I have posted many questions about the front hubs locking on my 2002 SP 500, and the dealer has been little help. He is trying, he just can't find the problem. He replaced the armature plates, said he rode it for a hour and it did fine, but when I unloaded it at home, I rode it out the driveway, and it did it first thing, but that cut the locking up from about 90% of the time to about 20% of the time. When I say locking up, I mean that w/ AWD switch "on", but not actually spinning the wheels, one of the two hubs will grab, jerking the bars to the left or right. Anyway, I took apart the hubs the other day, and tried to clean them out and I put back Mobil 1 ATF fluid, but it still didn't help. My question is, should there be any kind of magetic force to hold the armature plates on when the power is off? When I took it apart, the armature plates hung perfectly in place, held by a magnet in the inner part of the hub, even though the key and switch both were off. I thought that this magnet was only magnetized with the AWD switch "on". Does anyone know if this could be my problem? The dealer has had it since Thurs., and promised he wouldn't call until it is really fixed this time.

Thanks,
Andy

 

I have experienced close to the same problem you have described on my 2002 SPORTSMAN 500,I have had mine in the dealer for repair on two occasions with no luck so far.My hubs will lock causing the handle bars to jerk from left to right when I have it in reverse with the AWD switch on backing up on my driveway.I am not pushing the reverse override button at all and according to the manual the hubs should not get power in reverse untill you push in the override button.This makes me think it is mechanical not electrical,but one thing that I have noticed is that when the hubs lock in and cause the machine to jerk the ATV it will spin the back tires in reverse as if you were pushing the reverse override button but I am not,makes me think it could be A problem with the CDI/REV LIMITER box.How about letting me know what you find out with yours.

 

Check the torque on the Castle nut in the hub assembly, if to tight it will hang up the dissengagement of the hubs. Don't do what I did and torque to foot pounds, it's inch pounds. I have mine torqed to 104 inch lbs and it seems to be working fine now.