is there a tool to put the clips on? I was looking at mine since i ordered a new axle and will rebuilt the old one...I was wondering how you take off and put on those clips...the easiest correct way? if there is a tool i would get it

 

Yes there is a tool for it... your dealer has one infact, i used a visegrips and a big screwdriver to put mine on

 

i dont know you tell me. the 03 you have doesnt have inner boots on the front and five of the ones i tore was on the inner front. as ive already said ive got 230 miles on my vinson now and not 1 torn boot and i ride it in the exact same places and the exact same way. that tells me theres something wrong with the design of the polaris gaurds.

 

I used a pair of needlenose vise-grips. I took the nose of them to my belt sander and made a nice point on the end of them, and it worked perfectly for snapping the ring onto the boot...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

i used some needle nose plyers that i grinded down to a point and used my manly muscles[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img] to clip it

bob

 

way to go bob!

dont you love it when a plan comes together?

X

 

i sure do! im glad i havent encountered any major problems with this 700, now i think i got ALL the bugs out of it[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

bob

 

I was tearing up boots on my ’05 700 like crazy last spring, until I did two things. First of all, I quit using Polaris boots. The CV boot kits Gorilla offers are FAR tougher than the factory boots, haven’t ripped one yet. You can get them here if you're interested. The other thing I did was to order a couple more front CV guards from the dealer and piece them together with the guards already on the machine to make them longer. The stock setup is flawed in that if anything (usually mud) pushes on the front CV guard it will rub against the inner boot as it rotates and this rips the boot. By making the guards longer they’ll rub on the CV housing and not the boot. I considered just moving the guards in (toward the center of the machine) which would do the same thing but I didn’t like how that left the outer boot exposed to damage.

The last thing I would recommend to anyone who rides mud/snow is a CV guard that has a horizontal bottom plate. That part of the guard acts as a “shelf” to collect terrain and debris that will definitely destroy your CV boot.

Rear boots are fairly well protected but there again, the factory boots are just too flimsy. I’ve probably replaced 30 CV boots on our machines in the last five years, can do the rears now in about an hour now. Since I’ve gone to the Gorilla boots I haven’t replaced a single one (probably about 2000 miles combined on two 700s) riding the same turf we always have.

BTW, sharpening the ends of a long-nose vice grips is the fast and easy way to make a “clamp tool” for the factory clamps.

 

thanks for being honest floodrunner. the boot set up on the 05 700,s are awfull. i didnt have the patients or the money to keep fooling with mine. so you have no protection on the bottom a arm and you modified
your stock gaurds and no more problems. thats great man. im glad you figured it out. how about your rear wheel bearings. are you having a problem with them and if so have you found a solution to that problem? if it wasnt for those two problems i would still be riding mine today. this imformation would be great for 05 sportsman owners. it would save a lot of people a lot of money.

 

I have had to change a couple of the boot clamps and I agree they are a huge pain. The last time I did it I put the clamp in boiling water for a couple minutes and it only took a pair of needle nose pliers to get it to lock together.