The front u joint on one side of my 500 shakes a little when i move it with my hand. the other side is tight. i was wondering if the u joint could be out. it has about 3,100 miles on it.

 

Sounds to me like you have a worn out U joint. For the kind of milage you have on the quad it's not too bad. It's not a good idea to ride until it has been replaced cos if a U join breaks the repair can be a lot more expensive.

 

Make sure that it is the u-joint and not the yoke moving on the gearbox shaft. I had the same thing on my Xplorer, I thought it was the u-joint but when I isolated the play really well it looked like the shaft from the gearbox was moving. I took it to my dealer and when the mechanic saw it he said all it needed was a new roll pin that holds the yoke to the shaft. I thought he was crazy but I bought a new roll pin ($1.75) put it in and it is as tight as when it was new. It was easy to replace.

 

skidkid,

Which yoke was loose? My 2001 Xplorer 400 has the yoke on the pinion shaft (rear of the front gear box) loose. It has about 1/16" looseness, and my dealership said that was within specs. How did you remove the roll pin? With a small center punch, or one the same diameter as the roll pin? Thanks.

 

Walexa,
Mine was on the shaft to the right front tire. All I had to do to change it was roll the quad until the roll pin was facing forward and I used a punch just smaller than the diameter of the pin to get it started out but after I punched it out about half way I drove the new roll pin in and pushed the old one out at the same time. It was alot easier than I figured. I also noticed just the slightest movement on the pinion yoke and as soon as it gets a little more I will replace that one to. Heck as cheap as they are I will probably just grab a couple of them the next time I'm at the dealers.