I bought a beater and I've had to rebuild it all. At this point in time I have the front end taken apart in order to change the seals in the front hubs and I noticed that a ball joint was dead. So I removed the ( lower control arm ) I think that's what its called and noticed that I can easily move the shock or strut up and down with one hand. the springs look good , but how much pressure is there supposed to be in the actual strut ?
And is there a cheaper alternative to using"Pure Polaris AWD on demand fluid"?
It's a 2003 polaris sportsman 500. What i'm saying is with the lower control arm off, the strut sags all the way down. if I grab it with one hand I can push it all the way up to the bumper at the top without any resistance. Or very little . Am I not supposed to have a hard time getting it up there? Or does the spring do all of the work?
nah ur just compressing the spring basically. the strut does create some resistance. the way u would now a strut is bad when on the bike is it would be leaking fluid, if u pushed down on the front end (load the springs) and the bike doesnt immediately settle at the top of its stroke (meaning it bounces a little), also with the spring removed from the strut if there isnt constant and consistent pressure through out the complete stroke (compressing and expanding) then u have a bad unit. honestly ur bike has some years on it and struts and shocks are wearable parts so before they fail it my b advantageous to do them now.
@Vandal. It's a 2003. I got it for 2000$ at an auction. Thinking I did good, not knowing a thing about atv's. on my way home I stopped off at my mechanic's and this is what he said:
-you got no rear brake - you're leaking oil'S - kinda looks like this thing has flipped over a few times...because this front fender is cracked, this opposite rear fender is cracked the stabiliser bar is broken and both rack's are cracked... That was just a quick look So over, he missed a lot of stuff .
And the weirdest thing is... This purchase might just be one of the best things to ever happen to me. I never knew how much I loved wrenches. Ohh and one of the first bolts I tried to remove, off a bracket that holds the rear A frame on the motor broke ... so I ended up buying a little welder so that a friend of mine could weld a nut to it. to remove it.
The little welder was gone as soon as I had welded every piece of steel that I could find in the garage. Got myself a bigger one, and after welding up some front and rear baskets and a canoe/kayak rack I done gone and got me an aluminum spool gun and some argon gas. Man I love welding ! Anyhow..
I've fixed it all! I now know quite a bit about atv's. And even more now that I know about the fluids.
any time brother. just helping u like others have helped me.
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