I have a '97 Sport and I want to change the oil (oils). On page 83 I'm looking at a illustration. It says Counter Balance Drain where do you put the Counter Balance oil in? Crankcase Drain where do you put the oil in? Transmission oil, where is the drain plug. Jesus this Polaris oil changing thing is a pain in the butt. The Transmission is seperate from the engine..I can figure out where the drain plug is. What is the deal with the Recoil drain and the Starter Pinion drain? Please help this first time Polaris owner out.

Thanks
Jay

 

Thats alright guys/gals I called 4 differnt Polaris service departments and they couldn't answer my question either. I finally got a answer from Motorsports out of Decatur, IL.

 

I have a 00 SP500, so I'm not sure if my situation is the same as yours for oil changes. It seems as though 1 or 2 cups of dirty oil will remain in the engine either inside the recoil area, or connected to it.(I am by no means a mechanic, I'm just repeating what I was told) It is quite difficult to remove the plug to drain this oil, and many people either skip it or don't know they should be doing it. You can get that oil out of there the easy way by pulling on the recoil. That pumps the dirty oil over to the main reservoir, where it can drain out the main plug.
Taking out the main plug at the bottom of the oil reservoir, and let all the oil drain out. Then pull on the recoil a few times, and you will see that some more oil will begin to drain out. Keep pulling until no more oil comes out. I think it took me 15-20 pulls.
Don't ask me why or how, changing the oil is about as mechanical as I get. Hope this helps........

Scott

 

I have found it easy to get to everything if you take off the right side running board & the skid plate.After that you can get to all the drain & fill plugs.Hope this helps.

 

I had a real nice reply all done and then my computer froze up.
To sum it up.
It sounds like you have a 400 sport.
Engine oil change not needed.
Drain the starter & recoil once a year or anytime you 'drown' your machine
Counterbalance is a pain to change. If you don't have a long, thin funnel, you can use a screwdriver. Put the end of the screwdriver (clean it up first) in the fill hole. SLOWLY trickle oil down the shank, it will follow it down to the hole as long as it isn't touching something else along the way. Fortunately it doesn't take much oil.

The biggest thing to remember with the 400 engine is to keep the air cleaner serviced. They have a low tolerance to dirt.

 

Is it correct to say that the crankcase drain is kinda like a overflow for the counter balance? Nothing goes into the crankcase, just drain it when I drain the counter balance. Is this correct?

Jay

 

Yea, basically drain the crankcase (as well as the starter drains) while you are crawling around under your machine. About all you should expect to come out of the crankcase might be a few drops of oily goop, and if all is well, nothing out of the starter or recoil drains. The only thing that will need refilling is the counterbalance.

 

Thanks all for the input. Now that I understand what all those drains are for it made things alot easier.