Hi,
You mentioned you made your own spacers for clearence on the front, to get your 26-9-12 Mud lite XTR's to fit. Did you try to reverse the tie rod ends first?? Just wondering if you need more room than just reversing the tie rod ends.

Do you think 27-9-12's would give you more or less clearence? That is the size I am thinking about getting for my 05 and am wondering if they will work, if I just switch the tie rod ends? I am using stock wheels.

I really like these tires on my 850, so far.

Thanks Bill

 

I tried flipping the tie rod ends and that made my steering bind up. Some guys have done this successfully. I then had a guy fabricate some 1/2" spacers that looked like a big washer with the 4 holes drilled to fit over the wheel studs. It was too thick to get enough of the threads of the nut to make it work. The extenders I got were 3/8 longer than the stock ones. I got them from #186 POLARIS EXTENDED WHEEL STUDS +3/8x24 -Grade 8 : eBay Motors (item 350320494713 end time Mar-01-10 15:34:25 PST) I had those pressed into the hubs on the quad by my local dealer. Then I put a hardened 3/8x24 nut on each stud with a hardened washer on between the nut and the wheel rim. It's worked very well for about 4 trips. I don't think the 27s will give you any more or any less clearance issues than the 26s. They're both 9" wide. I went with the 26" because I didn't want to do any changes to the clutching.

 

The studs can easily be knocked out with a hammer and new studs driven into the hub with an impact wrench using the old nuts.

 

I have a tendency to overtorque things I work on and break bolts. I went the dealership route as they have been decent to me. I also have a bad back so I try to limit what I do with it. I thought about it and went with the guys who have all the tools. It would have been like me to crack the hubs and mess everything up and end up having to pay more than it cost me in the first place. (Has happened way too many times) But, if you're more daring than me and don't break things as much....

 

Did reversing the tie rod ends give you enough clearence?

Any ideas as to why this works for some, with no binding and not for others? Could the binding have to do with spring type, HD spring vs. saging stock spring?

Thanks Bill

 

Not sure. I didn't flip them personally. They did it at the dealership and said the metal plate that attaches to the tie rods was binding. They were very uncomfortable with the result. So I don't know offhand whether or not it provided the clearance. Just from looking at things I'm pretty sure that it would provide the clearance. I do have the HD springs on my quad as I felt my X2 was too soft in the front.