Polaris 360 rebuild....

[Jeff Lebowski]

I have a million-year-old Polaris 360 and it more or less quit last season. I decided to dig into it and figure out what was going wrong with it. Use this diagram for parts...

Polaris 360 Pool Cleaner Parts

Only one wheel turned on my unit. I mistakenly assumed It was the drive wheel and that the other two were inert. Wrong.

The idler gear on mine had broken in two so there was no way to drive the other two wheels. Plus, the bearing in the single side wheel had broken and the wheel wasn't centered and was being wonky driven.

40 bucks in parts and my old gal is humming like a sewing machine. Pools clean, wife's happy.

So before you waste 5 bills on a new unit, grab a couple of screwdrivers and a frosty pop. The whole thing takes five mins to disassemble and you can buy only the bits you need. Sweet.

 

[ajw22]

 

[ComputerGuyInNOLA]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am going to rebuild mine this year. Your post makes me more confident. I guess I should not have dreaded it. I rebuilt my pump head and and installed a new motor on it a few months ago. It was a LOT easier than I thought it would be. Is this the first time you have rebuilt it?

 

[ajw22]

I have rebuilt my Polaris 380 a few times. You can buy individual parts, or a Tune-Up
kit, or a complete rebuild kit. The rebuild kit gives you every moving part to replace.

As was said, all you need is a screwdriver, pliers, and some patience.

 

[Jeff Lebowski]

First time rebuild for me. I have no idea how old my Polaris is. It came with the house. But, it looks OLD and the blue is heavily bleached out by the sun.

Interesting points to consider -

A. The parts in the "rebuild kit". I needed virtually none of them. I highly recommend that you skip the kit until after you're pulled yours apart. Then only buy the parts you need. All seem reasonably priced and fairly easy to install. The toughest part was getting the snap rings off the wheel hubs. I suggest replacing the belts while you're in there since the whole thing has to be disassembled to replace just them, should they break in the future. They're somewhat flimsy.

B. My pool has 4 jets, one in each corner as well as the main water outlet that the vacuum threads into. By closing the 4 valves and pushing ALL the water through the vacuum it's MUCH more effective and now darn near runs laps around my pool. Before it barely moved. Once the majority of the junk was vacuumed up I opened up two of the jets about halfway to keep the water in the pool circulating. The other two I just cracked to allow aeration.

 

[ajw22]

You should always replace the wheel bearings when you are in there. The bearings develop corrosion and friction. The cleaner does not have alot of HP from the water pressure and any friction in the bearings makes it slow and sluggish and does not climb the walls well. I have found replacing the bearings make it climb the walls like new for a few seasons.

One time I had to replace the Water Management System as one of the hoses had split. That did not come with the rebuild kit.