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2002 AWD issues / questions

1K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Bruce! 
#1 · (Edited)
First off this is my first post on the “Polaris Forum”

The AWD system on my 2002 Polaris Sportsman 500 ho does not always seem to lock the front hubs. Machine has 700 miles on it, bought it at 650 miles. I’m away from home right now and want to put together a check list for troubleshooting the AWD system when I get back home the end of the month. I have limited time so I’d like to get a list of things to check and how to go about troubleshoot the AWD system.

Symptoms: I use it primarily for ice fishing. I could tell that the AWD was working at one time because when it was off it would be all over the snow covered ice, once turned on it was great. One time towards the end of ice fishing (below zero F) I put it in AWD and it pulled hard to the right, backed up and went forward and it was fine.

I drained and refilled the hubs with fresh Polaris hub fluid about a month ago, old oil was very dark. When draining the fluid from the right side I did notice some metal in the oil (looked like brass), and some fillings on the magnetic plug, left side was fine. Once refilled I took it out for a ride and then drained and refilled them again. I know I probably will need to tear into the right front hub at some point and see what’s going on there.

Here’s what I’m seeing: I went to pull the ATV up into the trailer and the ramp was wet and the rear tires slipped. I reversed down the ramp and put it in low and flipped AWD switch (red light was on). Went back up again and the rear tires slipped again and the front tires did nothing. Note that the rear tires spun quite a few revolutions, not just 1/5 of a turn…

I’ve saved some info I found on here for checking the wiring, and looking for shorts and broken wires so I will be doing that.

One known question I have is this: The gear selector indicators on the pod do not currently work for low or high gear. If the ATV is in Low or High gear and the AWD switch on, and the red light is on, but the gear selector indicator light for either Low or High is not lit, will the hubs engage with rear wheel slippage?

So, the start of my checkout list looks like this:

1. Check wiring
2. Ohm the magnets
3. Check the gear selector indicator lights
4. Take apart the gear selector switch and see what’s going on with that if the indicator bulbs are good.
5. If items 1 through 4 checkout pull the hubs apart and check those parts out.

I do have repair manual, ohm meters, tools, feeler gauges, inch torque wrenches. I can get a seal driver kit – anyone know what size driver the seal takes – want to make sure I get the right one with the kit.

Anything else you folks can think of?

Thanks in advance, Gary
 
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