Today I blew the belt on my 2000 sportsman 500. As I am awaiting for my new belt to arrive should I do any special checks to the clutch and rear drive pully while the cover is off? So far i cleaned the cover out and siliconed the gash in the cover from the belt. I wiped down the clutch and rear pully with a dry rag and also picked out pieces of belt from the rear pully. Should I do anything else?

Thanks

Jim

 

if you had some compressed air to blow all the belt dust out. maybe think abouit replacing the buttons in the secondary clutch if you have a fair amount of miles on it or least check them. imo

 

Make sure no belt pieces got up in the breather tube. You wouldn't want them dropping out onto your new belt. You can use compressed air to clean it out also.

 

make sure you put the new belt on so the words on the belt face you to read them. maybe even check the engine mounts to make sure thier all good as sometimes a broken front engine mount lets the engine move enough to cause belts to break over time. just a thought.

 

so what is the average life span of a drive belt? is it better to cruise around in low rather than high? thanks

 

I put 3000 miles on my belt last summer and changed it out this spring . It still looked good I'm now carrying it for a spare they last a very long time I'll run this one till it breaks .

 

use low when your going slow or working the bike. using low helps keep the belt cooler and less chance of belt slippage. these things help to lenghten the belt life. some poeple as mentioned have thousands of miles on belt w/ no issues at all.

 

If the belt wore a hole in the cover I would start looking on eBay for a replacement as silicone is a good temporary fix only-imo.
As for belt life, I 100% agree with those saying to use low as often as possible. I put a complete 6" Gorilla lift w/ Highlifter 29" Outlaws on my 05 800 early on in it's life. Mudded the living death out of it and decided to have my dealer install a clutch kit @ two years later and figured I'd replace the belt while they had it apart. They were in shock that the belt(was original) was in good shape still. Kept it for a back-up. Only time I use high is when I'm wfo on an open trail(which isn't often).

 

Thanks for the info.

I have been using low much more often. I did smoke the belt a few times using high in the rocks/mud ( this is my first quad and I am still learning). The last time I was out I was on a night ride and got caught in bailing wire which wrapped around the axel/trie about a hundred times. I cut the wire out after removing the tire. It rode home fine (WOT)and the next morning i noticed a piece of the belt on the floorboard. I went for another short ride and boom here I am. But, anyway thanks for all the info guys.


Jim

 

i might take apart the econdary and check the helix buttons where you have burned the belt a few times and maybe the buttons have been worn down some as well and since you have it apart and there only like $6-8.00 for 3 of them it would be worth repalcing now as well as a new polaris belt. imo