Instructions for replacing faulty bearing on diamond drive?

Dogmeat · Feb 18, 2010

I think I'm gonna go to NAPA and get the 5203 bearing and just replace it even if mine isn't bad. I already have 600 miles on the sled this year and I've only owned it for barley 3 months

Does anyone have any instructions for the proper way to remove the diamond drive, install the new bearing, and replace the unit?

Thanks in advance.

glassman · Feb 18, 2010

If you do a search there is a big post including pictures on here.

Dogmeat · Feb 18, 2010

glassman said:
If you do a search there is a big post including pictures on here.

Yeah I can't view it all.

aktreekiller · Feb 18, 2010

hmm

Take out diamond drive, take to dealer, and pay $35 for someone else to do it.

Let me see if i can find the thread and post it here for you.

aktreekiller · Feb 18, 2010

see if this works

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here you go guys. I took pics and installed the new bearing from bdx.

I started by taking the belt off the secondary then pull the secondary off. I then took off the bracket bolted to the foot board. That was in the way from the DD gear cover to pull straight off.

Then i took all the T-30 torx bolts out. I think 13 total.

then i gently pulled the cover off as to not tear the gasket.

then brought the cover to the work bench.

Then i pulled the lower gear off.

I used a pitman arm puller ($15 at napa) to get the 6203 bearing off. I had to stack a 5/32 socket on the gear for clearance.

I put the pitman arm puller in the vise and pulled the 6203 bearing off.

6203 bearing thickness.

5203 bearing

Difference.

So i took the old bearing (6203) and the shims off and pressed on the new bearing (5203) till it seated all the way down.

My cover wouldn't snug up tight so i had to loosen the 16 MM bolt inside the shaft of the brake rotor.

I then Taped on the cover and bolted it all back up. the two bottom bolts are a PITA. I used the wrench from my cat ATV to do the bottom bolts.

Tipped it on its side to fill it up.

jakey-boy · Feb 18, 2010

Dont take out the entire diamond drive. Take off the secondary then take out all of those star bolts holding on the diamond drive cover (I think there is like 13 of them). Once the cover is off just pull out your bottom gear it just slides out and you will see the skimpy little bearing on that shaft. Take both the bearing (probably need a bearing puller )and the spacer off and replace with the wider bearing and reassemble. Fill back up with oil and your good to go. Its really pretty easy. Hope this helps.

Dogmeat · Feb 18, 2010

jakey-boy said:
Dont take out the entire diamond drive. Take off the secondary then take out all of those star bolts holding on the diamond drive cover (I think there is like 13 of them). Once the cover is off just pull out your bottom gear it just slides out and you will see the skimpy little bearing on that shaft. Take both the bearing (probably need a bearing puller )and the spacer off and replace with the wider bearing and reassemble. Fill back up with oil and your good to go. Its really pretty easy. Hope this helps.

Can you fit a small gear puller in there to get the old bearing off?

Also, how do you get the new one in? Is it safe to tap it into place with a rubber hammer without screwing the races up?

jakey-boy · Feb 18, 2010

The entire gear and shaft will slide right out so you can take it to a shop or use a gear puller or whatever. We use a press to put mine on but its not necessary. Rubber mallet would work as long as your careful about it.

Dogmeat · Feb 18, 2010

jakey-boy said:
The entire gear and shaft will slide right out so you can take it to a shop or use a gear puller or whatever. We use a press to put mine on but its not necessary. Rubber mallet would work as long as your careful about it.

Sounds good, if I don't ride this weekend I might just take the gear to work and use the press we have there to avoid having to "hammer" on it.

Is the diamond drive oil some kind of off-brand special oil or can I just use plain old synthetic Mobil 1 75W-90 gear oil for it?

Flange · Feb 18, 2010

Photos aren't coming up in treekiller's post. Here's a link to the original post.
http://www.snowestonline.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1899873&postcount=155

bgreen776 · Feb 19, 2010

jakey-boy said:
Rubber mallet would work as long as your careful about it.

I hate to say this, but thats really bad advice.

Hammering on the bearing with a rubber mallet will damage the bearing, you might not know it, but it will cause damage. Use a press on the inner race in this application, or heat the bearing up to no more than 240* and drop it on. If you have to hammer it on, be sure to only apply force to the inner race; use a socket that cleanly slides over the shaft but won't damage the seals or touch the outer race.

oldcrow · Feb 19, 2010

Dogmeat said:
Sounds good, if I don't ride this weekend I might just take the gear to work and use the press we have there to avoid having to "hammer" on it.

Is the diamond drive oil some kind of off-brand special oil or can I just use plain old synthetic Mobil 1 75W-90 gear oil for it?

That is way to thick of an oil.
Someone did some tests and the OEM oil is a 10W.
I use Amsoil Series 2000 chain case oil with good results, it's a 20W

Another thing I don't like to reuse the self taping bolts that hold the cover on, it can pull the threads out of the case.
On a 2010 DD you can go to fastenal and get a flanged socket head cap screw M6 x 1.0 x 20mm

M.M. 700 · Feb 19, 2010

Remove the whole DD assembly. It is fast, and easy. Plus with the DD out of the sled you can get the cover back on the correct way.
When I did mine the first time, I just pulled the cover and replaced the bearing. The cover would not "slap" back on it needed to be drawn in with the cover bolts. Which is not correct I learned after talking to BDX. THe said to loosen the 16mm bolt that goes threw the brake side of the jackshaft. And try to fit the cover so it would "slap" on. Or just pull the whole DD out which is what I did and like I said it is easy and fast.

To pull the DD

Mark with a pencil around the rear axle washer (this will give you an idea of where to reset the track tension) Loosen the rear axle on the rear skid, loosen up the track tension adjusters.

Remove the secondary, make sure to see if you have any alignment shims behind the secondary. They slide on the shaft of the DD

Remove the metal plate by the footwell, it has 4 torx head bolts. 2 are under the footwell of the tunnel. 2 are by the rear of the secondary

Remove the lock nuts around the DD where it bolts to the bulkhead.

Remove the 16mm bolt using a long extension going threw the break side of the jackshaft. You can just loosen the bolt all the way do not need to pull the bolt out of the jack shaft.

THen you can pull the DD assembly out of the chassis

Once the DD is out

Drain the fluid, using the drain plug

Remove the torx cover bolts on the DD cover

The gear with the "bad" bearing will just pull out by hand.

You can mark where the gears meet with eachother with a sharpie or paint marker to make sure you put them in the way they were. Not sure if this matter or not.

Use a bearing puller to remove the old bearing.

Use a press or a bench vise with a peice of board on each side of the teeth of the vice so you do not scare the bearing or the gear. I do not like to beat bearings back on to the shaft. Easy to do with a bench vise.

You can pull the planetary out by removing the "c-clip" and clean and inspect it.

Put the planatary and the c clip back in. And put the gear with the new bearing in. Install cover which should slap right on meeting with the DD case.
Refill the DD with oil. (Or can wait till the DD is in the Chassis and tip the sled on its right side, fill the DD threw thew fill bolt. Install bolt, put sled back on its ski's and you can remove the filler bolt (top one) to check the oil level. The oil level should be to the bottom the the bolt filler hole)
Put some grease on the splines of the output shaft where it meets the track shaft.
Put the DD back into the chassis. Align the track shaft with the DD output gear, turn the shaft that goes to the secondary slowly to get the splines to meet up while pushing in on the DD case
Install the lock nuts
Install the cover with the 4 trox bolts.
Install the 16 mm bolt
Put the secondary back on, note the alignment shims.
Set you track tension and tighten rear axle.
If you want you can Re align the secondary. I check my alignment after removing the DD and it was spot on where is was before removing the DD...

Replacing the bearing is very easy to do, the whole job will take around maybe and hour to do you first time.
I used the Arctic Cat DD oil and put 200 miles on it and the oil looked like ****. I am going to try the BDX DD oil this time to see how that looks after a few hundred miles.

Dogmeat · Sep 12, 2010

M.M. 700 said:
Remove the whole DD assembly. It is fast, and easy. Plus with the DD out of the sled you can get the cover back on the correct way.
When I did mine the first time, I just pulled the cover and replaced the bearing. The cover would not "slap" back on it needed to be drawn in with the cover bolts. Which is not correct I learned after talking to BDX. THe said to loosen the 16mm bolt that goes threw the brake side of the jackshaft. And try to fit the cover so it would "slap" on. Or just pull the whole DD out which is what I did and like I said it is easy and fast.

To pull the DD

Mark with a pencil around the rear axle washer (this will give you an idea of where to reset the track tension) Loosen the rear axle on the rear skid, loosen up the track tension adjusters.

Remove the secondary, make sure to see if you have any alignment shims behind the secondary. They slide on the shaft of the DD

Remove the metal plate by the footwell, it has 4 torx head bolts. 2 are under the footwell of the tunnel. 2 are by the rear of the secondary

Remove the lock nuts around the DD where it bolts to the bulkhead.

Remove the 16mm bolt using a long extension going threw the break side of the jackshaft. You can just loosen the bolt all the way do not need to pull the bolt out of the jack shaft.

THen you can pull the DD assembly out of the chassis

Once the DD is out

Drain the fluid, using the drain plug

Remove the torx cover bolts on the DD cover

The gear with the "bad" bearing will just pull out by hand.

You can mark where the gears meet with eachother with a sharpie or paint marker to make sure you put them in the way they were. Not sure if this matter or not.

Use a bearing puller to remove the old bearing.

Use a press or a bench vise with a peice of board on each side of the teeth of the vice so you do not scare the bearing or the gear. I do not like to beat bearings back on to the shaft. Easy to do with a bench vise.

You can pull the planetary out by removing the "c-clip" and clean and inspect it.

Put the planatary and the c clip back in. And put the gear with the new bearing in. Install cover which should slap right on meeting with the DD case.
Refill the DD with oil. (Or can wait till the DD is in the Chassis and tip the sled on its right side, fill the DD threw thew fill bolt. Install bolt, put sled back on its ski's and you can remove the filler bolt (top one) to check the oil level. The oil level should be to the bottom the the bolt filler hole)
Put some grease on the splines of the output shaft where it meets the track shaft.
Put the DD back into the chassis. Align the track shaft with the DD output gear, turn the shaft that goes to the secondary slowly to get the splines to meet up while pushing in on the DD case
Install the lock nuts
Install the cover with the 4 trox bolts.
Install the 16 mm bolt
Put the secondary back on, note the alignment shims.
Set you track tension and tighten rear axle.
If you want you can Re align the secondary. I check my alignment after removing the DD and it was spot on where is was before removing the DD...

Replacing the bearing is very easy to do, the whole job will take around maybe and hour to do you first time.
I used the Arctic Cat DD oil and put 200 miles on it and the oil looked like ****. I am going to try the BDX DD oil this time to see how that looks after a few hundred miles.

Awsome, thanks!

silvester · Sep 19, 2010

M.M. 700's description is dead on. Thanks

black swan · Sep 19, 2010

Has anyone seen the sealed bearing behind the secondary clutch fail?
Input shaft?
When i pulled my 09 clutch there was oil inside the helix cap.
So afer looking harder, the oil is running down the spines and pooling up inside the clutch?

silvester · Sep 24, 2010

Inside a Diamond Drive with a Failing bearing (pics)

Well, I rolled the dice and waited to break my case open to inspect the suspect bearing a whole season on my 09M8, knowing what I do now, I should have done it before last season started. I guess I was lucky cause even though the bearing was falling apart, no damage was done. I did the 500 mile changes for the DD fluid, but you really cannot see the problem till you are in there. The bearing pieces migrate to the back of the case behind the planetary and will not come out during an oil change. It is much easier to take a DD out to do an oil change, and I will always take it out now having done it both ways. It is much easier to Flush and Drain when off the sled. If you have an 09 m8 and you have not done this bearing inspection yet, do it, You can't rely on the color of the DD fluid.

silvester · Sep 24, 2010

New Bearing Pics

The new bearing was cheapest and easiest to get from Black Diamond Extreme. All the parts stores and bearing shops were quoting me $45-$70 for the new bearing. At BDX it's $15 plus shipping, $20 total. It presses on nice after removing the old bearing and the spacer.

killerrf · Sep 24, 2010

powderpatrol said:
Has anyone seen the sealed bearing behind the secondary clutch fail?
Input shaft?
When i pulled my 09 clutch there was oil inside the helix cap.
So afer looking harder, the oil is running down the spines and pooling up inside the clutch?

i doubt very much that bearing is worn. that is a much bigger bearing than the 5203 should outlast the DD. i would say your seal behind the bearing is either come out or shot.

take the cover off and give the shaft a few good whacks against the bench it should come out and then you can check the seal or just put a new one in.

rmk156 · Sep 24, 2010

Mine has 714 miles. laid the DD on the bench and looked inside!!!! Parts and pieces everywhere!!!! I called BD extreme and just ordered All the bearings and seals....I would not chance it...When 1 small part goes bad in there everything can go bad!!!! Buy all the bearings and seal... Just my 2cents..

Instructions for replacing faulty bearing on diamond drive?

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