I'm just completing a track swap on my 08 Dragon 700 Switch. Much to my surprise I pull off the cap on the speedo pickup side and discover a 100% grease-free cavity and I'm looking at a bearing SEAL? Likely I'm not the first to notice this, but don't recall it discussed here recently. I'm kinda new to Polaris so this surprised me and I got the giggles...

I laughed because the instructions in the owner's manual explain how critical it is for this zerk to get "about 2, but no more than 4 pumps" (yes, they do specify number of pumps) in this zerk every 1,000 miles and again at the end of every season.

So all of you faithful maintenance-hounds that do this maintenance "by the book," can rest assured that NONE of your grease is actually reaching the bearing. It's just globbing up the speedo pickup gear until that cavity is full, and then eventually it will be oozing past the bearing retainer and onto the ground. The actual bearing will never see a drop. Unless of course you pull that cap off and pluck out the seal...

And before someone goes down this road: No, the zerk is not for greasing the speedo pickup "gear," as it is not really a gear and does not needs to be lubed. It's just a magnetic pickup pulse thingy (technical term) that touches absolutely nothing. Which is why mine was dry and clean from the factory as it should be. So maybe this cavity needs to be packed with grease in order to purge water from the speedo pickup area and prevent rust? That could almost make sense, but if so, the 2 to 4 pump thing is WAAAAY off. This cavity is a HUGE vacancy. I'd guess it would take at least 1/4 tube of grease to fill this cavity before anything starts to ooze out or any moisture gets purged. So maybe they meant to say 40 pumps? Because if you follow the 2 to 4 pump guideline Polaris provides, you'll all be purging the moisture out of this cavity for the first time when your sled has somewhere around 10,000 miles...

I'm sure the bearing is of high quality and will last a long time so I'm not worried or anything...and I'm leaving the seal in place. In fact I've replaced greasable bearings with quailty sealed units on many other sleds over the years in this same location, and I honestly feel this is a better choice anyway due to the added protection it gets from dirt/water with a good seal. But it just cracks me up that Polaris actually installs a zerk here and tells everyone to use it in the owner's manual.

FWIW, the seal that will be preventing the grease from reaching your bearing is clearly stamped "Russia," and everyone knows that nobody makes a quality sealed bearing like a Ruskie!

In all seriousness, it might be smart for everyone to replace this bearing after a given number of miles as normal maintenance...maybe 5,000 or so will be my number. At the very least, remove the cap, pluck out the seal, and clean/regrease it in place manually or with a needle greaser. It's real easy to access. In the the meantime, I intend to NEVER touch this particular zerk with a grease gun, as it should make it a much cleaner job when the time comes to replace or service that bearing.

End speach. Jus' a tidbit of info fer all y'all...

Just wondering here, if you might have noticed a small hole in the OD of the bearing?

VERY interesting thought. Gotta admit I didn't look specifically for such a hole, but I DID have the entire axle out of the sled and looked close enough to read the "Russia" stamping on the bearing seal. Since I had my camera handy for Ebay stuff in the shop, I even snapped a pic of the bearing (attached).

Note the greasy globs on the OUTSIDE of the bearing? I gotta strong feeling my dealer gave it the first 2 pumps during setup. And those first 2 pumps went exactly where I expected them to go...all over the outside of the bearing and seal. So if there was indeed a hole there, it sure wasn't lined up properly because the grease missed it.

I'm 98% sure there was no hole, but now I'm half tempted to pull that cap off and look again! Probably won't till end of season though...I ain't too worried about it.

Next person to pull one of these apart report back. I'm curious...

Oh...and while I was in there, I noticed another rather strange thing on this sled. I don't want to repeat it all here. If interested, check out this topic I posted on the Switchback forum regarding the suspension's front idler wheels being offset:
http://www.hardcoresledder.com/forums/inde...howtopic=273937

My 04 pro x2 defintley has a small hole in the seal not sure about my dragon

If the grease didn't go thru the bearing how did it get to the driveshaft side of the bearing? Just asking.

It got back there in the same way it got on the track, chassis, and all over my hands...It got squished and globbed all around during the process of removing the axle. The picture isn't a real good representation of what the grease pattern looked like before I pulled the axle out of the sled. But that's a pretty clear picture, and I still see no hole. But admittedly it could be behind some of the grease.

By no means am I saying I'm 100% positive I'm correct. Michahicks and Captain have got me thinking...maybe there is a small hole there that I completely overlooked. And if so, maybe I was supposed to orient that bearing in a certain direction when I re-assembled. Or maybe it does it not matter where the hole is located, because the grease would follow around the channel/groove and find the hole regardless of orientation? Remember I'm new to Polaris and still learning. And finding this seal in conjunction with a zerk fitting was new for me...

At this point I guess that's my main question for anyone with recent Polaris driveshaft removal experience. Is there indeed a grease access hole that I needed to pay heed to? Does anyone have a service manual handy for any late model sled, and is there any mention in there of aligning said hole with the zerk on re-assembly? Surely others here have swapped a track or pulled a drive axle for other reasons and have come across this bearing.

Captain? On your Pro-X where you've seen a hole, does that mean you make an effort to line it up with the zerk location during driveshaft reinstallation? Or do you just shove the axle back in place and hole orientation doesn't matter?

Thanks to all.

I'm not sure about the hole, but I pump grease in until it comes through the inside of the tunnel, for sure filling the bearing with fresh grease. It either goes by the seal or, there's a hole. Usually the grease coming out is full of moisture. I have taken the inner seal out, so the grease can get to the whole bearing and flush it out the seal when it's greased.

The wheels on all fuse an IQ's at the front were staggered. Talk to a polaris engineer and he said that it reduced vibs as well as it reduces the sleds rolling noise level by 2-3 decibles. But this comes at a price, slide wear is increased on the side of the skid where the wheel is in the rear hole position. Many IQ owners complained of hyfax wear, including me. Both wheels in the front hole for me now. My 07 dragon had the same style bearing in it, has a small hole in them to let gease in.