Mine has some play in it.Can anyone give me some pointers on any short cuts at getting it off and on without pulling the whole shaft?

 

On mine I didn't have to pull the whole shaft, I think I just took out the cotter pin and the nut off the bottom and slid it off somehow. It has been a long time since I done it, but I know it can be done. I didn't remove the entire shaft, I may have had to loosen it and slid it up, can't remember?? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] I think I had to take the steering rods loose and loosen the upper support of the steering post? Hope this helps.

 

Hello, You have to loosen the steering post, under the light pod, and at the end, under the bushing. The entire steering post will then slide upwards. The tricky part is drilling out the steel rivots, holding the bushing in. It is in there so tight, you cannot get a drill in the correct position. Take a dremel with a metel cutting burr, and grind the rivots off, the entire bushing will then come off. Any other questions, please let me know, it took about 3 hours for the entire job.

Tim

 

Thanks for the clarification Tim, I thought I slid that thing up somehow.... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Hey thanks guys.this may call for a tree branch chain and a winch[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] ( I have been known to tie it up a tree to work on the under side)

 

If your trying to replace the bushing. On my explorer all I did was like NC just explained. I pulled the key-backed off the slotted nut and the bushing slid out between the post and the frame..Now your's might be different-but I just did mine in Sept of last year.......It's still very tight in there...

 

Has there been any consensus reached as to which aftermarket bushing is preferrable to stock? I put either HPD or Hot Seat's in the last time it was done and am finding out fast why this whole steering geometry was changed six months after I purchased my '00 SP500 (along with all the other 'upgraded' goodies I missed).

Would really like to find someone else out there who really gets sick 'quick' of replacing junk with junk and hasn't been afraid to fab up something differrent to solve this problem that has since been fixed (?) on the newer models.

Anybody out there that has finally said 'enough of this crap'?

John

 

If your lower steering stem bearing is made of some sort of composite material (plastic) get the HPD bushing. They use METAL instead of plastic, and are far superior. I have seen many, many of them installed, and to date not ONE has worn out. About the only drawback to the HPD bushing is that the mounting holes are bigger than the holes for the rivets used in the stocker Polaris bushing. If you can get access to a right-angle drill, it is very easy to drill the holes out to the proper size (I think it is 1/4 inch) If not, you have to either take off all the front plastic, and even a few other things to get a regular drill in there. The dremel tool with metal cutting burr thing works, but be VERY careful not to make the holes too big. I have even seen people clamp the proper sized drill bit with a small pair of vice-grips, and turn it by hand to enlarge the hole. Takes some time, but still better than taking all the stuff off the front to get to it (for some people anyway).
If you have the metal bushing from the factory, you can't use the HPD unit, because when Polaris upgraded to the better bushing, they also changed the size of the shaft, so that the HPD bushing won't fit.

Also, if you have problems wearing out the outer tie rod ends, do an archive search for a post I did labeled 'tie rod ends' where I gave all the part numbers needed to swap out the stockers for industrial joints. I have 3500 miles on the new joints and they are still tight as new. Note that the part numbers are good only if you have the 1/2" diameter tie rod ends. Some machines (the older ones in particular) have smaller ones.

Farmr

 

Farmer,

Can't thank you enough for taking the time to revisit an old issue and giving us an update on how the 'HD' ends are holding up. These are exactly the answers I was looking for and will call HPD; try the search and stay away from my Polaris dealer for parts on this project.

Kind of nice to have that extra feeling of confidence when you're going in to redo a job for the second time.

Thanks again,

John
'00 SP500

 

Blackballed: the tie rod ends aren't an HPD item. I sized up a set out of an industrial supply catalog. If you can't find my post labeled 'tie rod ends' reply back, and I can look up the proper part #, as well as a phone # of where to order them from. I know I wrote it down somewhere, but considering my organizational skills, you will probably find the post back in the archives before I find where I wrote the part #

Farmr