My snowmobile club had a hill climb yesterday and I notice a guy with a new pro across from us in the pits asked him how his belt was holding up and he say's fine so far had about 250 miles on!!! He proceeds to run his first run and sets the best time in the class. His next run didn't go as well, about a third of the way up the hill he stalls out and can't move. Some friends said they heard it making a racheting sound I asssumed he had blown QD belt but when he got back said he broke his drive shaft. Sure enough broke the drive shaft on the clutch side, he had the collar on the QD side. Here is the kicker he works for polaris out of Roseau. I took a picture and will post it later.
Drive shaft broke clutch side!!!!
- Thread starter Big D rmk700
- Start date
It was bound to happen. While lower, that side still deals with lot of forces, especially flexing in the shaft.
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snowmobiler
Well-known member
keep those poos in the meadows
Simple fix....Happy Face collar on drive side and Polaris Clamp on clutch side or Happy Face on Both sides. It still amazes me that some think it couldn't happen to them. 
Now I might be a bit bias.
Now I might be a bit bias.
i really try hard to leave the "poo's" at home and just keep the "pee's" for the meadows..
I hear Gramma calling - - - must be time to go back to the doo section.
P
paulharris
Well-known member
can't beat polaris reliability. the polaris engineers that designed this drive system are brilliant
It's always a challenge being #1. We can blame Polaris for sloppy engineering but when you produce the most innovative sleds on the market you are bound to have a few Snafu's. The drive shaft is state of the art.....the manufacturing process fell apart somewhere along the line. It's all going to be fixed before long and Polaris will be known as the company who set the standard. Put two collars on your drive shaft and go ride and forget about it. We spend +/- $175.00 on a 115 drive belt. So what’s a few bucks for collars so we can sleep at night. IMO
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paulharris
Well-known member
Just because they are "innovative" makes sloppy engineering ok? I could not disagree more. IF this driveshaft/belt drive was engineered properly then it would be state of the art....but its not, so its a P.O.S and the engineers are idiots. The chinese could build this sled better for half the price.
And just putting happy face collars on the shaft is only addressing the driveshaft strength. it does not fix a driveshaft with runout, wobbly pulleys, stripped QD belts, brake on the jackshaft, etc. I put the happy face collar on mine and it is a beautiful piece, unfortunately it is a band aid. the happy face collar is the most precision part on the entire sled
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geo
Well-known member
Boy o' boy, I hope you didn't buy one. You seem angry and that's no fun.
I like the pic. Don't expect it on mine 'cause I'm "clamped" but it's good to see Poo trusting there product (no steel shaft in there).
At least they have one now to analyse lol.
Ok PaulHarris. I rest my case. I’m glad we are not in court....you just kicked the defendants butt. I agree there are issues but I will still stand on the side that the design is not bad it's the (Low Bidder) who is building these parts for Polaris who has screwed up the manufacturing process. Not to say Polaris is not to blame. They should have done some things differently IMO. Like inspect the parts them selves.
As we have produced the HF collars for the drive shafts and the alignment tools for the drive belt installation we have tried to keep the focus on what’s best for the situation and not the situation. By the way thank you for the nice comments about the HF Collars.
We all hope Polaris will resolve this situation very soon. Sadly as these companies get bigger they start looking at things in number of failures and are they in the scope of acceptable numbers. Doesn't change anything on the individual users situation but in the ivory tower it all looks good on paper.
Glad to be here on SW and have all the folks with common interest to talk over the issues with.
As we have produced the HF collars for the drive shafts and the alignment tools for the drive belt installation we have tried to keep the focus on what’s best for the situation and not the situation. By the way thank you for the nice comments about the HF Collars.
We all hope Polaris will resolve this situation very soon. Sadly as these companies get bigger they start looking at things in number of failures and are they in the scope of acceptable numbers. Doesn't change anything on the individual users situation but in the ivory tower it all looks good on paper.
Glad to be here on SW and have all the folks with common interest to talk over the issues with.
P
paulharris
Well-known member
I agree, it could very well be fault of the "low bidder" making these parts. but ultimately it is still polaris' responsibility to have oversight and to do Q.C. on those parts before they just blindly slap them in the vehicle like they have done here.
and yes, you guys have done the best you possibly can for the situation and you certainly have given the driveshaft much more strength. as i stated before, your collar is the nicest component on the entire sled, it is very evident in your machining and design that you care 110% about quality.
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Its just a bad design aimed at cost savings....being in the structural test world, this seems like a classic case of the bean counters calling the shots.
Next year I bet they have more than 1/2" of penetration into the hex aluminum and maybe even some sort of collar or reinforcement on both ends. That should make it heavier than the steel shaft and it will hold twice the snow.
Fastrax is making a nice 1 piece good 'ol steel hex shaft with drivers. Sometimes simpler is better,the pattern I often see at work is the younger or less experienced engineers tend to try to put all their schooling to use in even the simple tasks, while the older/experienced guys tend to subscribe to the Akums razor approach.
Next year I bet they have more than 1/2" of penetration into the hex aluminum and maybe even some sort of collar or reinforcement on both ends. That should make it heavier than the steel shaft and it will hold twice the snow.
Fastrax is making a nice 1 piece good 'ol steel hex shaft with drivers. Sometimes simpler is better,the pattern I often see at work is the younger or less experienced engineers tend to try to put all their schooling to use in even the simple tasks, while the older/experienced guys tend to subscribe to the Akums razor approach.
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