Sorry about my name but am a recent convert from driving Honda's. I got sick of riding all day & having my back hurt.

I bought an 03 SP 700 with only 130 miles on it. An older guy had it and never rode it. Once I got it home, I changed motor oil, tranny fluid, front & rear diff. fluid and hit the 3 grease zerks.

Sometimes it is tough to shift into P from R or into H. I know you have to step on the foot break. Is there an adjustment either with the break or the shifter? or just does it need some miles on it??

Any help would be appreciated

 

They are normally a little tough to shift. Don't try to shift it gently and smoothly like you would a stick shift on a car. The best method is to give it a moderate "jerk" from position to position.

On mine, the shifter is easiest when moving into or out of Neutral from Reverse or Low. It's the hardest when moving from Park to Reverse and Reverse to Park. And it's medium when going from High to Low or Low to High.

Make sure you keep the linkage pivot points lubed. I didn't really notice mine getting easier over time/miles. But I never really noticed that it was wrong to begin with. I believe all the Polaris shifters are this way.

Good luck! Sounds like you got a great deal on a 4 year-old 700.

 

like sheep said i lube my mine every time i wash it on the pivot points in the linkage and it helps some. and they all shift fairly hard.

 

why does it seem that ALOT of post w/problems is from a 2003 sportsman 700? I have one also and I notice that there r alot of posts for that year. What's up with that? Mine is leaking tranny fluid a little from the front cover. Anyone else have a tranny leak?

 

I have an 06 800 SP. It takes a firm hand to shift it. The dealer said this would get better when I got some miles on it but it didn't.

 

boll, i have over 700 miles on mine and it still shifts hard.

 

polaris said its post to be that way to make sure it goes into gear throughly because if it was easy to shift polaris said it would fall out of gear like the artic cats do. hope this info helps. when u shift make sure u shift it firmly because if u shift it slowly u will grind the gears.

 

Thanks, now I don't have to worry about it. Got a chance to do some riding this last weekend and boy, that 700 is a machine. The throttle just wants you to go faster. I definately blew the carbon out of that machine! I love that full time 4wd. With Honda's, they were only 3wd in 4x4. I had to go out of my way to try to get it stuck, & still couldn't. I have riden the same trails for years but they felt different with the 700. The bumps weren't there.

I still have to get used to all the noises that the SP's make. We had a SP 600, 800, and a 500 with us. They all seemed to make those noises.

Any other tips/tricks with this machine would be much appreciated. I am going to try to get my name changed to PolarisFinn.

Thanks,

 

Wasn't '03 the first year for the Sp 700?

 

02' dealer number bikes were out as my friend has one.