Can someone help me on a clutch setup? I would like more climbing ability out of high gear. I am willing to sacrifice top end. I had the local mech put a kit in and he doesnt understand. He made it where I could pull a D9 in LOW, thats not what I wanted and he still doesnt understand. Is there a happy medium? I guess I really want a lower high gear. I am asking for to much?

 

okiedude,

Normally I'd suggest that you gear the machine down, but as you have shaft drive, that's just a wee bit impossible to do. On to your question. Do you want a lower engagement point? Something to where the clutching on the machine comes on right off idle? Or do you want more low end grunt in the motor? Heavy fly weights and a softer primary spring will help you out in the first case. Or you could put lighter fly weights and a heavier spring in to make it engage at higher RPMs where it makes more power.

In the second case, I'm not so sure. You probably have the H.O. motor in yours, which makes it slightly more complex a problem. The H.O. motors aren't known for their low end grunt, but are known for their top end power. Normally I would suggest a smaller carb (somewhere around a 34- 36mm would do the trick), but with a different cam and high compression piston in yours it might make the job a little harder. The smaller carb allows better airflow and a higher intake velocity at low RPMs than a larger one.

With out knowing what you mean by "climbing ability" it's a little hard to diagnose what you want to do with it.

 

okiedude,

Mike is right here. I know you say "climbing ability". I got what that means but what are you're other preferences? How do you like your engagement? Do you still want it to perform certain ways in other conditions?

 

Thanks guys for responding so quick! I cant tell you what I have now except(here goes)....43-38 helix and gold spring. It takes it until Christmas to engage and when it does, I dont have any power in HIGH gear until I get the speed up. Now in low, it takes awhile for it to enegage, but look out when it does(its alomost to much in low). Yes, I want it to engage earlier and have power immediatly in high gear, not when I reach 20-30mph. I hope I am not making this seem stupid. What I am looking for is more "umphhh" in high. Yes it is a HO. I dont care if I loose 10mph on the top end if I could gain more grunt in high gear, instead of it acting like a wet noodle.

 

Hey Mike.............

 

okiedude,

Sorry, I only checked my mail early yesterday. About the clutch kit. Ask Rick Ritter or the guys at HPD what you want. More than likely they'll reccomend going to a heavier flyweights amd softer primary clutch spring. I'm afraid that I don't have too much experience with the 500 motors and clutching for them. I'm more of a two stroke guy.

The wonderful part about owning a Polaris is that you CAN tune the clutches the way you want. With some of the other makes that use CVTs, you usually have to wait several years for them to do the R&D before they come out with a clutch kit. Take the 700 Sportsman for an example. No more than a month passed from it's introduction and Aaen had a clutch kit out for it. The Prairie as another example was introduced before the 700 Sportsman and they still don't have a workable clutch kit for it.

 

Mike ...I hope you see this!!!!!!!!Can you explain a clutch setup? I know it probably will take an hour, but just the basics. The reason I ask is because when I look at HPD's website, I see all the different springs. I put my factory primary spring back in. But still have the gold secondary. Now if I look on their website, it looks like I want a Silver/blue one (Very heavy, aggressive backsift poor topend) Is this correct? I am still after more torgue, would this give any? If so...how hard is it to change secondary spring? Thanks Mike for your time, I appreciate it.

 

okiedude,

O.K. here goes. First you have to separate the primary clutch springs from the secondary clutch springs. What you want is a slightly lower engagement point on the primary clutch. This can be accomplished with heavier fly weights and a lighter primary clutch spring. I can understand where you're coming from as far as the HPD springs are concerned. There are SO many different weight/spring combinations. I'd give HPD a call at: (763) 389-3336 to see what they'd reccomend. They are the experts at this and can probably get you a lot closer than I ever could.

As far as the secondary clutch goes, I wouldn't mess with it. You might be able to improve the back/up shift on it slightly, but for what you want, I wouldn't mess with it.