I did the same thing, very simple and fast.

Just to let everyone know i talked to dirty dawg and he told me not to remove the spacer. the reason you dont want to do this is because if you look at the shaft it has a step up that helps keep the spacer in place and if you remove the spacer the clutch will ride out to far and catch on this slim step up. its hard to see with the eye but if you feel for it you can tell. however it looks like you can make the spacer a hair smaller. might get 1 to 2 mph. after he told me this i took mine apart and sure enough there is a step up. he said it wont happen unless it catch's and it will be to late when it catch's. sorry to pi$$ on your 5 to 10 mph but if you have this step up on your shaft dont do it.

This has obviously been a big topic of debate lately...

Now what you say may be true, but there's hundreds or even thousands of people with the spacer removed that haven't had a single problem with a ton of miles and hours on them...

There's also some that HAVE had a belt snap... but that's also happened to people WITH the spacer, so it's hard to directly relate it.

Here's my thinking...

Worst case scenario? The belt breaks.

I have a spare that I carry and ride with (like everybody should) and it's a nice Goodyear belt that only cost me $50. If that means I can ride for the next few months... or heck even year before I manage to break the belt... that's only what, $50 for a NICE top end gain over all that time?

Worth the cost of a belt, even if it is the "rare" cause of failure from time to time. Easily the cheapest mod for MPH per dollar spent!

from what i can see if you take the spacer out the two primary pulley half's can ride the belt up until thay touch. dirty dawg said it would not be good if thay touch. he also said that some of the gen 1 dont have the step up. Looking at my set up the pulley half's will hit before the step up will touch. Im giving epi a call to see what thay have to say.

Right, but I'm just saying WORST case is, you throw a belt...

It's really not a big deal, for the top end you're gaining v.s the price of a belt...

i wrote up a little mini article on the procedure.
no special tools are needed above a torque wrench.. i wouldnt do the chisel trick, it's really easy to take the clutch cover off and put it back on. it took me about 20 minutes when i did mine almost a year ago..
i have exploded one belt and burned another one up, but neither were due to the clutch spacer..
Troubleshooting Wiki

I just got off the phone with dalton and he has not done anything with the clutch on a rzr but he said the sportsman 800 has a limiter in it and he takes it out. he also said that its ok if the clutch halfs touch. he said snomobiles do it all the time. also said if you run it for a long ways down the road you can blow the belt. that being said i think the best thing to do is open it up and find out how fast it is and than keep it 1mph below top speed. Make sure you check top speed on flat ground or a vary small incline. this way you will be safe at 1mph under top speed.

I've only been able to BARELY touch the top speed on most the trails I go on...

I don't ever just take it on asphalt roads or anything like that... so it's not an issue.

When i go to upper michigan we can run the county roads and there's alot of open area. Me and my friends are always drag racing or trying to through mud on each other. I looked into making the spacer thinner but there's only 1/6 of an inch to play with. I could take a 32nd of and see what happens. maybe.

I think what most people have agreed on but i don't know for sure is taking the spacer out and cutting it down to about 1/3 it's original size. This way you get the perfomance gains but it is just about at the point that it does not allow the belt to slip all the way out of the clutch and fry it. Dont know for sure but just my .02 from what i have heard and witnessed

from what i can see if you take the spring out and leave the spacer in. than put the cover back on. you can slide the primary clutch back and forth and if you slide it all the way in there's only a 1/16 of a inch gap between the pulley half's. and if you take the spacer out the two half will touch if you slide the primary all the way in. so this tells me that the only thing you can do to the spacer is take 1/32 off. if you take 1/16 or more the spacer wont be doing anything and at that point i would take it out and hope for the best.

I think you're exactly right... shaving it down probably doesn't even do ANYTHING, and it's like not having one at all...

i have put in the clutch mod with the belt and springs. didnt know about the spacer part to remove. is this safe???

Libird, whose clutch mod & belt did u use. I just finished putting EPI's in last night. As to you spacer question, BELIEVE it or NOT, my RZR did not have a spacer in it. So I'll try to do a post tonight and let u know if not having it is a problem. Got to redial in the Boondocker cause of the clutch mod's. Bart

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LiBird, rather than repeating a post, check out my response in the
Secondary Clutch Spring post. It's an eye opener. Couldn't tell if I was hitting Rev Limiter by not have clutch spacer installed. I plan on testing some more if and when it quits raining. Hope info in other post is helpful. Bart

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