I have questions concerning the Hillard clutches on my Sportsman 500. Should I be able to feel the coils magnetize as the unit is standing still, engine off with the key in the on position and the 4wd switch on? Seems to me that the quad is supposed to be moving and rear wheels spinning.
To adjust the outer coil edge in relation to the inner edge, why do you need to use a brass drift? What is a brass drift? Can't you use a piece of hardwood or something? Is the outer edge the edge that is adjustable? How do you adjust it anyway? Pound on it?
How tight do you make the castle nut when assembling the entire hub to the strut. I don't have a torque wrench, I have the nut tight enough so that I don't have any play in the bearings. Doe's the tightness of the nut affect the performance of the clutch unit?

 

I have never been able to hear the coils 'magnetize' or engage when the machine is together and the engine is off. If you have the hub disassembled and you are looking right at the coil and armature plate, you can see and hear it magnetize when you flip the AWD switch (assumming key is on and in gear). I think a drift in this case is a 'drift punch' and one made of brass is ideal because it is a soft metal and won't do the damage that a hardened steel one will do.

The only adjustment I remember doing to mine is adjusting a sleeve. The best way I have found to understand mine is to slide the armature plate towards inside of the hub. There should be 2 lips or edges that it comes in contact with, one is the sleeve. That sleeve needs to slide outward until it and the other lip are both touching it. This is done so that you have the most amount of surface area touch the armature plate.

I don't have a manual for your machine so I don't know what the torque should be - I know it's not super tight though.

 

Look here http://imageevent.com/gsimpson/fourbyfour

 

Do a search on the hubs and awd..............this subject has been beat to death here..........but since your new you can learn alot!

There are some good people here that have posted REAL ways of working on these systems.

good Luck

 

All of this sounds good guys,,thanks. How exactly do I adjust the outer sleeve? Tapping on it from the inside to outside with the brass tap? How is it held in place and does it just slide outward to even up with the inner lip?

 

If you have not already pushed the sleeve on too far, then just slowly (and gently) tap it from the outside until it's flush with the inner lip. If you have pushed it on too far then you will have to gently pry it back. You can use a hammer to tap it on (use a piece of wood between hammer and the sleeve). If you have pushed it on too far use a screwdriver and GENTLY pry it back. The sleeve fits pretty tight so it will take a bit of patience - just tap or pry evenly on all sides and slowly walk it in the direction needed. The hub uses Polaris Premium on Demand hub fluid or you can use automatic transmission fluid. I believe each hub holds 4 ounces. The other way to fill it is too locate the fill plug at 4 or 8 o'clock and fill until fluid is level with the hole.

 

You want 8- 8.5 ft lbs on the nut. I have found that 10-12 is too much.
U probably should borrow a torque wrench from someone.