Spindle Inspection - Arctic Cat Cougar Service Manual

FRONT SUSPENSION AND STEERING
b. Remove the screw attaching the cover to the
top of the spindle, then remove the cover
(B, Figure 8).
c. Remove the two cotter pins and castle nuts
attaching the ball joints to the spindle.
d. Raise the spindle until the suspension arms
are parallel to the floor. Support the spindle
in this position.
NOTE
The suspension anns must be parallel to
the floor to allow use of the tie rod/ball
joint tool.
WARNING
Do not strike the ball joint when attempt-
ing to separate the ball joint from the
spindle. The ball joint will be damaged
and separation will probably still re-
quire the tie rod/ball joint tool.
407
e. Use a tie rod/ball joint fork (part No. 0644-
098 or equivalent) to separate the ball joint
from the spindle.
f. Inspect the ball joints for damage and install
new parts as required. If it is necessary to
remove the ball joints, first remove the sus-
pension arm.
NOTE
The ball joints are pressed into the sus-
pension anns. Loctite is applied to the
threads of the retaining nuts. It may be
necessary to heat the nuts to soften the
Loctite before removing the nuts.
4C. On models shown in Figure 3 or 4, remove
the spindle as follows:
a. Remove the bolt attaching the lower end of
the shock absorber to the spindle.
NOTE
The bolts attaching the suspension anns
to the spindle should be installed in the
direction originally installed. Use paint
or a marker to identify the original loca-
tion of the bolt head, before removing the
attaching bolts. The bolt heads shown in
Figure 9 are for one model, but the heads
may be located differently for other mod-
els.
b. Mark the location, either front or rear, of the
heads of bolts attaching the spindle to the
upper and lower suspension arms, then re-
move the bolts and nuts.
c. Withdraw the spindle from the suspension
arms.
Inspection
1. Clean all components thoroughly in solvent.
Remove all dirt and other residue from all sur-
faces.
2. If so equipped, remove the spindle/suspen-
sion arm bushing assembly from the arm or
spindle (Figure 1, 3 or 4). Inspect all parts of the