear clutch.

Would a new gatorback belt and clutch kit help me any? Or is their something else wrong?

This previous belt has not had much run time on it.

The only mods to the quad are some new hardened buttons in the rear clutch, nice gold o-ringed chan and tensioner, and the Mudlites. I have a K&N also. I was thinking of adding a pipe, and clutch kit to give it a little more power to turn the tires. That way maybe the belt would last longer.

Any ideas?

Sorry so long.

 

mine pops under hard acceleration too but it feels and sounds like it comes from the other side "pipe side"

 

when it pops it is like 5 times or less. But real fast. Only under a load. If I am moving/rolling about 5-10mph then it may do it 1 time then all is good.

 

are you sure it's coming from your clutch? i thought the same thing because it kinda sounded and felt like a secondary that wasn't put back together right, but it was coming from the right side of the quad. come to find out it was the swingarm bushings were getting worn and in turn making the sprokets and chain get out of alignment. it would only do it under hard straight line acceleration or going through a corner on the throttle. probably isn't but that's what i've had in the past. as for the belt, there are a number of things in the clutch that could cause a belt to go too early. one is not having your clutches aligned the way they are supposed to be. i check mine every time i replace a belt.

just kickin some ideas out there

steve

 

You might try adding a spacer washer between the driven (secondary) clutch, it sounds like the belt is riding too high in the secondary or there is more or less than 10" center to center on your clutches. If you put the wrong motor mount in the wrong place you could have your clutches out of alignment and causing that problem.. I broke a motor mount, the motor shifted wieght caught the cover BOOM clutch blew up, one of the wieghts hit me in the back (I was standing leaning forward doing donutes in loose dirt) and let me tell you that is not a fun way to learn about clutch problems...
Any way back to the subject make sure you have the motor mount behind the inner clutch cover in correctly or you have probably aggrevaited the problem to the point it is destroying the belt... My guess is the clutches need realigned after the motor mount replacement... Any polaris dealer should be able to tell you how it is done or sell you a service manual that explains it in very detailed steps...

The manual is worth the money, it will save you that much in the first repair. At least in frustration trying to figure out how to get to that !@#$!@#%$ bolt.

 

clutch alignments is higly important on those quad,center to center
distance must ALWAYS remain 10".
if you got the engine a little backward,that mean the clutch are closer,you need to run a shorter belt then,belt delfection is around 1/8
on top of secondary.
you can loose of lot of speed just because of wronged distance
clutchs.

 

The popping noise to me sound like you chain is slipping.....try jacking up you rear end of the quad(jacking under the engine skid plate area) and grab ahold of the tires/axle and try to move it forward and back....if it moves at all, you need to either tighten you swing arm nuts or put in new bushings. Your clutch shouldn't make noise either(as long as it isn't rubbing on the case), so make sure it is in line(aligned with small washers) and you are running the correct belt. If you still shred belts, you might try the HPD kevlar belt. I don't like it, because my sport(70+hp) would shred them too, and they cost a lot. Shredding a belt is not a bad thing guys, it happens, just as long as you don't keep doing it.

PS....if your chain is loose, another thing to consider that helps is an HPD chain tensioner.

 

ok sorry, I just looked at your pics, and your chain is way too loose. Get a ratchet strap and hook around your bumper and you axle. Tighten it up to the point of where you think your quad will be the lowest(if you jump a lot, the swing arm could be close to parallel to the frame)....You are either jumping the sprocket with the chain due to the looseness and/or because your chain and sprockets are shot. If you get new chains and sprockets, I would highly suggest the chain tensioner from HPD....it takes all of the guess work out of it.

 

Yea, I figured out the whole chain thing. It cost me a chain and a front sprocket. I bought a tensioner, new gold oringed chain, and new front sprocket. It is perfetct now. I also put in those aluminum clutch buttons.

Ok I just got back inside. I jacked up the quad. I pulled on the rear swing arm. It has a little play in the left side. It moves a little and I can hear a tick. It is definately moving side to side I put both feet up on the back frame and twisted the rear side to side.

I did measure the clutches center to center. It is perfect 10".

The clutch cover is torn all to hell. That is where everything started to fall appart. It started with a small rub then got worse. I think the case is warped or something.

 

well thanks guys you really helped me out i jacked it up and the rear swing arm moves side to side about 3/4 inch so i gave it some gas on the lift and pushed the swing arm over and pop...this is great because i was going to replace all the bushings and bearings next week...