I have been riding my Scrambler 500 for two summers now in the sand and the 4WD is great for getting out of tough situations. Just recently it just stopped working. The light comes on when pushing the button in but the front wheels are not locking in. Does anyone have any recommendations for things that I can check before having to spend an arm and a leg on a mechanic.

Thanks,
Daron
TRX400EX, Scrambler 500

 

Darron,
I'd check to make sure that there is oil in the hubs, and check for power in the wire going to the hubs. Oh, Check to make sure you haven't broken a chain if its a 97 model. Good Luck...!!!

 

Check your hub fluid level.

Per my trusty Polaris Service Manual, Polaris recommends "either" their Polaris Premium Demand Drive Lubricant or Type F Automatic Transmission Fluid!

Now I can not seem to find any Type F ATF in a synthetic but I can find a Blend in Dexron III or Mercon (Quaker State). I have been using this for about 3 years now and have on 2 of my '96 Explorers over 3500 miles on them each!

I also recommend replacing the fluid every at least every year, Polaris recommends to do this every 6 months. I do go farther in recommending removing the hub cover and draining the oil after the initial drain from the hex screw. I have found that even though there isn't any water in the fluid, I had signs of rust around the O-ring(s) and screws for the cap!! I use at this point, a good marine grease and coat the o-ring and screws for farther preventive maintenance. This doesn't take long to do and I hope this will keep the ownership cost down.

I waited for 18 months the first time and had rust, after doing the grease number, the rust hasn't returned yet. I also had a screw break off on me do to rust and now one of my hubs only has 2 screws keeping the hub on. I am not to worried yet, but if I only have 1 screw there I would be. The older hub covers were only snapped on with out any screws (~95). The newer hub covers (98~) have 1 O-ring while my '96 have 2 for sealing purposes.

Also check your terminal board wiring to see if the wiring for the AWD Clutches is connected, it might be gray in color ( per my 97 Scrambler service manual).

I also loss my front drive once when a bolt spun out on the center concentric on the center chain side and there for the front chain was no longer being driven. Fortunately I lost nothing, just had to re-tighten the bolt back on the sprocket.

Check and besure that the front drive shafts are turning all of the time! This would be the first check to make, it is also the easiest! If not, work your way back to the tranny. This drive line turns at all times with the AWD that Polaris uses, all make and models when the rear wheels turn.

I have heard that some of the newer model will inhibit the AWD hub coils from engerizing via the electronic speedo now.

Only on the older Sportsman 500 (96-98), will the Hub Safety (Speed Limiter) box come into play. The AWD coils are not wired into the Speed Limiter for the Xplorers, Magnums or Scramblers of the '97 era. Bottom line check your wiring diagram to be sure about path from your AWD pb to hub to ground point, it might be going the the Speed Limiter for the Scrambler 500, but in my Service Manual it does appear that way.


[This message has been edited by LSkrabut (edited 08-04-1999).]

[This message has been edited by LSkrabut (edited 08-04-1999).]

 

If you have the electronic speedo, look on the back of it and write down the part #, and check with your dealer. The scrambler 400 speedo is different than the scrambler 500, (even though outwardly they are identical). The AWD will only operate intermittently with the 400 speedo. I had ordered the speedo for my '98 scr 500, and installed it and had problems with the AWD working sometimes and not working other times. We finally determined that they had shipped a 400 speedo.

good luck

 

Now that you mention it, I lost AWD right around the time that I put my new speedo in. But I never noticed it because I don't use AWD all the time.

I also noticed that after installing the new speedo and when shifting it into reverse it would slow the engine way down to the point of killing the engine, that is unless you push the limiter button in right away. It never use to do that before. It would slow down but not die right away like it does now. Did yours do that with the 400 speedo.

I'll check the Part Number when I get home. Thanks a million!

Daron
TRX400EX, Scrambler 500

 

Dune,

When installing my speedo I didn't put the ground wire on good. One day almost everything on the front half of the quad stopped working including 4x4, the ground wite came loose. When I put it back on, everything came back to life.

Check that out.

Adam Dowden