My riding buddy just had his rear inner U joints go out after about 6000 miles. He's a little P.Oed that they went out. The local dealer says he was lucky to get over 3000 miles on them. Who is correct? I am going to get the NAPA U joints and replace them for him. The local dealers wants $335.oo parts and labor to just do the rear inner ones. Isn't that a little excessive? NAPA only wants $17.85 for each u joint. How long should it take? It doesn't appear that complicated.

 

mine are still fine with 1700 miles on the sp500!!!

 

6000 miles of mud, water, grit and who knows what else. And he's complaining! Some people.

 

That is the most mileage I have ever heard of on the rear u-joints. I would not buy the Napa U-Joints for this bike. This bike came with Neapco U-joints. There are two sizes for the rear. 1-1275 and 1-1875... I am not sure which one is for the inner u-joint, but if you intend on removing the axel, you should replace both. I have replaced many rear u-joints and it is not difficult. The last set I replaced, I just let the local CV-Joint shop do it. I just took them the axels and they replaced all four u-joints for $100 including labor. If this guy can spend $100 and get 6000 more miles he should be quite pleased.

BTW, I did not think that any Polaris was capable of going 6000 miles. I fully intended to dispose of mine once it hit 1000 miles in order to save myself the headaches.

Greg

 

So how do I pull the whole axle? Any help would be appreciated.

 

Minehunter:

I just had mine replaced after 6200 miles after hard riding up here in Canada. The dealer did it for me and he used Polaris parts, sounds like your price quote is a little high you may want to shop around. I think I paid around 60.00 each plus labour. As for getting 6000 + miles out of one set that is the least a fellow should get if he keeps the grease in them. After paying a large sum for a "premuim" bike I expect "premuim" reliabilty something I noticed that Polaris could be alot better at in their ATV's and newer model Sleds. Good luck.

98 SP
93 Indy 500 Classic (soon selling for a 700 Mountain Max)

 

I would not even think about paying someone else to remove the axels for you... Here are directions.

1) Jack up the bike and remove wheels.
2) Remove the Hub Bolt (That holds the axel into the bearing housing)
3) Remove the bolt the holds the top of the bearing housing.
4) Bearing housing will fold down off of the axel.
5) remove bolt holding both axels through the tranny. Axel shlud pull out in your had... it may take a tug.

You can easily replace the u-joints yourself, but for $10 a peice, you can pay someone else to do it. There is some skill involved in this part. I have seen people hammer these together when they should be pressed on. The needle bearings have a tendency to fall into the cap if you hammer them and are not cautious.

Good luck.

Greg

 

That is allot of miles.Would be almost 4 riding seasons for me. As complicated as the rear end of the Sportsmans are. 6000 miles is nothing to complain about. Premium to me usually means complicated and pricey to buy and pricey to take care of.

 

If you can pull the axle, you can change the U joints. This guy should be pleased with 6000 miles before needing replacement. I've had more trouble with the rear U joints and rear axle bearings than anything else on my 96 500.

 

Do you know what the Napa part number would be? I'm going through the same problem on my quad. I have to replace the lower part of my driveshaft and I'm just about ready to buy some u-joints for the top and bottom of both sides. I only got 1800 miles out of my u-joints. I'd be extremely happy with 6000 miles.