The other day while riding I noticed that my hub oil was leaking out of one of my hubs and getting all over the wheel and brakes. No big deal I thought...just needs a new seal.

When I went to install the seal I noticed that my wheel was loose, you could rock in back and forth. No wonder the seal could not hold any oil. The nut was still tight when I took it all apart.

So I then installed the new seal and new roller bearings in the hub, tightned the nut and the same results. No matter how tight you get the nut, the wheel is still loose. At the right nut torque, the wheel is VERY loose. Basically I can not get my wheel tight and it will NOT hold any oil in this condidtion. The 4WD still works...but I will not ride it in this condition. I need some help here. Thanks.

'96 Scrambler 400 4X4
HPD Trail Pipe/FMF Turbine Core II
HPD Standard Clutch Kit
K&N filter
Boyesen Power Reeds
Wiseco piston
HSP billet cylinder head-need to install yet.

 

There's 4 bearings per side in these babies....just changed all 8 in mine last month. You may have to go a little deeper to find the wobble.

front hub


Edit: I'm not sure if Polaris rapes you on the price of those bearings where you live, but in Canada they do. I have the NTN part numbers for those bearings if you want to save a few bucks by going to an autoparts store.

 

The problem is not the bearings. The strut housing is cast with a steel sleeve in there. If you can move the sleeve and see the blue silicone moving around that, you have to replace the strut housing. It is fairly rare, and I only learned about it this last week from a guy who works on Polaris machines for a living. Both seals in one side got damaged by someone improperly installing the cv joint, and I had to replace them. While he was tapping them in, he checked mine. I asked him what he was doing, and he explained what I wrote above. He said it was a very rare thing, but persistent leaking is usually a symptom of it. FYI, the strut housing runs about $180.

Waylan

 

SOUNDS LIKE A STRUT TO ME ALSO, AS FAR AS THOSE FRONT BEARINGS GO. DON'T
LET THE POLARIS DEALER RAPE YOU. ALL THEY ARE ARE TRAILER WHEEL BEARINGS. THE HUB TAKES 1" AND THE STRUT TAKES 1 1/16". ANY AUTO PARTS PLACE CARRIES THEM. EVEN WALMART.

 

What a joke! I hope it is something internal that is wrong or broken. I only had the hub section apart, not the whole thing. But $180 for a pot-metal strut housing is not cool. Broke one last year so I know the feeling.

Anyway...I am too busy to fix it at home now with spring planting going on. Guess I will bite the bullet and take it to the dealer!

Anyone else have a take on the siuation? Thanks.