It takes me sometime 10 - 20 minutes to fidel around until the 4WD mode is off....


I bought a brandnew Sportsman 500 with 4WD on demand. I have tremendous trouble to disable the 4WD mode. My dealer has shown me how to unlock the 4WD. 1st. turning switch to "off", than driving back and forwards a couple of times, <<until I can hear and feel how the 4WD unlocks>>.


I thought he is joking with me, but as it seems it is probably easier to give birth to a baby than to turn the 4WD off.

Heh folks thats my 1st ATV and I am not very experienced in ATVs but no kidding: It takes me sometimes 15 - 20 minutes to fidel around until the 4WD is off. Back and forth - back and forth, U-turning and again, again, again....

Any suggestions what to do or does anybody know a kit to modify that mess somehow?

Martin

 

First of all you need to check to make sure that your hubs are filled with the proper fluid. They should be filled with the same motor oil you should be using, 0W-40 Synthetic. You can use any lightweight oil such as Automotive transmission fluid or even hydraulic fluid. The 0W-40 Synthetic is what I would recommend.

To change the fluid, take the set screw out of the hub. This is right at the end of the hub so it easy to get to. Turn the wheel upside down to drain out the fluid. Turn the wheel so the hole is pointing up. Fill the hub with the fluid I mentioned. Turn the wheel so that the hole is in the 3 o'clock or the 9 o'clock position letting the excess fluid run out. Turn the wheel so that the hole is pointing up and replace the set screw. This should leave your hub half full which is the proper level.

When you drain it, you may find that their is a thicker fluid in it or maybe no fluid at all. In either of these cases it could be causing the problems you are having. It could also be a number of other things but I would lay my money on fluid being wrong or not enough of it.

Also another quick thing to check is to make sure your tires are all the same height. 25 inches tall, I think. Be sure they are all properly inflated.

If you try these things get back with me and tell me how it turned out. If these don't fix it, I could help out a little more.

 

Thanks a lot Elroy, that sounds very interesting to me!

I sent your reply to my dealer and he ll be with me on saturday to check that out.

Would you mind to give me your email , so I can get in touch with you after I got a feedback from my dealer.

see, you got a new customer now, even though its a kinda long trip. 10000 Mls maybe??? ;-)


Martin

 

Seeing as this is a new machine I doubt very much if the hub fluid is incorrect. F.Y.I. the hub fluid is not motor oil but a fluid similar to ATF. I for one will only use Polaris fluid considering the amount that is required and the price of it. Getting back to your problem. My front hub was not unlocking and it was the clearance between the out and inner pole on the electromagnetic coil. If you quad is still covered under warranty I would take it in and have them check the clearance of both front hubs.
What happens when the clearance (Polaris spec is .001", the dealer uses anything up to .004&quot is less than spec is that there is enough residual magnetic field left in the armature plate that it pulls the Halliard clutch rollers into the lock position. There is usually nothing that can be done to release it.

 

Traildog,

Polaris used to have an oil just for the hubs. They currently do not. I was told by Polaris just to use their engine oil(0W-40 Synthetic). If both me and Polaris are wrong then you better give Polaris a call so they know how they are supposed to do it. They in turn, will tell me how to service their machines. As for the hub fluid not being right, I have seen friends four wheelers come back from other dealers where they never bothered to fill the hubs up at all. They drained them but, never filled them back up. I've also seen quads come back where the dealer never pre-wound the secondary clutch. These kind of stupid things can happen. Just because he just got it doesn't mean that his dealer didn't forget something. I get interupted about 40 times a day. I have to always leave something I'm doing and come back to it later. This makes it easy to forget something. Not that I have but, this kind of situation makes it easy to if you don't pay attention.

I just thought Svalbard11 should check the easy things before I sent him back to his dealer complaining about something that never existed. What Traildog said could also be right but, when I get new machines in, the hubs are already put together. In fact the whole quad is put together. All I need to make my mechanics do, is pull the battery out and charge it. We still go over the rest of the machine to make sure Polaris didn't forget to do anything.

One more thing I would like to add is that I personaly only ever use Polaris fluids. I have never used any other brands in my own quads. Most other brands could be used but it is my preference to only use Polaris brand fluids in my Polaris.

 

I would check the hub oil. If the quad is new, I would give it a little break in time. My brother-in-law's Magnum wouldn't go into 4-wd at all, until it had a few miles on it. One days worth of riding was enough, though.
To unlock the front hubs, the easiest way I can think of to do that if you have been going forward, is to get rolling forwards about 10-15MPH, and hit the rear brakes hard enough (just the rear foot brake) to get the rear wheels to skid. Just a little is enough. What you are trying to do is get the front hilliards to over-run and unlock. I wouldn't try this if you used 4-wd to back out of a mudhole, for instance, because of the risk of a flip.

 

Ia gree with the hub Fluid. I personally experienced this on my old 300 xplorer.
only ONE hub had a small Leak in it which I didnt know about, One day after riding in 4 wheel drive, ONE hub wouldnt disengage, while the other one worked fine, made for an interesting ride home! Proper Fluid level, and further more, proper FLUID, fixed it.!

Ron
2001 Kodiak

 

What happens when you need to change to or from fourwheel drive on the trail, maybe in a rough situation? I mean, where you can't go back and forth, make u turns or get up to fifteen mph? Sounds to me like Polaris has a major problem with this 4WD system! Jim


"ON DEMAND" 4WD ????????????

 

Yes, sseems to me too. ATVs are kinda little modified over here in europe to hit the requirements, so "4X4 on demand" is whats written on the tank.

 

Jim, normally the 4wd is off until you turn it on. Then it is in 'on demand' mode until you turn it off. Having to do U-turns, back up, or skid are ways to unlock it when it is being stubborn. However, these are stopgap measures you try out of desperation when it isn't working properly. If the 4wd system is working like it should, all you need to do is click the switch off, and you should be in 2wd. Svalbard obviously has something not quite right in his hubs, what isn't right may be harder to answer.
I still vote on the hub oil being low. Might be OK to change it, as it takes so little.