I dumped the OEM rod ends and replaced them with industrial grade Heim joints. They come with grease zerks and have a bronze bushing. Good quality for half the price of OEMs. Some adapting has to take place because I could only find 1/2" X 1/2" or 3/8" X 3/8". I use the 1/2" units and bushed the ***** down to 3/8". I also installed the OEM rubber boots over them to contain the excess grease.

 

Where did you get your tierod ends? and they were only 25 bucks?
I mailed polaris about my 99 sportsman tierod ends cause my dealer told me they were going on all the sportsmans polaris told me it was localized to my dealer and there hadn't been reports of excessive tie rod failures.

Donnie Freeze
springfield, N.B. Canada

 

I have to say that the weakest part of a Polaris quad has to be the tie-rod-ends and the lower steering bushing. Every Polaris quad I have looked at had loose steering, mine lasted only 500 miles and I grease it after every ride. For the 2001 model the rod-ends have been upraded but I do not know if they stand up any better.
As for buying after-market rod-ends go to you’re local bearing supplier. My supplier was Commercial Bearing, I went with them cos we deal with them at work and they treat us pretty good.

 

I gave up with stock ones - just crap.

I made my own, that set me back about $70.00, but to replace an end will only cost me $5.00. I had an engineer copy the stock rod, but put M10 1.5 thread on both ends. The stock have two different threads at either end. Then purchased a couple of Heim joints, and a couple of rose/knuckle joints all in 10mm thread. The Heim joints were both in L/H thread, and the Rose joints were in R/H thread. A couple of lock nuts with matching threads for each end, and bingo, perfect tie rods! Add a couple of 10mm bolts for the streaing stem end, as they hammer perfectly into the 9/16 (i think) holes, to reduce any movement in the bolts.

Talk to an engineering supply company about the heim joints and rose joints. Don't worry about grease fittings, if you can get teflon coated ones. If they are cheap enough, if they last a year, 10 bucks and they are new again!