Better than snowshoes

golfduke said:

Man, brings me back.  I used to ice race a ZRT800 triple triple with pods back in the 2000s.  I always tell people that snowmobile acceleration on good panned snow is as fast as, if not a bit faster, than any sportbike I've ever ridden.  It's addictive. 

 

Some of those old zuk triples were real strong. My brother used to have a 700 SRX with a lot of bender ad ons and it was an absolute monster , no trouble making the skis dangle at 65mph from a dig. 
I'm not sure how I didn't kill myself as a teenager. 
Also I totally agree, when it comes to flat out accelerating from a dig I don't even think a liter bike can hold its own against a sled with good traction and clutching. 

1SlowVW said:

golfduke said:

Man, brings me back.  I used to ice race a ZRT800 triple triple with pods back in the 2000s.  I always tell people that snowmobile acceleration on good panned snow is as fast as, if not a bit faster, than any sportbike I've ever ridden.  It's addictive. 

 

Some of those old zuk triples were real strong. My brother used to have a 700 SRX with a lot of bender ad ons and it was an absolute monster , no trouble making the skis dangle at 65mph from a dig. 
I'm not sure how I didn't kill myself as a teenager. 
Also I totally agree, when it comes to flat out accelerating from a dig I don't even think a liter bike can hold its own against a sled with good traction and clutching. 

SAME.  Sometimes I think of all the stupid things I did on trail and the lake and wonder how I actually made it out alive, haha.  I remember being in Aroostook county, Maine, where the trails are pin stright through potato fields as far as one can see, and just going flat WOT for minutes... 110mph in a daisy chain of sledders.  There isn't much like it on earth. 

Today I replaced the first 5 bearings in the skid, the part inside the track, the wheels keep the track straight and reduce friction in key areas.

There are about a dozen of these 6205 bearings in the wheels. Most where trash. 

I'm beginning to think the seller may have been fibbing about when this sled last ran. 
 

Furthermore it's freakishly warm so no sign of snow in the next week. Womp womp. 

With most of the mechanical maintenance done on the big triple I still wasn't super happy with the amount of vibration when running it with the track jacked up. I pulled the secondary clutch and greased the bearings. All felt smooth from bearing to chaincase so tonight I went ahead and pulled the chaincase cover. 

The oil wasn't great looking , so everything got a good clean and it set the tension on the chain and put it all back together. Thinking the vibration may just be from the track that sat in one position for years. Thinking it's probably ready for a test ride once we get some snow. 

I had a little help from a family member over the Christmas break, the lights would only come on dimly on the triple. It turns out this sled has no less than 3 voltage regulators in the system! Sure enough when we unplugged the proper one the lights came on. New voltage regulator is on route. I was really worried I'd be doing two stators in a year for a minute there. 

With a whopping one and a half inches of snow we decided to take the sleds around the yard.

The good news is the rxl wanted to pick the skis up when it comes on the powerband! It needs the clutches serviced and a new belt is on the way. Weekend project I suppose.

Sadly the little 377 was running worse and worse until it would barely drag itself back into the garage. Upon further inspection I found the fuel pump was only pumping fuel to one carb. So off it comes , unsure if I'll rebuild it or order a new one. I'll price both out tomorrow and go from there. 

If the dead cylinder was the one with the pulse line connection, I'd pull the plugs and make sure the crankcase isn't full of fuel on that side. 

I've had the pumps fail with a leak in the diaphragm allowing excess fuel to enter the crankcase through the pulse line until the cylinder floods out. 

In reply to No Time :

That's a good idea, I'll check it out.

Had a rebuild kit in stock at work so I'll throw the pump together on my lunch break and put it back together tonight. Fingers crossed. 

We finally got some snow, enough to play in so I've had the ski doo out for a little fun around the house. Still chasing a high idle but I'm not quite ready to pull the motor to check the new crank seals just yet (yes I know I can do it in the sled with vacuum). 
 

Otherwise I'm sure you could get this thing stuck, but you would really need to try to do it I think. It's a fun little sled but I put it for sale to fund race boat stuff.

Found that the 380 was pulling air through the throttle cable of all things . Got that sorted and a friend who I owe many favours to wanted a sled to take his kids on so off it went to a new home. 
 

Can't be without a project though so let's enter this super rad 92 Indy 440! 
 

Since our winter has been absolutely terrible hardly any snow and it's calling for above freezing temperatures for most of the next week I figured I better wrap the 440 revival up before motivation is gone.

Step one , let's make the little 440cc Fuji motor come back to life. 
 

Step one, remove mouse condo and give the carbs a quick clean. 

Step two, find that the tank is half full of water and many year old gas. Flush the system, install new fuel lines. Put more fresh gas in as the first two gallons was now useless. Eventually I got it going...

Step 3, paint the pipe. Ahhh what have I exposed with my wire wheel? Step 3.5 turn mig welder to stun and play stich up the pipe. 

Needless to say the 440 wasn't taken on trade because it was mint. The chaincase had exploded and used parts needed to be sourced. They arrived last Friday so this past weekend I assembled a new used chaincase in order to make this thing almost mobile. 

Dang it Carl! Filled the chaincase tonight and despite a new seal it leaks profusely. Next step disassemble and coat in permatex ultra black! 

In reply to 1SlowVW :

Leaking from the cover and not the lower bearing I hope!

In reply to adam525i :

New sealed bearing and new seal behind it on the lower shaft. Looks like my cover is no longer flat. Ill disassemble tomorrow once all the oil has let itself out . 

Well, things continued with the rad red sled. But the problem was one as old as time. When working right it just wasn't exciting. Then after sitting all summer the crank seals made themselves know . So out came the little Fuji 440cc motor. 

Now, I could tell you all day long how great the 440 motors are, but the conversation ends with me saying they make a very reliable 50hp.

The problem is clear.

50hp and 4xx lbs just ain't cutting it.

This motor on the other hand makes 120hp and weighs the same.

This is the donor sled and it was cheap, they will become one after I address the "blown head gasket" and some fresh rings and seal. 

Oh hell yeah! I feel like the 92 suspension isn't going to cut it though, any plans on moving that gen-2 Extra-10 over to the old wedge?

I've been itching for an older Polaris project, problem is where I'd keep it at work we haven't had the snow to actually ride it so I'd need a trailer too. Maybe next year.

In reply to adam525i :

Someone robbed the fox shock out of the donor sled extra 10, but it will likely go in. The front fox shocks are still on the donor as well so they will get brought over with the trailing arms and such.

A little more on the donor sled, I purchase it sight unseen from a seller who said "just a head gasket...will run " when we got it home I had a look. It has v force reeds, dg can, slp boost bottle and ready for it...

The heads have been machined for cheater high compression domes...I'm thinking I bought someone's old 700 "stock" drag sled. 

Unfortunately whoever did the top end last assembled with an impact gun, spec on the head bolts is 24ftlbs and I needed a long handle 3/8 to crack the loose ones. When they installed the head like this I think they cracked this dome. Letting a whole lot of coolant into the pto side cylinder . 

 

Edit:

The dome is currently at a friends whose pretty handy with a tig welder . In true grm fashion we're gonna try and save the speed part that caused the failure before going with some regular old oem replacement. 

It's funny how excited one can be about a small piece of metal. 

A thing of beauty!   Good read right here!

I've got an SKS in the shop right now with the same engine. 

In reply to ShawnG :

I had a 700 twin with power valves a decade ago, we'll see if this still lives up to the hype. I was quite pleased at the time of how often I could win drags against 800cc machines . 

Rings and gaskets arrived today! Stay tuned for updated.