TreeFarmer, the belt and clutches tie the the engine to the transmission, and do operate in air underneatch the belt cover. However you still have a transmission, although there are no gears or clutches in there. You do have a chain and sprocket assembly that I suppose acts like a gear reduction for transferring power to the axle and wheels, although I'm just guessing now. But the transmission does have it's own fluid resevoir, separate from the engine oil in a four stroke, and the injection oil on a two stroke.

------------------

 

Polaris Power,

Hold on a sec!

Are you saying that you have owned that Polaris machine since '96 and you have only experienced a flunky plug wire?

That's it? Does that seem to you like a big deal? No plug, brakes, belt, tires, headlight bulbs, battery, bushings, or bearings? Wow. A plug wire. That sounds like a pretty durable machine.

The transmission is not Polaris' fault (you acknowledged this in your message). How can you expect Polaris to engineer for a drained transmission? It sucks that you didn't notice the oil until something happened. It can't be attributed to the manufacturer. And you probably didn't intentionally let it go dry. It is just one of those things.

Do you really think it has been so bad?

Sorry to sound a little harsh/scarcastic, but after Bill and Steve having less than perfect machines, and yours sounds like a fine machine, it just made me want to question what you think is a quality machine?

RM

------------------
99 400EX 95 Scrambler 400 85 LT250R

 

Thanks for the clarification, Ed.

I now understand; the belt-drive clutch connects the engine to a transmission with its own separate reservoir of fluid.

I confused the variable-drive clutch with the transmission function (changing drive ratios) on non-CVT machines.

Again, I appreciate your civil and informative response to a pretty dumb question!

Tree Farmer

 

Dah, which is "better", a Chevy, Ford or Chrysler? Which has less repairs? Better features?

How (or why) could individual answers here define an entire manufacturer like Polaris, Yamaha, etc. It's amazing to me people continue to ask these open-ended questions. But this is just my observation so please allow me to make it.

I have a friend who HATES his Warrior because of all of the maintenence and things breaking but doesn't have internet access to gripe about how unreliable all "Yamahas" are. On the other hand, I've met people who love their Warriors. So what's the point?

Maybe we should ask more general questions instead of "which brand is most reliable"--a better question would be "when are manufacturers going to install chips in their ATVs to record performance?" Think of that---if there was a problem they could just tap into the chip and then FOR ONCE on here we could deal with facts and data.

Take 'er easy.

 

Yeah, fill your quad with computers, that's the answer. Not only will it be expensive to install, it'll be the first thing to go wrong when you go playing in the mud or water!

------------------
Want a Magnum or Sportsman 500!!!

 

I've had my '99 Sport for eight months now, I literally ride the snot out of this machine.Except for a few well deserved flat tires, I have had no problems with this machine, I love it. It seems like whenever I run into poeple who want to bad mouth Polaris's, they've never owned one, but know a friend of a friend who did and had nothing but trouble with it. I have a friend who has a '95 400 2x4, still stock. He should be put away for quad abuse for the way he rides that bike, never had a problem. I'm tired of everyone bad-mouthing Polaris quads. I'll always ride them for my sport quad. As for my utility quad, I'll stick with my '00 Kodiak.

SportKod