A couple months ago, I took my Sportsman 600 in to the shop to have some work done. For a while, the front wheels would engage intermittantly while the AWD switch was off. Well, I decided to finally have it fixed since I'm moving soon and won't be near this shop.

I bought it there in Dec. 2002, and know the mechanic and owner from stopping by and checking stuff out and getting accessories.

Anyway, they replaced the plastic sleeve in the front diff, it had a small chip in it, and cleaned up the roller bearings and charge me about $500. Well, they said it was good as new, and it seemed fine. Two weeks later, a bunch of us, about 11, went riding. While everyone was unloading, some of us were playing around in the parking lot, donuts, etc. As I hit my throttle, in 2WD, spinning the rear tires a little, the front tires grabbed, AGAIN! I was like, "AAWWWW MAANNNN!" It did it a few more times while we were riding, going around muddy curves, hitting the throttle and the front tires engaging, until finally, I just left it in AWD.

I stopped by the shop that week and told the mechanic that it was still doing it, and he said he'll call Polaris and check on the problem. Two weeks later I called THEM back, and he told me that the Polaris rep told him that the front tires WILL engage when the rear tires are spinning 45 mph and not the front, in 2WD. I was like, WTF? I was only going around 5 mph, and the rears MIGHT have been spinning around 15 mph. Anyway, I told him that rep was crazy, I told him I wasn't paying to have it fixed again, and to put the owner on the phone. Well I expained everything to the owner, and he told me ot bring it in, and that between him and Polaris, that they would take care of it for me.

It's been 2 and 1/2 weeks since I took it in to the shop. Now comes today. I called them this afternoon, and some guy says, It looks like it's done, there's no charge on the sheet. So I hook up my trailer and go to pick it up. Well, my friend the mechanic now doesn't work there anymore, so some other "service guy" came out and cockily(?) says I rode it and couldn't get it to do anything.

I was like, "WHAT? I told you all that it was engaging the front end in 2WD."

He goes to tell me that the service manual says that when the RPMs are at 3100 or higher, then the front end engages in 2WD. I told him he was crazy and didn't know what he was talking about. So, I had to show them that it did indeed engage the fronts. So, beside the shop, in the wet/muddy grass, I proceeded to do spin-outs and dough-nuts and wha-la, they engaged.

Then this pr!(k says, "You're turning the wheels and the tires are grabbing." ????

I yelled, "Look buddy, this thing is in 2WD!! It's not supposed to do that!"

Anyway I yelled at him (being EXTREMELY pi$$ed off now that I am having to prove myself to this dumba$$) and rode it over to the service door. I went inside, and while waiting for the owner to come over, I heard this guy tell the owner that "some people can't understand how they work. OOOHHH this infuriated me. I told the owner that it still did it, and this guy didn't know his a$$ from a hole in the ground. And he knew I was hot. He, the owner, said he was sorry for the problems, and he had a new mechanic coming on board and promised me it would be straightened out, and they would cover it. I told him not to let that guy talk to customers anymore because that incident would prevent me from EVER coming back there. He said that he would and told me again he would take care of me. We'll see.

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! !!!

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PS, Sorry for the long rant.

 

Grandpa always said it was better to be pi$$ed off than pi$$ed on but I can fully understand your frustration sounds like dealing with Canadian Tire up here

 

i gave you the wrong thread ,it is "front wheels engaging with /awd off plz help"in the polaris section

 

My son has his 4.5 500 in the shop right now. His is stuck in 4-wheel drive. The front won't disengage. The mechanic here is really good and about as nice as any that I have met. He explained to me a lot about the AWD system. Due to the nature of the Hilliard there is a point where it will engage no matter what. One of those things where the centrifical force overcomes the magnetic pull. It's just that some engage quicker than others. But only when the rear is spinning way faster than the front wheels are moving. It seems to me like they could make some kind of lock-out to actually keep it from engaging. Like with a switch? And at the same time it would be able to keep it engaged, like for the downhill stuff? Understanding how the system works it seems to me that there would be a way to do this. Would sure make a lot of people happy. Maybe they will do this in the future.

 

I have talked with the dealer here about this problem and we both agree that there is no way for the awd to engage without the power to it.I had a buddy with this problem on a new 700 and the dealer he goes to ended up putting in a new front gearbox. Now on the hub type awd if your fluid is out or is bad they can do almost anything.

 

When my quad was new my fronts would engage for a couple of seconds at a time when I was riding wheelies. It was not in 4x4 and the would just start spinning for a couple of seconds and jerk the handle bars. Seems to have gone away. It could be due to needing to change the fluid.

 

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. When they "fixed" it the first time, they changed the front diff fluid. So now I'm guessing they just didn't assemble it correctly. Maybe the plates aren't aligned correctly? Who knows. I just know that I'm ready to have it back, since we are expecting snow tonight, first snow this season. Oh well, I'll just play in it in my Suburban!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Maybe the shop will make an even trade for a new 800EFI[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]? No, I'm really happy with the 600. It does everything the 700 & 800 does except for top speed, which I am not worried about. I'll keep you guys posted about the situation.

 

A couple of ideas for whatever it's worth.

1) If the springs / wire that holds the rollers to the cam assembly was too loose in it's tension it might not adequately hold back the rollers. With enough rear tire spinning in 2wd it might be possible to fling the rollers out to engagement... I doubt it, but just an idea.

2) If the armature plate (or anything in that area) becomes magnetized it could cause enough drag (even just being in 2wd) to possibly cause engagement - especially if condition number 1 was true.

3) If you had dirty fluide (also becomes more likely if condition one and/or 2 are true). Also, as temperature decrease and the viscosity of the oil thickens, the engament problem would be more likely. I could be wrong but it seems we see this problem most often in cold conditions. I wonder if you put the quad on some slippery, snotty mud in (in 2wd) in the summer if the front tires would still want to engage.

4) Perhaps any bearing that is bad (or compromised) might cause drag on the clutch assembly to drag and ultimately 'fling out' and engage. Again, one of these issues alone may not be enough, but put a few or all these factors together and you might seem something different.


Question for everybody - is the Polaris Premium on Demand Hub fluid synthetic? If not, I would try using synthetic ATF (automatic transmission fluid) this time of year and see if the problem gets better? By using synthetic oil you will help mitigate the thicker viscosity that might be an issue here.

Just a thought.

 

Just do a search on all of the other forums, this is a wide spread problem and depending on who you talk too they are doing little to nothing to fix it. The only thing they are doing is losing future customers !!!! And no, mine doesn't have this problem, but I would really have to see some major improvements in customer service to buy another one.

 

I feel your pain!!
Sometimes youre the BIRD,and sometimes youre the STATUE!