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sled_22

06 Foreman Rear Axle Clunk

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06 foreman footshift - trx500fm.

I was out driving this weekend and when going down the road from one parcel to the next i noticed my rear end clunked about 3 different times. each time separate. I was in higher gears, faster speeds, and lighter loads. Basically a constant throttle maintaining 15-25 mph cruising. One quick clunk, just enough to feel it, almost like a loss of power but definitely came from the rear end. When i was tooling around in the woods with and w/o 4wd i could never get it to replicate. It's almost like it needed a higher speed and light load to "clunk".

I'm wondering if i don't have the start of a wear issue.

 

After talking to a few on a different thread, I'm going to take the differential apart and diagnose the problem. Will report back findings in a few days.

 

Thanks,

Sled.

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2 hours ago, sled_22 said:

06 foreman footshift - trx500fm.

I was out driving this weekend and when going down the road from one parcel to the next i noticed my rear end clunked about 3 different times. each time separate. I was in higher gears, faster speeds, and lighter loads. Basically a constant throttle maintaining 15-25 mph cruising. One quick clunk, just enough to feel it, almost like a loss of power but definitely came from the rear end. When i was tooling around in the woods with and w/o 4wd i could never get it to replicate. It's almost like it needed a higher speed and light load to "clunk".

I'm wondering if i don't have the start of a wear issue.

 

After talking to a few on a different thread, I'm going to take the differential apart and diagnose the problem. Will report back findings in a few days.

 

Thanks,

Sled.

thank you for posting your own thread :-). as i said in other thread, just tear the rear diff down, have a look, see what all is bad ?, if anything is tore up ?, bad bearings ?, seals ?, you deff will see it and feel it when you open up the rear diff cases :-).

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7 minutes ago, shadetree said:

thank you for posting your own thread :-). as i said in other hread, just tear the rear diff down, have a look, see what all is bad ?, if anything is tore up ?, bad bearings ?, seals ?, you deff will see it and feel it when you open up the rear diff cases :-).

Yeah I understand. A lot of times, with different mechanical things, I like to questions said job before "taking the cover off". Sometimes there specific niche things that can be resolved very easily if known to look for them. Kind of like knowing to point the long end of the "T" at the "N" for the gear position indicator. Was hoping for something like that, or for example: hey don't pull that cover off unless you have a pan underneath because you'll loose all the needle bearings when the "x" shaft falls off.

You guys have been there and done that on all these quads so it's a wealth of knowledge i want in on 🙂

Thanks.

Sled

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22 minutes ago, sled_22 said:

Yeah I understand. A lot of times, with different mechanical things, I like to questions said job before "taking the cover off". Sometimes there specific niche things that can be resolved very easily if known to look for them. Kind of like knowing to point the long end of the "T" at the "N" for the gear position indicator. Was hoping for something like that, or for example: hey don't pull that cover off unless you have a pan underneath because you'll loose all the needle bearings when the "x" shaft falls off.

You guys have been there and done that on all these quads so it's a wealth of knowledge i want in on 🙂

Thanks.

Sled

haha..yeah..i understand..we welcome questions...just ask them in the correct spot !..lol.

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Does the right side axle nut need to be removed to pull the axle out? I took the left wheel and hub off last night. The left axle hub nut was fairly loose and had some wobble in the wheel. I took the axle tube off and the rear case left hand cover off. left bearing was in good shape, nothing crazy in the oil and no shrapnel in the bottom of the case. I want to pull the rest apart for inspection later today after work.

 

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21 minutes ago, sled_22 said:

Does the right side axle nut need to be removed to pull the axle out? I took the left wheel and hub off last night. The left axle hub nut was fairly loose and had some wobble in the wheel. I took the axle tube off and the rear case left hand cover off. left bearing was in good shape, nothing crazy in the oil and no shrapnel in the bottom of the case. I want to pull the rest apart for inspection later today after work.

 

right nut does not HAVE to come off ?, but it makes it easier to tear down to remove the rear brakes backing plate, axle comes out the right rear side once the backing plate is off. dont forget to remove the rear brake cables. you should have left the diff together, as it would unbolt as a complete unit from the swing arm after you got the axle out.

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I wanted to get the nut and hub off on the right side but it's seized up pretty good and was hoping to put it in the vice and soak some heat to it on a much easier playing field.

I can put the cover back on the transfer case pretty easily just to remove it.i took it off hoping i could get the ring gear to slide out so i could simply inspect without removing everything else but it wasn't easily sliding down the axle shaft.

With a little bit of encouragement, that ring gear should slide down the axle right?

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35 minutes ago, sled_22 said:

I wanted to get the nut and hub off on the right side but it's seized up pretty good and was hoping to put it in the vice and soak some heat to it on a much easier playing field.

I can put the cover back on the transfer case pretty easily just to remove it.i took it off hoping i could get the ring gear to slide out so i could simply inspect without removing everything else but it wasn't easily sliding down the axle shaft.

With a little bit of encouragement, that ring gear should slide down the axle right?

pull the axle out before you do anything else.

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So here’s what I found. Ring gear and pinnion gear look good. But the axle shaft looks a little wore out. 
also. The drive shaft that comes from the unjoint has debris in the grease. Looks like needle bearings and some other chunk of metal. I suspect the ujoint is toast. Next step is dropping the rear swing arm to get in there. But I need the lock nut wrench. 

CED6F8F3-515C-4585-B77C-A95A11D643DB.jpeg

23170F64-F0CA-45CF-A76C-4207EF0C6D36.jpeg

04926AE5-B755-4E59-8E8D-E554E34AE648.jpeg

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32 minutes ago, sled_22 said:

So here’s what I found. Ring gear and pinnion gear look good. But the axle shaft looks a little wore out. 
also. The drive shaft that comes from the unjoint has debris in the grease. Looks like needle bearings and some other chunk of metal. I suspect the ujoint is toast. Next step is dropping the rear swing arm to get in there. But I need the lock nut wrench. 

CED6F8F3-515C-4585-B77C-A95A11D643DB.jpeg

23170F64-F0CA-45CF-A76C-4207EF0C6D36.jpeg

04926AE5-B755-4E59-8E8D-E554E34AE648.jpeg

your axle is shot, i'll bet the ring gear splines are bad ?, pinion bearings are prob bad ?. you do not need a spec wrench to drop swing arm, all you need is a 17mm allen wrench, and a cheater pipe.

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once you drop the swing arm, you may as well replace the swing arm bearings seeing how now is the time to do it !.

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Ring gear splines actually look good. 
just checked 3 stores in town. No 17mm wrenches. I bought a 26mm socket to grind down. I assume if I can get the lock nut off I can get the bolt out? Is that correct? 

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8 minutes ago, sled_22 said:

Ring gear splines actually look good. 
just checked 3 stores in town. No 17mm wrenches. I bought a 26mm socket to grind down. I assume if I can get the lock nut off I can get the bolt out? Is that correct? 

harbor freight sells the 17mm alllen wrench..or used too ?. nope...even if you get the lock nut off ?, you still have to have a 17mm allen wrench to remove the swing arm bolt.

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I have to go a big city tomorrow for a wedding and I’ll drive right past a harbor freight. Otherwise it’s a 60 mile drive. Thanks for the information guys. 
i went to orielys and Carquest  neither had one nor the hardware store. All only stocked up to 10mm. 
forgot that I also went to a sears hometown store. 

Edited by sled_22
Added sears

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16 minutes ago, sled_22 said:

I have to go a big city tomorrow for a wedding and I’ll drive right past a harbor freight. Otherwise it’s a 60 mile drive. Thanks for the information guys. 
i went to orielys and Carquest  neither had one nor the hardware store. All only stocked up to 10mm. 
forgot that I also went to a sears hometown store. 

yeah..i got my 17mm from sears store back when they were around.

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So. The swing arm is out. I have inspected the ujoint and it looks pretty good. Output shaft is fine on the motor and I don’t see anything with the drive shaft. It looks new. There was a bunch of metal debris in the boot from engine to swing arm. This is a new to me machine which had first gear out. 
Everything came apart pretty easily and looked like new grease in the entire thing along with new rear end oil. 
Did I just buy a machine that had an drive shaft failure and they didn’t clean all the crap out of it and I was chewing up old debris? Here’s some pictures. I need to look at the parts fiche and see if there’s anything missing. There’s a chip out of the collar on where the drive shaft enters the rear end. 
 

83A3A889-6FF9-4889-8F1C-E7710F2C362B.jpeg

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F45E4003-21C4-4BE2-9CA3-4152D8656F12.jpeg

64597958-166F-43AC-9248-E71F7D46BCE5.jpeg

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Just found this too. Definitely a cap for a ujoint. Gotta be left over debris 

7D81D6B5-ED66-4B87-AB9D-95D8150AA2C7.jpeg

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Yep, looks like someone blew a ujoint and then just slapped a new one in without cleaning things out.

 

Ring gear looks good!

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All bearings inspected. Checked gear lash. Repacked with grease. Oiled bearings in the case and and for the hubs. Greases swingarm bearings as those looked good and threw it all back together. Took it for a spin around the yard and all seemed well. I’ll take my boys for a ride tomorrow in the woods to check trail cams and make sure all is else is well but I suspect it’ll be fine. 
lesson learned here: if something feels wrong, there probably is. Because I felt those two Or three clunks, I probably saved myself hundreds in potential damage By tearing it apart. if one of those bearing guides jammed funny I could have broke a case or shaft or anything really. 
plus now I know the rear end is good. So the carb, engine and rear end have been gone through. Next will be the front end, I’m sure there’s ball joints that could be changed but I’d like to wait for a winter project with that. 
sled. 

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Side note. 
I do think the axle needs to be replaced but for a few weeks I don’t think I’m going to worry about it. It just needs to get me through hunting season. Which means for a couple weeks using it to check cameras and then if I were to shoot something, haul it out of the woods. This quad has seen its days of abuse and will now be babied from here out. I just need some new tires at some point. 

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On 8/24/2020 at 12:33 PM, sled_22 said:

Side note. 
I do think the axle needs to be replaced but for a few weeks I don’t think I’m going to worry about it. It just needs to get me through hunting season. Which means for a couple weeks using it to check cameras and then if I were to shoot something, haul it out of the woods. This quad has seen its days of abuse and will now be babied from here out. I just need some new tires at some point. 

i seem to have lost track of this thread !. i don't know what all you have done lately ?, but fair warning !!!! : with a bad axle like you posted ^^^..odd's are, if you keep riding it ?, you will ruin your good ring gear splines, and then tear up the pinion gear teeth, as well as all the bearings inside the diff. DON'T RISK IT !!!. i know you say '' it'll get me by for a few more week's '' ?, but ask yourself this..DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SPEND MORE CASH THEN..BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD LAST  ?..ehh..not me...not worth the time and money !.

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