I have a 2008 Sportsman 800 touring and when cruising at say 50mph I can smell burnt belt. The last belt failed with only 2000 miles of use so had the dealer service the clutches and installed a new belt and still getting slippage. I'm just a trail rider no mud, 26" tires, use low gear in the bad stuff. At slower speeds in high gear I can let the torque of the 800 pull it up hills and don't get any slip. I am at a loss as to what the problem is...

 

Maybe one of the two air vent tubes going to the belt housing is restricted in some way and the belt housing is not getting cooled like it should.
I heard of mice nest doing it.
There is a Vent tube for air intake and air exhaust.

 

Problem could be as simple as adding a 36 cent spacer washer(s) behind the secondary clutch if it keeps eating belts. If the front and rear clutches aren't aligned,happens a lot,if the drive belt starts touching the front clutch sheath,belts wont last long. You can pull the cover and see if the belt is running dead center of the front clutch,plus center to center on the clutch mounting bolts should be 10" If more than this a front motor mount could be weak allowing too much pressure on the belt. Item #2.Dirt Cheap Yamaha, Honda, Arctic Cat & Polaris OEM Parts & Accessories – Cycle Parts Warehouse

 

Blew out both vents TLC it's getting air. Belt is running center of the front clutch OldPolarisTech and the center to center is in spec motor mounts look good. Polaris tec told me my clutches were in good shape when he serviced them. I thought clutch spring but which one?..

 

If it was a spring problem,I'd have to guess the rear as this clutch is pretty complicated and if the front clutch is contacting and expanding ok and not sticking. Plus if they were rebuilt,the tech should have noticed any problems. Plus are you running an oem or aftermarket belt?

 

Yes always run the OEM belt OPT and yes with the cover off in neutral I've run it and both clutches working great no sticking, shift up and down belt running true all the time. I've scuffed the sheaves with emmery cloth and wiped them I don't know what I'm missing here...

 

Do you have any Black belt wear/rub marks on the primary sheaves? I have a 2009 Sportsman 800 Touring, and I work on clutches quite often with 4 Polaris Sleds. The smell/burnt could be the 2 rings (Crush rings) that separate the sheaves on the primary. You would have to have the tools to do this, as OPT knows all to well!!! I would believe the mechanic you had service the clutches "forgot" to replace them? If you can do an exploded view of your primary clutch (www.polairsind.com), you will see #4-spacer, and #19-washer are between the sheaves, take a Hell of a beating