Tinkering. Tweaking. Explaining.

by NapsWithCats-ScubaMan, posted in Assembling-Disassembling, Gentleman Forestry, Gentleman Woodworking, Trail Maintenance, Ungentlemanly DIY

WHAT AM I MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT?

I screwed up my courage, gabbed several trays of tools, a highly-annotated copy of my POLARIS ATV SERVICE MANUAL, and drove our blue beast into the service bay.

When one buys Polaris oil-change kits, it’s like Hello-Fresh! Pre-measured.
Waste oil to the HAZMAT collection site.

Oil & filter change = That was the easy part of the servicing. Is it still called a crankcase? The splashed waste oil was captured by the donated dog-pee-pads I had laid under the unit. I used 2 litres of overpriced 5W-30 synthetic motor oil purchased from my local hardware store. According to the bottle, I could delay oil changes for up to 25000 km. Yeahhhhh, no. Oil is cheap — burned out gearboxes are not.

I smartened up and purchased extra oil, grease, pre-mixed engine coolant, and a replacement oil filter from my Owen Sound Canuck Tire (for significantly less money than the dealer). Grease guns are messy contraptions that can sweat oil from their pores. Oh, and grease nipples are fragile and can easily break off. I purchased a little nipple repair kit to replace the fragile brass fittings. I corrected the errors on the service manual (the drain plugs under the ATV are Torx, not Allen sockets; the manual assumes there’s no bumper nor winch accessories in place). And I’m taking a chance and reusing the copper sealing washer (I can buy cheaper sealers from Princess Auto, instead of gucci Polaris dealerships). Motorcycle maintenance is 1 thing — modern quad-bikes are a bugger to service. All the protective shrouds, bumpers, accessory-winches, heat-guards, and cargo bays have to be removed. This model has a combination of Imperial (SAE) and Metric (SI) screws/bolt/nut types. Why???

The rear or main transmission has yet another fluid type. I have both Polaris-branded transmission products sitting on a shelf in the cleaned up storage locker (seacan). I’ll need to ask around and figure out the differences between the 3 different gearbox fluids.

The following images show what I had to do to access the front differential housing (to drain & replace its [proprietary??] fluid):

Metal bumper’s an option?!
Don’t strip the threads.
Nylon lock nuts holding it in place.
>1 bolt size. Really?!
1 good smack into a tree would crush those fittings.
Cheap blue nylon bail-out cable.
A mixture of Torx screws & push-pins.
Near miss.
Colour coded, nice.
I’ll use LockTite on the screws after re-installation.
Click on the thumbnail for detail and meta-captions.
4 hours of trial and error to expose the front differential & do an oil-filter change.

I’m glad this is NOT my primary mode of transportation. The Toyota TACO goes to the dealership. Servicing a truck is beyond my abilities (for now).

I’m planning on replacing the engine coolant, as it’s now >5 years old. According to the service manual, I’ll need to tip the entire ATV so that it eases bleeding the lines. Wow.

Sure, it’s only 12VDC. Arc hurts.
Pick up a diagnostic computer for the ATV? Hmmm.
Let’s slow down the 2-legged intruders.
Don’t steal other people’s’ shit.
Click on the image to expand it & see my meta-captions.

Last musing = I enjoy re-coding/decoding/demystifying technical manuals. And make them my own!

SB sold me his kit (thanks, buddy). Mind you, its complexity is one reason companies like Schiit Audio are successful. Less bells-and-whistles. More quality output. I like both approaches.

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