I’m truly stumped, I know we have many threads regarding the new close ratio awd system and it’s "faster engagment" vs the old system. I asked a polaris tech if he could tell me what exactly was changed to make it close ratio and suggested a hillard modification for faster engagment. He told me they haven’t been able to dig into any of the new diffs because polaris designed the axles to break before it could damage the differentials, the axles I guess are referred to as "a fuse".

So he emailed their tech support at Polaris thru the dealer and got a response that a change in rear gearing was done to alter speed at which lock up occurs.

So I sent him a screen shot our member Phil here had with 15/16 diff gearing and 2010 front/rear diff gearing….identical

So last night he pulled up transmissions from pre/post close ratio since we thought maybe they altered something in transmission to alter the "transfer case" to make fronts engage faster. He came back with there are 2 different part numbers for complete transmission assembly, one refers to the new "close ratio" while the older does not.

So he went a step further and pulled up the internal.parts break down and counted teeth on every gear inside transmission old/new. He said all gearing in old/new transmission is identical.

At this point it sounds all conspiracy theory, placebo effect. Rename existing part for marketing purposes, much like gas stations call their gasoline detergents different names to brand themselves and yet it’s all the same ingredients.

So what changed?
Hillard was unchanged between new/old
Gear ratio is diffs are identical new/old
Transmission gearing is unchanged new/old

What is left to alter speed of engagment?

Engineer also told him putting a shorter back tire on, he gave example of 26"front/25" rear will cause faster engagment on older pre close ratio machines.