2017 Polaris Sportsman 850 SP blown pinion cover

4726 Views 34 Replies 12 Participants Last post by FPD218, 5 mo ago

jake.spitzig

Discussion Starter · Dec 13, 2017

My 2017 Polaris Sportsman 850 SP only has 800kms and the front pinion cover is blown right out of the diff.. running stock tires and everything else is stock. I see on the website the these 850's now have a whole front replacement differential, instead of running diff #1333570 the new diff part is now #1333965 but I don't see a recall. Machine is still under warranty will this be covered?

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motorbiker40

· #4 · Mar 11, 2021

jake.spitzig said:
My 2017 Polaris Sportsman 850 SP only has 800kms and the front pinion cover is blown right out of the diff.. running stock tires and everything else is stock. I see on the website the these 850's now have a whole front replacement differential, instead of running diff #1333570 the new diff part is now #1333965 but I don't see a recall. Machine is still under warranty will this be covered?

i have the same problem on my 2017 polaris 850 xp. im so done with buying a polaris , they had a recall in 2016 for the same problem but did not fix the problem in 2017.i owned a suzuki 700 for 10 years and never broke anything.

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motorbiker40

· #7 · Mar 11, 2021

Gmartino100 said:
Pinion covers were updated in 2018 to steel. The older aluminum ones are known issues and its one of the first mods that is recommended to avoid costly repairs. A new billet aluminum one only cost $120, too bad you didn't know about that before you blew yours. Hopefully you didn't cause any damage to the front diff and only need to buy a new pinion cover.

The hole front differential is shot. I stopped immediately and it was to late. Now it's a pile of junk.

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motorbiker40

· #8 · Mar 11, 2021

motorbiker40 said:
The hole front differential is shot. I stopped immediately and it was to late. Now it's a pile of junk.

View attachment 149080 View attachment 149080

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motorbiker40

· #20 · Mar 12, 2021

It was in two wheel dr just left the driveway in snow the rear wheels spun not excessive for 20 ft and bang front diff pinion plate broke apart. I'm 58 and don't drive to fast. And hardly use the 4x4 unless I go through some mud puddles. I don't think I could have avoided this problem. Polaris needs to beef up the front pinion plate. I have searched the web and found a bunch of other people with different polaris machines having same problem

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motorbiker40

· #21 · Mar 12, 2021

I would like to thank everyone for your input on the pinion plate failure. I would like to see someone high up that works for polaris for a comment on this on going problem and fix it. That would be the right thing to do. What ever happened to quality control in America?

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motorbiker40

· #24 · Mar 13, 2021

polman500 said:
If it broke that easy I suspect it may have already been loose and had some play in the fasteners. I've seen pics of a few that were caught before they came completely unglued. I'd advice anyone with a pre-18 machine to check the pinion as a regular part of maintenance if they aren't gonna replace the cover. If one or more of the bolts are found loose, put a drop of blue loctite on the threads and torque to spec.
The above might not prevent the failure but it sure couldn't hurt to try to catch it BEFORE it explodes.

Yeah all the screws were tight its just a cheep pinion cover. It might have had a Crack in the cover from the previous ride to break loose that easy

Gmartino100 said:
Pinion plate was updated in 2018.

This site is unaffiliated with Polaris, so I don’t think a Polaris rep will comment. Not sure what you want them to say anyway. Pinion plate has been updated. For older models, you can either buy a cast steel OEM one or an aftermarket billet aluminum. Considering the number of units that are sold and that are not upgraded, the aluminum pinion, although not perfect, does perform adequately more times than not.

Yep the fixed the problem in 2016 and 2018 and skipped 2017

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motorbiker40

· #26 · Mar 13, 2021

Gmartino100 said:
Where did you get that information from? Pinion cover wasn’t changed to steel until 2018. Prior to that they were aluminum with known breakage problems. 2016 and 2017 shared the exact same part number until it was recently superseded by the steel pinion cover part number.

It's all over dude you have to read bro

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