[l-rod]

Went riding yesterday, had a brake down again, getting towed home is starting to be my specialty, lol. The lower ball joint on the left side snapped, strut and axle seperated and the wheel went facing east while i was facing north.

I've got to get a new cv joint during all this repair. Here is my question---does anyone know if I could just take a complete front axle from a 99' model and put it on mine, 96' model. I found a guy who has both, left and right complete axle's off a 99 for $50. This would keep me from having to buy a cv joint, plus giving me a spare.

Anybody know...

 

[imhuntingcrazy]

what kind of machine?

 

[l-rod]

96 sportsman 400 4x4

the one im lookin at for parts is a 99 400 4x4

btw, thanks for the help on the steering jerking, I traced wires and they were fine, I'm gonna look into what your talking about when its fixed

 

[imhuntingcrazy]

I did some checking, and from what i can tell the front shafts are not the same. the 96 model, depending on what serial number only fits 96 and some 97 models. Now this isn't saying that it wouldn't work...it's just saying that it's not made to work. If i were you id look for the right shaft tho, seems like maybe the tow jobs could use a break

 

[l-rod]

lol, no shit, tell me about it. When it broke down this time, we were pretty deep in some muddy terrain. No way of getting a trailer to it, and no way was I leaving it. I had to wrap my winch cable around my buddy's 750 brute, pull my front end up to his rack, and then have some guys lift it up and over.....pretty much setting my front end on his rack. My front end has about a 100lb steel reinforced push bar. By the time he made it home, his rack looked like you took a sledge and a guy on speed to it.

Never the less, its gettin aggrevating. I'm gonna just buy the new cv joint, ball joint, ball joint boot, castle nut, have new brake line made the was torn during the whole process and go from there.

One good thing is, I thought the balljoints were pressed in, but from the looks of a diagram on bikebandit, its just got 2 bolts holding it in. So changing that should, "theoretically" be pretty simple reapair........"theoretically":eek5:

 

[l-rod]

btw, thanks for checking on that for me.

 

[imhuntingcrazy]

ah yes...ball joints. they are pressed in. do yourself a favor and heat the strut with a torch, be careful not to melt it, but in the process if there's any grease in the ball joint the grease will heat up and force the joint to fall out. It can't get any easier. If for some reason it doesn't just fall onto the ground, grab it with a vise grip and give it a tug.