06 sportsman 800
Trying to remove and replace yokes and joints and trying to find the proper way hoping not to have to lift motor off mounts. Have the front diff off (done that many times) trying to slide front shaft yoke from tranny and need more space since joint hits engine. Looking at the puzzle it looks as if I need to remove rear diff or atleast just get some room, then maybe I can loosen tranny and slide it back and hopefully not break off any bokts. PB blaster on them now. Or I'm hoping I can pop out the roll pins on rear and get the shaft out with out unbolting all of rear. While doing this is there anything else I should change? It has a brand new rear diff, replacing side plate on front diff since wire was broken right at plate. All new fluids in every part of bike already.

Also, front ball joints on A arm, how to remove those??? Want to replace them to. Have replaced all 4 wheel bearings and tie rod ends.

Thanks OPT and others who have been giving me input over the last 2 yrs on this project. Very expensive rebuild.

 

Your first guess is right. You need to loosen the rear diff 4 mounting bolts and either move it back far enough or remove it if you have to in order to replace this short prop shaft. Prop shaft from transmission to the front diff can be impacted back toward the transmission(after the roll pin is out in the front diff yoke)pull shaft to the left side of the front diff and then impact it off the transmission shaft. Air impact makes short work of this compared to a hammer and chisel and busted hands.Ball joint removers are getting cheap on ebay now compared to the oem.Polaris ATV Ball Joint Removal Tool Trailboss Trailblazer Scrambler Sportsman | eBay
Plus you can google up Polaris ball joint tool and click images and find all sorts of home made ball joint pullers. Here's a couple.

 

Well OPT I got it out and what a pain it was.
There were I think 8 bolts in rear diff, and ofcourse had to drop lower arm on both sides that hid 2 thru bolts. 1 roll pin on rear shaft and that was out.
Now unbolted transmission and it wouldn't move so I had to take pulley off to access a plate behind plastic shroud on back of belt housing. Ok great now have shaft out of front of tranny it was very easy and slid right off. Now there wasn't enough clearance under motor for the shaft to come out no matter how I tried to manipulate it. Even tried to take u joint off yoke but just couldn't get it.

So loosened motor mounts pryed up the motor enough and got it out finally. I don't think there's much left that's bolted to the frame.
I know it's why labor is expensive, and appreciate that. It took me about 5 hrs total today I was unbolting everything and ofcourse some stretching and sweet tea breaks.

So cleaned up and done for the day, hope by the time I get all the parts in and put on i'll remember where all the bolts go.

Also, I was trying to shift the gears and gearbox seams very hard. Is there a way to take the 4 bolts off of cover plate and is there something to check???
Thanks

 

What you may finds if it's been in a lot of mud is dirt/mud etc if the gasket has seeped over the years.You can pull the plate and check over the gears.This assy was packed with grease from the factory. I'd really have a manual on this if you tear it apart as the gears has to line up a certain way and the manual shows you step by step. Here's a pic of a 700 that has the same tranny that doesn't look like it was treated too well.