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News › Rear clutch service non-EBS Polaris Xplorer

BY FARMR123

Well, as many of you know, I am doing my best to put a million miles on a 99 Xplorer, and along the way, I am finding out what kinds of things wear out on these machines. My Xplorer was showing signs of needing rear clutch service, so I decided to take pics and walk anyone through it that wanted to do the work themselves. Basically, the biggest wear items on the non-EBS clutch system will be the belt itself, and the rear clutch buttons. The rest of the clutch seems to wear pretty well, provided you keep it fairly clean (blow out the clutches with compressed air a couple times a year, and don’t drown them). A clutch drown in muddy water, and then run any distance at all without proper cleaning will likely need a total rebuild. Since I keep mine clean & never got muddy water in it, I only needed the buttons in the rear clutch. Anyway, here is how to do it.

First step is to remove the belt cover. On my Xplorer, I removed the 4 bolts that hold down the left footrest, the bolts holding on the belt cover, and one of the zip-ties that secures the rubber boot between the belt cover & snorkel tube at the top. There was also a spring clip at the rear of the belt cover that pried off easily with a screwdriver, so if the cover seems ‘stuck’ look for one or more flat spring clips. Once everything is loose, simply pull the footrest away from the machine far enough to get the outer belt cover out. Don’t pull any farther than you have to, so as not to crack the fender.

Looking at picture above, you will see the pulleys after removal of the cover. Blow out all the dust from everything you can, it will help your hands stay cleaner as you work.

Remove the center bolt from the rear clutch. To help keep the clutch from turning, put the machine in high range, and set the parking brake. Once the bolt is out, put it back in Neutral.

Now, you can either remove the belt by rolling it over the pulley as in the FAQ, or simply pull sharply on the pulley, which should free it from the tranny input shaft, and weasel the belt off once you get the pulley free. Looking at the back of the pulley, note the position of the end of the spring. Notice I marked mine before disassembly.

Find snap ring pliers that fit the ears of the ring fairly tightly, as that is a pretty tough snap ring, and prepare for the next step. An extra set of hands is helpful, but not absolutely required. Mark all parts of the clutch in relation to each other, so that you can re-assemble it exactly as it came apart. The reason for this is the clutch is balanced after assembly, and putting it back together wrong can throw it out of balance.

Turn one half of the pulley against the other (it only goes one way) just a little, and then tap gently on the piece behind the snap ring with a soft hammer (this is where a helper is nice to have) Do NOT let the pulley halves turn against each other back against the stop. Turn the outer edge of the pulleys about an inch (top goes counter-clockwise) and hold it there and don’t let it move until you get the snap ring off. Tapping the piece behind the snap ring down gives you a little more clearance for the pliers to catch the snap ring. With the snap ring off, SLOWLY let the pulley halves rotate against each other, until everything comes to rest. Note the marks I made are no longer in line, and the piece that was behind the snap ring has risen up a bit. Note there is probably a washer behind the snap ring. Don’t lose it.

Lift the helix up slowly, and look where the ear at the other end of the spring was (usually middle hole). Remove the helix completely, and look it over. Note mine has shallow scratches in it from the worn buttons, but no major gouges (if you let the buttons go too far, the steel screw in them can hit the helix & ruin it. You can use fine emory cloth or sandpaper to GENTLY remove any shallow roughness to the helix & smooth it up a bit. Basically, try to just shine it up a bit, and don’t remove any metal if you can help it. Shallow scratches are OK as long as they are smooth, and don’t alter the shape of the helix.

Looking down into the movable pulley where the helix was, you can easily see the wear on the old buttons.

Once you are this far, pull the movable half off the stationary half of the pulley, and check out the bushings. If they are Teflon-colored (dark) and don’t feel ‘loose’ they are OK. If they are brass-colored, it is time to replace them. I think the book says to replace them when you see more brass than Teflon. Note mine are still dark, with just a hint of a brass color here and there. Not bad considering I have over 7000 miles on those bushings. There are probably shims between the pulley halves. Be sure not to lose them, either.

Looking at the stationary sheave, you can see the area that the movable sheave slides on shows a bit of wear, but is still smooth with no grooves anywhere. Not bad for over 13,000 total miles.

Here is the new (white) button next to the old (dark) button. Although the wear on the old button wasn’t severe, I could tell the backshifting was starting to suffer, and replacement has made a noticeable difference. Backshifting is when the clutches ‘shift’ to a lower gear ratio with an increase in load. Usually the first signs you need to check the buttons would be at the base of a hill. If the engine seems to lug down more than it used to before the tranny ‘downshifted’ and you don’t quite have the speed you used to on the long open straights, most likely the rear buttons are worn. On a side note, the original buttons were white, and had more wear at 5500 miles on them than these do at 7500, but the helix showed basically no wear. The parts guy told me the dark buttons were harder for longer wear, but went back to white to save wear on the helix. Makes sense to me, as I’d rather replace a set of $4 buttons than a $60 helix.

Note on the top view of the new button that there is a curve built into it, to match the curve in the clutch housing. Because of this, they only fit in the clutch properly if they are oriented properly.

The buttons are held in place with Torx head screws. They just remove, and replace. Be gentle when threading them back in, as you are putting a hardened screw into aluminum threads. If you get it cross-threaded, you can bugger up the threads in an expensive part. Not trying to scare anyone, just something to be aware of. Tighten them snug, but not too tight, remember the aluminum.
Now you are ALMOST ready to re-assemble the clutch. Clean off everything one last time with compressed air, and locate the one wide spline in the helix. I am pointing it out to you with the screwdriver.

There is a matching wide spline in the other splines, but it is harder to find. It is basically seen only in the area above where the snap ring goes.

Put everything back together as it came apart (remember the shims if you removed them). Match the spring to the index holes, and start the helix on the spline. Now rotate the pulley halves against the spring until the marks you made earlier line up, plus a little more. Tap the helix down with a soft hammer, and re-install the washer & snap ring.

While you have everything apart this far, look the front pulley over. Wiggle everything for looseness. If you think something may be loose, you can remove the center bolt & the 6 bolts around the outer edge (mark the pieces to put them back the way they came off). Now you can remove the spring, and get a better ‘feel’ for how loose things are. Generally, the first thing to wear out is the narrow bushing in the center of the ‘cap’ you just removed. If that is OK, chances are the rest of it is, unless you got mud inside the belt housing.
Pay special attention to the buttons on either side of the towers in the front clutch.

If any of these seem loose or are missing, fix it NOW, or you risk ruining the front clutch. If you look closely, I have the button on one side slightly more worn down than the other, which is normal for a clutch with a lot of miles on it. As long as it doesn’t rattle, you should be OK. A SMALL amount of play is OK, as you need enough clearance to let everything move smoothly.

Re-install the belt & pulley, and run it a bit in neutral to be sure the pulleys move smoothly (don’t get wound up in anything) and if it looks good, it probably is. Note with an almost new belt, the top of the belt is just a hair above the top of the pulley sheaves. This is normal, as long as it isn’t more than the thickness of a quarter or so above the pulley.

Now all you have to do is put all the covers back in place, and go for a test drive.

FAQ SUMBITED
BY
FARMR123

Posted by Weasel on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 (07:15:04) (1996 reads)

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