so far this week hasn't been so smooth. first the fmf megamax exhaust, since fmf's "generic" mounting instructions were about as helpful as asking my little brother, i had to make my own bracket so the thing would fit, then the lift kit was pure hell. the rear only took around 5 hours to accopmplish, but everything worked out fine. however the front was a different story. i took everyones advice about using the ratchet straps, and that was the only thing that did go halfway decent. after spending the whole day pulling apart the strut and tinkering with spacers and brackets i finally got everything back together. however, i did notice that my suspension travel had decreased by say, 6 inches. so now i was left with 2 or 3 inches of travel. i thought that travel would decrease somewhat, but not by 6 inches! Im just about positive that everything was installed correctly, where did i screw up? also my front tires are way off of camber, they look like this..\ /. i knew this would happen but not by this much. im guessing that wheel spacers are the only thing that will fix this? and last but not least, my maxxis bighorns didnt go on great either. the front is fine, but the rear rim is WAY to small for my new tires. according to rockymountainatv everything would fit fine but obviously, it didnt.
why would polaris make their front rims twice as big as the rear? well sorry about writing a college sized essay, but i had to get away from that sportsman for awile, thanks alot.

 

Sounds like you had some 12" rear tires sent to you. You should have the 10".

 

yes thats exactly what happened, so I just ordered some 12 inch itp rear rims. but why would you have 2 different size rims for the same size tires? oh well at lest my rear rims will look sweet...now to fix up the front

 

Sumthun ain’t right! You should loose no suspension travel in the front with your lift kits. It should space the spring and the strut equally. What brand did you install? Did you drop the spacer in the bottom of the strut housing before you put the strut insert back in? And wheel spacers won’t effect your camber. In fact there is no camber adjustment on your machine. No offence, but I get the feeling you’re in a little over your head (been there myself sometimes).

 

yeah floodrunner your right, i'm in way over my head. I've been on dirtbikes all my life and then i made the switch to atv's after moving to montana. I like them alot, but there way different and harder to work with than my 250 2 stroke motocross bikes. anyway, i used highlifter lift kits. I put the spacer in the bottom of the housing. after that, iput the much bigger spacer on top the lip that the bottom of the shock rests on. then i just assembled everything back together the way it was before. but then i noticed that my travel was at 2 inches. where did i mess up?

 

is there a possibility that the bottom of the strut didnt go all the way down to the housing? and what do you mean by "strut insert" thanks

 

That piece you’re calling a shock is really a “McPherson Strut Insert.” If you hadn’t got the insert all the way down into the housing before you tightened it you might actually end up with a little MORE suspension travel, not less. That’s why I asked if you forgot the spacer under the strut insert.

“after that, iput the much bigger spacer on top the lip that the bottom of the shock rests on.”

I think you mean you put the larger spacer on top of the strut housing where the spring sits, right?

Think of it this way. All the kit is is a 1 ¾” spacer that goes under the shock (strut insert) and an equally tall spacer that goes under the spring. Since you’re spacing both up equally neither your spring rate or suspension travel will change (appreciably, there’s some geometry at work there).

There’s one more thing that bothers me. You need to check and make sure when you disconnected the strut top you didn’t drop the A-arms down low enough to pop the axles out of the outer CV joints.

You can email mehere and I’ll try to help you out.

 

there is a strong posibility that the axles came out of the cv joints, i accidentally let them drop just about all the way when i took out the strut. So how do i know if they did come out? I think what im going to do is take everything off and start over again. so all i do is compress the spring, take off the top nut and washer, lossen the 2 bottom nuts on the housing, and pull the strut out of the housing. then i drop the smaller spacer into the housing so that its resting on the bottom, then i put the big spacer that the bottom of the spring rests on and reinstall the whole thing? I think thats everything, sorry if i confused you n my explanation because i sure did confuse myself! well thinks alot floodrunner for all your help its really appreciated.

 

If you can turn the hub without the axle turning then the splined end of the axle has popped out of the splined interior of the CV joint. Let’s hope not.

As I read through your procedure I can’t see why what you’re doing wouldn’t work right. Just remember if you let that A-arm drop too low the axle will pull out of the CV. Support it under the ball joint so it can’t fall.

Next time you buy parts like these shop hereand you can get someone who knows what they're doing to help you out over the phone. I doubt anyone at Rocky Mnt has ever done what you're trying to do.

 

so if the end of the axle did happen to pop off, would this be the reason i have no travel? I took it out in my back yard to see how bad it really was, and my fears were confirmed. it felt like the front had a straight steel bar for suspension. But i was thinking... does the srtut have to be fully extended when it's inserted? does this make a difference? because when i put it on the strut was completley collapsed. by the way, your right about rocky mountain, they are worthless. they have a great selection of products but customer service sucks. i have recived many products from them that were the wrong size or completly the wrong item. so any way i guess i'll have to sleep on the problem and hope the axle hasnt popped out.(im guessing these are hell to get back in)