[Bigmacksportsman850]

Well i finally have hit 800 miles on my xp today. I want to start out by saying this atv is an absolute blast and i love the crap out of it. However there are some design flaws that really chap my bottom. At the 300ish mile mark the one way clutch bearing went out and left me quadless for exactly 1 month because of the dealership. After it was fixed it still didn't shift as easy as it use to before the bearing went but it worked so whatever. Fast forward to 400+ miles later i'm about 40 Trail miles from the farm i was staying at riding and then the shifting started to get really hard again. Well by the time we get back i had to use reverse a few times and switch to low to make it up some hills and then i couldnt shift at all so i waited for someone to come pick me up on a trailer. We get back to the garage and find out that the shifter bellcrank stripped out which in turn stripped out the piece on the transmission that it connects to so i cant change any gears. I did some google searching and found out to replace that piece the transmission has to come out and it usually takes a few days to weeks to get the parts. My warranty ran up a month ago (go figure). I was on an atv riding trip i paid good money for so i couldn't go all weekend without riding. I didn't drive down and had no way to call it quits so i wasn't going to just sit there. My buddy is pretty creative and apparently read something on here about a way to make it work for the time being until we could get it back to a dealership to have them fix it. The bellcrank was stripped and the metal part the bellcrank connects to was stripped as well so i couldn't change gears. We had a welder and google and apparently someone used a wrench to make it work. They cut it in half, bent it, and drilled a hole to make it work. Well we tried and it and sure enough it worked. I was able to shift into all gears but it was still really hard because i suspect the one way bearing went again. Here are the pictures of this haha!

Part on trans that stripped:

Bellcrank next to the rigjob:

Well it worked enough for a while but now since it was so hard to shift it hurt something inside of the transmission. I only have high gear and neutral now. Low gear indicator shows up but it doesn't shift into it. Apparently someone else had this problem and its the shift linkage in the trans. I will order the shift linkage, a new belt, and the one way bearing this week and update this when it comes in and i rip out the transmission. The motor still runs great but i only have high gear now. Hopefully you all get a laugh out of this. This weekend is going to cost me a pretty penny but i had a lot of fun so i can't be mad about it!

 

[zoomeroo]

My 850 became very hard to shift after the warranty.

I went to 2 dealerships and realized they would rip me off as soon as they said, "we have a couple things we can try".

Any way I wanted to change out just my one way bearing and found out it takes a very special tool. Not to mention the tool needed to get the assembly apart in the first place. Well i made the first tool and struggled with that. I figured my dealer could take out the one way bearing. he said he didn't have the tool. (I thought it was one of them mandatory tools from polaris)

I decided to just order a whole clutch assembly. i figured it would be pretty much the same as getting screwed for $150.00 from a another dealer installing just the one way bearing. I also thought there had to be something else wrong because my bearing worked fine on the bench.

I ordered the clutch through the dealer I bought my machine from. He gave me a real nice discount on it and said that maybe Polaris won't help me out but he would.

Any way, that was 1000 miles ago. I carry the little arm with the teeth in it as well as the plastic rivet that holds the linkage together just in case.

I love my machine even though it takes maintenance.

 

[ThorsHammer]

wait? a part went bad and the person isn't up in arms about Polaris being complete crap? Never thought this day would come.

 

[RedSmart]

Sooo, do I have to be a mechanic to own one of these things?

I think when the time comes I will just buy the warranty and call it a day.

 

[x93pgtx]

^^ Except Polaris denies half the claims lol.

If you want something you never have to fix, buy a grizzly.

 

[Treacherous]

Sooo, do I have to be a mechanic to own one of these things?

I think when the time comes I will just buy the warranty and call it a day.

Just make sure you keep your receipts for fluid changes.

 

[swampdonkeyvt]

^^ Except Polaris denies half the claims lol.

If you want something you never have to fix, buy a grizzly.

grizzlys brake down to. my buddy has replaced about every moving part on his 660. my 660 needed all new ball joints and wheel bearings before it had 700 miles on it.

 

[Treacherous]

My neighbor wanted me to buy his '02 660 a few years back as he was moving into city and was giving up the sport. I'd known the issues (Electrical, Carb, overheating, melted plastics, 4WD issues) he had with this bike over the years and passed.

Even the supposedly bullet proof ultramatic had to be replaced. I'm not sure of why but it was replaced under warranty.

Maybe all the bugs through service were worked out at that point but wasn't willing to chance it as he wasn't selling it at discount.

 

[swampdonkeyvt]

My neighbor wanted me to buy his '02 660 a few years back as he was moving into city and was giving up the sport. I'd known the issues (Electrical, Carb, overheating, melted plastics, 4WD issues) he had with this bike over the years and passed.

Even the supposedly bullet proof ultramatic had to be replaced. I'm not sure of why but it was replaced under warranty.

Maybe all the bugs through service were worked out at that point but wasn't willing to chance it as he wasn't selling it at discount.

the 550s and 700s are a much better machine than the 660s, but just had to throw that out there