Flywheel cut stator wires!

[GBCB]

Finally tore into the 900 after being standed two weekends ago with electrical problems. I found the flywheel has an inner sleeve that protects the magnets from flying off. The sleeve is only epoxied to the flywheel. The epoxy failed allowing the sleeve to slide into toward the engine. It then cut into the stator wires. I'm assuming this grounded out the entire electrical system. I have an extra stator left over from a rebuilt engine I purchased last Spring. The seller told me to use my original stator because he feared his was on the way out. So I had a chance to compare the two stators. Guess what? Both stators have wires cut from the flywheel! Apparently, there is very little clearance between the flywheel and the wires- even with an intact flywheel. After sending my stator in for repair, I plan on using a Dremel tool to enlarge the hole that the wires feed thru on the block side of the stator housing. I'm hoping the ground-out didn't fry the VR or ECU. I'm calling RM Stator in the morning for some tech advice as to what else might have smoked. I thought I'd pass this along. If it happened to two of mine, I'd say there's a good chance of this happening to one of yours. Love to hear from you if you've had a similar experience

 

[guidoxpress]

this is VERY COMMON...

the main reason that inner ring is coming "un-glued" is the apoxy that holds it down gets anti-freeze dripped on to it and dissolves the glue and causes that too happen..

the original apoxy is very weak stuff, i believe the new stuff they have now is much better, the dealer might know about it, but i think diamonddave is the one who found the good stuff...maybe PM him and see..

....if you look at the overflow hose on your coolant bottle, the short hose hangs just above the recoil housing...there is a timing mark HOLE in the housing, the antifreeze goes out the short hose, into that hole in the recoil (along with water) and deteriorates the glue on the innter ring of the flywheel...

i use about 2 layers of a piece of heat reflective tape (it sticks to anything clean, lol) and cover that hole on the recoil...it will never come off from liquids, just make sure you clean that area well before you stick it so it will adhere...

ALSO...get a longer overflow hose from a hardware store, and route your coolant overflow hose down into the engine more...some guys have even routed it through the bulkhead to the underneath, or into a small "collection box"...i just route mine between the engine and the front motor mount cross member...been 3 yrs on 2 sled, no issues and 1st season on 3rd sled using this exact setup...

hope tha the helps...GREAT find BTW...

 

[jody78]

The same thing happened to me this year. I went on ebay a bought a used fly wheel and stator, when it came i opened the box and the sleeve was broken on that one also. I now have two of theses broken fly wheels. Why didnt polaris have a recall on the fly wheels on the 900. I am sure that we are not the only ones with this problem. Can you just reglue the sleeve?

 

[diamonddave]

Yeah, I've seen this happen on 3 900's...all of them were 05's. 2 of them required 2 day, 8 person sled retrieval missions as they failed in an area where choppers were $3,000 to get to in 3-4 feet of pow.

As for the issue, we were told by our dealer that the 06 flywheels were updated in that the retention compound (glue) was changed to a better stuff. Guido makes a good point about the timing hole being located directly below the coolant bottle overflow hose. Antifreeze is very hard on anything bonded with glue.

Unfortuantely the fix is to purchase a new flywheel from Polaris. This is not something you want to mess with as the magnets are indexed with very high precision and it's this precision of the magnets indexed perfectly that help with engine timing and fuel injector timing.

 

[garlic bear]

reglued

had the same problem just used epoxy and re glued the ring that was two years ago no problems so glue it and no issues. had no issues with anything frying when the stator shorted out

 

[GBCB]

I had an electrical shop repair the damaged stator wires. I then used the leftover flywheel. Put it back together and I'm back in business. Thanks y'all.

 

[diamonddave]

Good luck with that. The flywheels that I've seen doo this, reglueing would not have been an option. The magnets were destroyed.

 

[GBCB]

Thanks for everything Dave. The flywheel I used was a spare and has yet to become unglued. I will make sure coolant doesn't drip on it. I also made a little more room for the wires to run into the housing so they are not as susceptible to being cut.

 

[diamonddave]

Thanks for everything Dave. The flywheel I used was a spare and has yet to become unglued. I will make sure coolant doesn't drip on it. I also made a little more room for the wires to run into the housing so they are not as susceptible to being cut.

Cool. BTW is yours an 05?

 

[GBCB]

Upon further "testing" and another tow out. I'm buying a new stator. It can no longer handle the heat. '06 900

 

[danduvall]

has anyone had luck re-gluing the ring back into thier flywheel??? i think my flywheel is very save-able if i can simply re-glue the inner ring, plus i really cant afford a $320 flywheel! any tips on what epoxy to use?! dan

 

[garlic bear]

reglue

I used five minute epoxy on mine and that was 3 years ago no problems