I've probably mentioned Dale the Builder before, he rents the barn behind my place as his office/warehouse. I work on his equipment from time to time. He's a cum laude graduate of the Bull and Thrash school of equipment operation, as are most of his crew, so I get a fair bit of work.
Came home the other day and his 1996 Polaris Sportsman 500 ATV was parked in front of my garage. "Won't start, seems to be stuck in gear". After going over it, I gave him a list of the stuff that HAD to be fixed to get it to run and another of stuff that SHOULD be fixed to make it safe.
He basically said "Go for it" and I told him if I ran into big ticket items, I'd call first.
So far, new battery, remove, disassemble, clean, reassemble, adjust and reinstall the carburetor (and that is a non-trivial task on an ATV) fixed the winch, changed all the fluids and filters got it started and ran it up and down the drive a bit.
New problems: No brakes. Not even a hint. Won't go into high range. Automatic AWD not working, as far as I can tell. There's a button on the handlebars, when you activate AWD it's suppose to lock the front hubs whenever the rear wheels are spinning faster than the fronts.
Got the hubs apart, only broke off one 10-24 screw getting the hubcap/seal off one side. Hubs are supposed to be filled with ATF, both were bone dry. Bearings and auto-locks looked okay. Managed to drill out and re-thread the broken screw (!!!) Waiting on a new seal for one side. Not sure if that will fix the AWD problem, but it's a good start. I need to trace out the circuit and see if I can manually lock the hub with a switch.
Started on the brakes. Master cylinder had ZERO fluid in it. Some black slime in the bottom. Took it off the handlebar, got the banjo fitting undone without breaking anything (!!!) and got the piston freed up. Got it soaking until I can go get some fresh brake fluid and clean it up good.
Started on the calipers and rotor. Got the brake line fitting off without breaking anything (!!!) even had a tubing wrench that fit (!!!) Pads don't look too bad, everything came apart without breaking/stripping anything (!!!) and I even had the right fitting to use compressed air to blow the piston out of the caliper (!!!).
Found piston and seal kits on Fee Bay for about half what the usual suspects want for them.
This is going WAY too well.
Of course, I haven't dug too far into why it won't go into high range. The linkage is working and the shifter shaft on the trans appears to be doing what it's supposed to. I'm hoping its a "range of motion" issue. I do NOT want to go inside that trans. And I doubt Dale wants to pay me to do it either.
Came home the other day and his 1996 Polaris Sportsman 500 ATV was parked in front of my garage. "Won't start, seems to be stuck in gear". After going over it, I gave him a list of the stuff that HAD to be fixed to get it to run and another of stuff that SHOULD be fixed to make it safe.
He basically said "Go for it" and I told him if I ran into big ticket items, I'd call first.
So far, new battery, remove, disassemble, clean, reassemble, adjust and reinstall the carburetor (and that is a non-trivial task on an ATV) fixed the winch, changed all the fluids and filters got it started and ran it up and down the drive a bit.
New problems: No brakes. Not even a hint. Won't go into high range. Automatic AWD not working, as far as I can tell. There's a button on the handlebars, when you activate AWD it's suppose to lock the front hubs whenever the rear wheels are spinning faster than the fronts.
Got the hubs apart, only broke off one 10-24 screw getting the hubcap/seal off one side. Hubs are supposed to be filled with ATF, both were bone dry. Bearings and auto-locks looked okay. Managed to drill out and re-thread the broken screw (!!!) Waiting on a new seal for one side. Not sure if that will fix the AWD problem, but it's a good start. I need to trace out the circuit and see if I can manually lock the hub with a switch.
Started on the brakes. Master cylinder had ZERO fluid in it. Some black slime in the bottom. Took it off the handlebar, got the banjo fitting undone without breaking anything (!!!) and got the piston freed up. Got it soaking until I can go get some fresh brake fluid and clean it up good.
Started on the calipers and rotor. Got the brake line fitting off without breaking anything (!!!) even had a tubing wrench that fit (!!!) Pads don't look too bad, everything came apart without breaking/stripping anything (!!!) and I even had the right fitting to use compressed air to blow the piston out of the caliper (!!!).
Found piston and seal kits on Fee Bay for about half what the usual suspects want for them.
This is going WAY too well.
Of course, I haven't dug too far into why it won't go into high range. The linkage is working and the shifter shaft on the trans appears to be doing what it's supposed to. I'm hoping its a "range of motion" issue. I do NOT want to go inside that trans. And I doubt Dale wants to pay me to do it either.
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