After a close inspection of my Scrambler this week I noticed the so called bushing had a little bit of slop in the bars, After closer inspection of the entire assembly rivets and all is flexing up and down, This design leaves alot to be desired so I ordered the HPD replacement online tonite and was wondering if any one had some tips on this swap? Also if anyone is interested I did some heavy duty research on some replacement bars this weekend and on paper at least the closest to the stock bend is the Suzuki quadracer replacement Renthal offers, I really like the stock bend and these bars are with-in a 1/4 inch of the stockers pretty much, When they roll in this week Ill let everyone know if there up to par , My bars are the older set-up like the sports and TB's

 

Todd

I just finished installing two HPD steering bushings. One on my wifes trail boss and the other on a friends Scrambler. The installation is easy and takes about 1 1/2 hours. Here are the steps (as I remember them).

1. Disassemble the handlebars from the steering post and remove the front nose cone (I believe it snaps in on the scramblers). Also remove the bolts holding the upper steering bushing in.

2. Remove the inner tie rod ends from the steering post.

3. Remove the steering post by removing the cotter pin and the castle nut at the bottom. Note how many washers were on the post. Remove the steering post from the plastic bushing.

4. Remove the rivets holding the plastic steering bushing. I used a chisel and a hammer, but you can drill them out also.

5. Drill the rivet holes out to 1/4 inch. This can be tricky as you cannot use a full size drill in this tight area. Some people use a dremel tool. I used a right angle drill device that I had. I have seen these at my local hardware store for around $17.

6. Clean the steering post up and put some grease on the post and the new bushing. Slide the bushing up as far as you can by hand and then put the whole assembly back into the frame. Take a mallet and a piece of wood and gently tap the post down into the new bushing.

7. Install the new bolts for the steering bushing and reassemble everything. I chose not to use the rubber washer and instead replaced it with a steel bushing that I got from the local hardware store. I found that the rubber bushing was causing some of the up and down movement in the steering.

8. Grease the new bushing well. It will be a little tight at first, but will loosen up after riding a little.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the details MagnumMudMan, Hopefully everthing will be here by friday so I can make a Wayne run this weekend and break the steering in

 

Well my stuff from HPD and Bobs cycle made it here today, The handle bars are great, The Quadracer bend is damn near perfect for the Scrambler, Im really happy with the new bushing HPD sent it is a much better design than the turd Polaris used , The steering is now tight and the bars feel great, If anyone has even a little slop in there steering this is WELL worth the effort to do! And at that they even lowered the price to $29.95!!

P.S. Order the new HPD catalog it has a few new goodies and they have lowered the prices on a few more cool items

 

Better late than never...
MagumMudMan's instructions are excelent!

For the benefit of folks who are planning to do this job, here are my photos of the job on my '98 Sportsman 500.
http://community.webshots.com/album/12390945uLEqVRJNXB

 

I'd need to replace a upper steering bushing.How much time I may need, also is the bearing one piece only or is it 2 halves/?/ and will I have to dissasembly a light, too. /time is my problem/
Thank's
joe

 

Prospector
You atv pictures are great. the ones from Teluride are awesome! I would love,more than anything,to ride in the Rockies someday.

Andy G

 

You should only have to remove the hood, The upper bushing is a two piece urethane unit, It is held in place by a two bolt strap and shouldnt take more than 30 min or so to change, After the bolts are taken out you can slide the halves up or down and separate them, after that just put back in reverse order

 

What is HPD? and can you post the address and phone# for me. thanks.

 

www.hpd-inc.com