2010 Polaris Phoenix Clutch Issue

[footbal9584]

Ok everyone here is my wonderful dilemma, any help or insight will be EXTREMELY helpful.

2010 Polaris Phoenix ridden by my wife. Last year we were riding and after going up some decent hills there was an awful smell of burning brakes. well since then she has a hard time going up almost any hill and really has to get a head start to get up the steeper ones. So today I took it all apart and found a lot of dust in there and blew it all out. I also notice the rear clutch is wobbly you can see I'm trying to show it in my video, also you can see in the video the atv seems to jerk a lot when I press the gas. Also in the video you can see when I squeeze the belt the rear shaft stays out and the belt stays loose, is this normal? It did not seem to be doing this as bad after I took the rear clutch apart and blew all the dust out.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em9rQi9Y98Q&context=C3cd7cf2ADOEgsToPDskLg5OOYuaBbnqRmkXcK5hqm]Video of ATV Clutch[/ame]

Also I noticed the rear clutch seemed to have some excessive heat marks on the outer clutch half where the weights grab on to.

The weights also look like they have some signs of excessive heat

The belt doesn't seem to bad although it does seem a little bit shiny on the sides possibly meaning it has glazed over?

The front clutch doesn't seem bad at all and the rollers looked in good shape

So what I am wondering from the pics and the video is, what parts do you guys think need replaced? I am guessing the weights on the rear clutch need replaced and possibly the belt. What do you guys think? Thanks

[swampcat07]

I would check the bearing and see if it is bad, I think that is the secondary in the rear of the bike. If it is bad replace it before something really bad happens.

Also I will bet a cold beer that your belt is out of spec.

Here are some inexpensive things you can do that will help.

Take apart your primary and secondary, check the rollers and slides for flat spots (replace if necessary) clean everything with brake cleaner and reassemble to torque specs.

Your belt is also glazed and this caused wear to the sheaves and belt. A cheap fix would be to soak the belt in hot soapy water and then use a red scotch brite to clean it and take the glaze off. Also take some light grit sand paper and lightly sand the sheaves from the center out. In this case more is not better, all you are doing is to try and give the belt a rough surface to grab to. If that does not help you out check the secondary spring clutch and make sure that is working properly.

[footbal9584]

I would check the bearing and see if it is bad, I think that is the secondary in the rear of the bike. If it is bad replace it before something really bad happens.

Also I will bet a cold beer that your belt is out of spec.

Here are some inexpensive things you can do that will help.

Take apart your primary and secondary, check the rollers and slides for flat spots (replace if necessary) clean everything with brake cleaner and reassemble to torque specs.

Your belt is also glazed and this caused wear to the sheaves and belt. A cheap fix would be to soak the belt in hot soapy water and then use a red scotch brite to clean it and take the glaze off. Also take some light grit sand paper and lightly sand the sheaves from the center out. In this case more is not better, all you are doing is to try and give the belt a rough surface to grab to. If that does not help you out check the secondary spring clutch and make sure that is working properly.

Hey thanks for the reply.

By bearing do you mean for the drive shaft going to the rear axle, because if so I'm going to be pissed. About a month after we bought the atv one of the bolts holding the rear axle onto the the atv came loose and caused the rear axle to separate from the transmission. Luckily she wasn't going up a hill because she would have been screwed . We took it to the dealer and they claimed they took it apart and cleaned it and nothing seemed damaged.

But the rollers and slides looked good. I am going to take everything apart again and use brake cleaner. The front sheave has a slight groove in it which I'm guessing could be causing some trouble, but I'll try sanding it down and see if it helps, would you say 400 grit is good? The secondary clutch looked good except for the heat marks, but I'll pop it off again and inspect the springs for the weights this time.

But for parts needing replaced would you say I should get a new belt soon since it probably is worn down past the tolerance level, which by the way does anyone know what the tolerance range is for the width of the belt. Thanks for any more input guys

Edited March 2, 2012 by swampcat07
Fixed Quote Tag

[swampcat07]

I might be thinking of a diffrent quad but I thought yours had a bearing where the secondary shaft goes from the dry end to the wet end. Often called a one way bearing. I am not that up to date on Polaris so I am not 100% sure. Maybe someone who works on them more often will chime in.

400 should work OK and then just clean with brake cleaner after you are done. You can also have any wear marks machine out but that is not the inexpensive route.

You do not have to remove the spring on the secondary, just compress the spring by rotating the clutch to see if it moves freely.

[footbal9584]

I might be thinking of a diffrent quad but I thought yours had a bearing where the secondary shaft goes from the dry end to the wet end. Often called a one way bearing. I am not that up to date on Polaris so I am not 100% sure. Maybe someone who works on them more often will chime in.

400 should work OK and then just clean with brake cleaner after you are done. You can also have any wear marks machine out but that is not the inexpensive route.

You do not have to remove the spring on the secondary, just compress the spring by rotating the clutch to see if it moves freely.

Ok I'll check that out tomorrow if the weather lets up, your thought makes sense. I do know a guy who has done some machine work for the company I work for, that's a good idea better than spending $110 plus shipping for new ones.

On the secondary it did not move freely it got stuck up when I squeezed/rotated it by hand, but then after I blew all the dust/dirt out it seemed to operate more smoothly.

So again depending on the weather tomorrow I will try to do everything you suggested and let you all know how it turned out.

Now what I'm also wondering is why did it do this in the first place. My wife weighs 150 which is nowhere near the weight limit and we are not extreme with it, just trail riding. I only ride it to load/unload it from the trailer or to move it somewhere almost never up a hill.

[footbal9584]

Alright finally got a chance to take it all back apart today and here's what I got.

Here is a pic of that bearing you were talking about, but honestly it looks like it is just a rubber seal.

I also sanded everything down and cleaned the belt. And used almost an entire can of brake cleaner on the thing. I bought a new belt, but I'm still waiting for it to come in. I also cleaned the bushings and everything slides freely.

Also here is a video of me reinstalling the entire cvt assembly.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc1_XJVmqEI]Polaris Phoenix Clutch Install - YouTube[/ame]

Thanks for your help so far.

[footbal9584]

Alright finally got the clutch belt in and put it on. It does seem more responsive, like we dont have to push the gas as much to get it going. We dont have any real hills on our property so I cannot test that, but we are going riding the first week of april. So I will let you guys know how it performs, also is there anything I can do to make sure this belt lasts longer than a year?

Thanks guys

[paintapig]

my phoniex as im pushing the gas it will slip out of gear till the rpms go down or u move the choke over.

[footbal9584]

my phoniex as im pushing the gas it will slip out of gear till the rpms go down or u move the choke over.

Wow it is so ironic that you say that. We went on a riding trip this week with some decent hill climbs (nothing that a 110cc Chinese atv couldn't make up though) By day three it was getting harder to get up hills with the new $70 dam* belt. And on day 4 we were riding over some jumps and all of a sudden we hear eeeeeeee and it stopped going. Now any pushing it will make it do it. I am going to take the rear end apart to see what broke now, but I noticed that after the axle almost falling off on its first ride and we took it in on warranty and had the guy fix it he said everything was good and no dirt got in the rear drive shaft well that dumba** never reattached the rubber boot so inside that tube is filled with dirt rust and debris. I will never buy a Polaris again or go to the dealer we got it from and as soon as I fix this piece we are selling it. So if anyone wants to buy it let me know honestly like I said our 110cc Chinese atv lasted longer this past week than the Polaris, now that's saying something.

[paintapig]

ha dose it just gose high and then it kicks in gear?? did changeing the belt at all help?

[footbal9584]

ha dose it just gose high and then it kicks in gear?? did changeing the belt at all help?

No it can get going on a flat surface and going slow but any incline or going faster and it slips out. The belt did help a lot but quickly started getting harder and harder to go up hills as the days progressed.