Hey all -

New to the forum here, I just bought an 01 Sportsman 500 HO and love it!

So I was a good boy last weekend and changed all the fluids and hit all the zerks since there was no service history available with the machine, and it has low miles anyway (1200).

My question is that the manual talks about the cleanout port on the muffler, that I suspect has never been pulled out, and now its rusted pretty good. Will it come out easily? Any tips if not? Also, is this really necessary?

Thanks in advance,
Jocko

 

Welcome to the forum Jocko. All the carbon chunks that your spark arrestor blocks build up in there choking off the exhaust. IMO use any means neccesary to get it out, even if you have to use a pipe wrench on it (like me) or weld a handle to the plug. Let some penetrating oil soak into the threads first. It's just a regular bolt and you can get a replacement really cheap from any hardware store if you wreck it. It will come out easier next year when you blow out the soot again.

 

If you have a compressor and tools,JUST impact out.

 

Thanks for the suggestions! Will do...