REMOVE, CHECK, INSTALL CV AXLES

— STEP-BY-STEP HOW TO GUIDE —

 By the staff of Dirt Wheels

We recently noticed that there was a lot of wet lubricant on one of our Polaris RZR front axles. Looking closely, we found that a stick had gone through the lower front part of the machine and wedged between the front axle CV and the front differential. We assumed the CV boot was punctured, so we pulled the axle out. This is what we found, and we thought it might help our readers. To begin, make sure the machine is supported safely, then remove the wheel.

While you have the axle off, manipulate all of the joints. They should move freely and smoothly at all angles and in and out.

1: Remove the cotter pin from the end of the axle and loosen the axle nut. The nut will be extremely tight. Take note of the way that the washer(s) is installed with the nut. It needs to go back in the same way it came out.
2: Removing this bolt will allow the upper ball joint to come loose from the suspension. On this Polaris Turbo there are finned heat sinks bolted to the caliper. It needs to be removed for the joint to come free.
3: With the upper ball joint loose, turn the front wheels all the way to the limit, and the axle will start to come free of the hub. Watch your finger when the axle pulls free.
4: It may sound funny, but grasp the axle firmly and jerk it. It will resist a little, but it is only held in by a spring clip. It should pull loose without too much trouble.
5: This excess lubricant was the reason we pulled the axle out. We expected to find a ripped boot of some other damage to the axle, but there was no damage that we could detect.
6: On closer inspection, it looked like the axle seal in the differential had been leaking quite a bit. We figured that while we were waiting for parts, we would put the car back together.
7: We cleaned up the differential itself. We simply used paper towels. We didn’t want any chemicals or solvents inside that could degrade the diff lubrication. We pulled the filler cap off as well.
8: Polaris specifies Demand Drive Fluid for the traction-sensing front differential. It was in stock at our dealer. We had to figure out a funnel and hose to fill the differential.
9: We cleaned the axle well, inspected the spring clip on the end of the axle for damage and added a dab of grease to aid assembly. Make sure the splines are lined up with the differential.
10: A solid push will pop the axle back into the differential. Once the axle is engaged, it won’t (shouldn’t) slip back out.
11: We used a bit of grease on the end of the axle that plugs into the differential. The splined end on the wheel side engages with the metal hub, so those splines get anti-seize to ease future disassembly.

 

12: Attach the upper ball joint and tighten the bolt. Make sure the axle is seated in the hub, then make sure that the correct side of the axle washer faces out.
13: Use thread-locking compound on the caliper bolts. Polaris does, and they know what they are doing. Use the torque specs from the manual as well.
14: You may need a 3/4-inch-drive torque wrench to tighten the axle. None of the 1/2-inch-drive torque wrenches we had were rated high enough. The correct torque is nearly 200 pound-feet.
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