Polaris 360 seems to only clean the perimeter?

[jrs_diesel]

When we bought our house last year, a worn out sun faded Polaris 360 (pressure side cleaner) came with it. At the time, the 360 only had two wheel drive (broken belt), but otherwise operated normal. An hour or two would clean up the bottom of the pool nicely. Over the winter, the 360 lived in the water, and over this past winter, it became one wheel drive after the second belt popped.

A few weeks ago, I bought the rebuild kit for it and made it look like brand new. It came with a new backup valve, but I did not put that in as the old one seems to be working fine (no leaks of cracks). When I put it in the pool, I did the wheel RPM test and it was over 40 RPM. I changed out the white pressure relief valve at the wall fitting with the blue one, and now the RPM is at 32. Everything seems normal, except that it wants to ride the perimeter of the pool, instead of turning and cleaning the center.

My pool has no deep end, and has a nice curved transition from wall to floor. I have tried various settings on the thrust jet with no apparent effect, it does not want to turn. It mostly will track straight and follow the curves along the perimeter. The back up valve cycles every 3 minutes or so.

It appeared to work much better before the rebuild. Any ideas what I should try next?

 

[AdmiralGrace]

How many line floats are you using? Did you adjust these at all? Maybe try removing one or arranging them?

 

[jrs_diesel]

3 floats like the manual calls for. One right by the backup valve and the other ones at 4' and 7'. Practically the same setup as before the rebuild.

 

[jrs_diesel]

I played with it a bit more yesterday. It didn't matter what adjustments I made, it keeps wanting to ride the perimeter of the pools (no sharp angle, it's a curved floor/wall transition). The two wheel side seems to ride the "uphill" side of the curve, and goes counter-clockwise around the pool. I moved the head float back and forth, changed thrust jet positions, and put on a new back-up valve. Nothing made a difference. I am completely stumped as far as what to try next.

 

[jrs_diesel]

It's fixed!!!

I took it back apart and found that the thrust jet hose had snapped at the water management system in the lower base. Due to the hose's position, I was able to have some water pass though it and the thrust jet appeared to work, even though it did not have enough water going through it to influence the direction of the 360.

Since the rebuild kit was still in warranty, Polaris sent out a new base and water management system. After assembling that, and putting it all together, the 360 is now operating normal

I think the water management system had a casting flaw when it was molded at the factory, when I disassembled the base, the connection for the tail sweep hose popped off as well with little effort.

Great product support from Polaris!