Question about Polaris AWD

This weekend at Callalantee I broke the right rear axle while rock crawling

When this happened the front would not lock in and turn. I found a post on the RZR Forums about the front lock-in, that the "sensing" to engauge the front drive is mechanical. From what I read it's my understanding when AWD is on & the front carrier overspins the front hubs the rollers move out and it locks it. If this is the case then I would think the front should lock in even with a broken rear axle. I have checked the front, nothing broken visually fron the outside, no noise, and the diff coil tests ok according to the diagnostic mode. Speedo still works ok.

What am I missing?

I know on my old Polaris 800 4 wheeler I had a rear axle break and my front end still locked. So Im not sure what is wrong...

The front should've engaged if switched to AWD & as long as the speedo worked

ermullis wrote:

The front should've engaged if switched to AWD & as long as the speedo worked

That's what I'm thinking. I'll put her up on jack stands tonight and check everything out.

Yep, the front diff is shot alao. Jacked it up, enganged awd, the rear spins but no front. The front will lock in if I rotate the front wheels backwards while the rear wheels spin. Starting taking it apart, got to the roll pin in the driveshaft. About now I'd really like to meet the engineer who thought putting a roll pin in the driveshaft was a good idea

Man I hate to hear that...but the way things looked I figured the front diff was done.
Check on RZR FORUMS...a lot of those sand guys take the front diffs out. You may find a deal on one.

RZR_Joe wrote:

Yep, the front diff is shot alao. Jacked it up, enganged awd, the rear spins but no front. The front will lock in if I rotate the front wheels backwards while the rear wheels spin. Starting taking it apart, got to the roll pin in the driveshaft. About now I'd really like to meet the engineer who thought putting a roll pin in the driveshaft was a good idea

It sounds like your plastic carrier went out in your front diff...make sure you replace it with the new alum. one from super atv.com.....my drive shaft pin knocked out fairly easy from the pass. side....I rebuilt my front end 3 months ago....it was'nt hard at all....good luck...

you can change the cage without removing the diff. easier to do once its out but faster to leave in.
just remove the axle on drivers side i think it is (side where the diff splits) lean the rzr over and take the bolts out of the diff to split the case. helps to unbolt the diff so you can move it around to get to all the bolts. once its split you just got to pull the cage out and and try not to lose any of the rollers. there is a rubber seal around where the diff splits so be carfull splitting the diff. the hard part is getting the new cage back in and not having one of the rollers fall out of place.

Thanks guys.

Yep, figured it broke the plastic carrier.

on the way again