I have an 041/2 400 sportsman and the front right u-joint yoke has lateral play, I assume it is a bad bearing inside the housing. I have a shop manual for an 05 400 and it shows the shaft as having CV joints at both ends but mine has a normal u-joint at the housing end and a CV joint at the wheel end. All the online parts look-ups show this as well for 04 and 05. Does anyone know what is going on here. Thanks.

 

If you bought it used , I would say someone installed the old style shaft, ii should have boots and c-v joints on both ends, this could be why you have slack. Contact the c-v man on ebay he can get you the right shaft, great quality, great prices and service.

 

There is nothing wrong with my shafts, I was just curious as to why they were different, I bought the machine used but it only had 1000 miles on it, could they have both worn out that early? Anyway, my problem is with the play where the shaft comes out of the housing.

 

Also my owners manual shows diagrams as to where to grease and the picture of the shaft has CV on one end and U on the other

 

if its the 04.5 they switched to different style shafts then. i have a new axle for a 04.5 and it has a cv joint on one end and a ujoint on the other

 

I just noticed that both side have play, at least 1/8", does this mean the bearings are bad, there is no sign of oil leaking out, I hope this doesn't mean the housing has leaked out long ago. What else is likely bad inside? The AWD still works fine.