My dad and I have shared the big bear for the last 9 years at the hunting camp. It has performed flawlessly until last season we noticed some noise from the rear axle. Time for some new bearings(mainly the right rear at the end of the axle housing). We took both rear tires off and all the rear brake housings and tapped the axle and then bearing out. It was toasted. We looked at the bearing on the left side of the chunk and decided we should replace it also. We have not taken it out yet. Does anyone know if that bearing taps out just like the other one? It looks like it will. Anything else we should be replacing while we have it all apart? I know there is a bearing on the right of the chunk but you would have to take the chunk off to get it out. That is alittle further than we want to go but...

Any advice and help will be much appreciated!

We plan on adjusting the valves too.

I just bought an 08 camo big bear(dealer still had one in the crate!) so we still have something to use while we work on his.

 

I just replaced the axle on my 03 SRA kodiak, not sure if it's the same as your BB or not. I replaced the bearings and seals on both ends as well, the axle housing end and the pumpkin (is this what you mean by chunk?). The ring gear inside the pumpkin actually rides on it's own bearings so I was able to remove the axle bearing from the pumpkin side without disturbing the internals. You should be able to look at one of the online microfiche sites to see if the BB is the same.
What I would recomend though is getting a shop manual before putting it back together. There were things I would have missed if I had not had one, for instance you are supposed to use lithium soap based grease (not to be confused with white lithium grease) on all the splines, seals and bearings. Plus, you need to know the torque numbers, the large castle nuts that hold the flanges on my kodiak go to 110 ft/lb. I got my manual on ebay from 'midwest manuals' for around $6 shipped. Cheap insurance.

 

Did you replace both bearings on the pumpkin or just the one on the left side of the pumpkin? From what i understand there seems to be one on the axle housing side of the pumpkin too. Did you take the pumpkin off the bike?

 

There is only one axle bearing in the pumpkin, on the right side (sitting on the atv), the other axle bearing is in the axle housing (tube) on the left side behind the brake. I replaced both of them, I did not remove the axle or pumpkin from the atv, the axle simply slides out, the ring gear inside the pumpkin runs on it's own bearings so I didin't have to touch it.

 

Cool. I looked at the service manual again. Yup only need to replace the bearings on the ends. Thanks.