I have a 2006 sportsman 700. I don't put much time on it, mostly a 2 week hunting camp every year. 2 years ago in camp I noticed it pulling significantly when breaking, pulled over and found the front right rotor was split in two. I parked the quad through the rest of camp and replaced the rotor. During this time I also replaced the tires with a set of sunf AO43s. I don't know what my logic was at the time, I think I figured the dense tread pattern would wear well over hard pack. The following year after a day or two of riding the bearing on the same side failed, I spent another hunt borrowing a bike. I recently got around to replacing the bearing the other day. Took the bike out for a test ride and was getting some moderate shaking in the handle bars and the front end was fairly "darty". I got home and took the bike out on some asphault to see if maybe it was just the road and was still getting some wobble but significantly less of it and no real dartie behavior. I replaced the bearings on the opposite side and test drove again. This time there was a significant reduction in the wobble but it is still there. After the test drive one front caliper was at 65 degrees the other at 68, ambient temps being in the 40s.
I looked over all the components I could, I see no bend in steering linkages and the ball joints are good
The bike is still on its original shocks I suspect they aren't in great shape, they are my next guess pending no other advice from you guys.
I checked toe tonight. I used a string wrapped around the quad as per the owners manual. I did not have anything to wrap the string around in front of the vehicle so I wrapped the string around the tires them selves, I then worked a wedge in between the front corner of the front tire and the string until I got Identical measurements between the string and the rear rim at front and back of the rim indicating it was parallel to that rim. I verified the string was not touching anything between corners of the bike. I measured 20/32 at the back of the front wheel and 30/32 on the front. On the other side I measured 22/32 and 1 inch. The manual calls for 1/8 to 1/16 of toe OUT my measurements indicate 5/16 of toe INN. I figured I may have had the culprit until I found in research that a lot of people prefer this configuration. Do any of you feel this is likely an issue? Trying to get an alignment clean and right is not something I want to try if I don't need to
When I first installed the Sunf tires I test drove the bike, it floated some with the fat tires and dense tread pattern but did not have any wobble in the steering wheel and did not seem to dart in any meaningful way. I still have not ruled out the tires as the problem frankly if they are causing it I would consider it best case scenario. I just wont run too fast.
Knowing this what would you guys be looking for for as the culprit? The amount of wobble I experienced today was reduced to a point where I am unconcerned with the safety of the bike from a handling standpoint but I want to make sure I don't have any more time bombs in it.
I looked over all the components I could, I see no bend in steering linkages and the ball joints are good
The bike is still on its original shocks I suspect they aren't in great shape, they are my next guess pending no other advice from you guys.
I checked toe tonight. I used a string wrapped around the quad as per the owners manual. I did not have anything to wrap the string around in front of the vehicle so I wrapped the string around the tires them selves, I then worked a wedge in between the front corner of the front tire and the string until I got Identical measurements between the string and the rear rim at front and back of the rim indicating it was parallel to that rim. I verified the string was not touching anything between corners of the bike. I measured 20/32 at the back of the front wheel and 30/32 on the front. On the other side I measured 22/32 and 1 inch. The manual calls for 1/8 to 1/16 of toe OUT my measurements indicate 5/16 of toe INN. I figured I may have had the culprit until I found in research that a lot of people prefer this configuration. Do any of you feel this is likely an issue? Trying to get an alignment clean and right is not something I want to try if I don't need to
When I first installed the Sunf tires I test drove the bike, it floated some with the fat tires and dense tread pattern but did not have any wobble in the steering wheel and did not seem to dart in any meaningful way. I still have not ruled out the tires as the problem frankly if they are causing it I would consider it best case scenario. I just wont run too fast.
Knowing this what would you guys be looking for for as the culprit? The amount of wobble I experienced today was reduced to a point where I am unconcerned with the safety of the bike from a handling standpoint but I want to make sure I don't have any more time bombs in it.
