Riding 2021, Jag repair

 I think it's been 3 years since we went for a real trail ride. The registration on the '98 Jag ran out last year anyway...

So a couple weeks ago when the snow was still good Angie and I got the two Jags out for a rip.

We had groomed the night before so the trails were really good. The snow wasn't great but what snow was was flat. We did about 20 miles just around the park, I had updated the registrations but as it was kind of late in the season I didn't get trail passes. As a board member I'm allowed a free trail pass but I've only taken one once. That was the year we rebuilt the track on the Pisten Bully and Ben wouldn't take my money. The club still has to pay for the pass and we're not exactly flush with cash.

Angie rode the old '91 the whole time, it was smooth enough that the lack of suspension wasn't a problem. I think I'll look for a Z or ZL machine with a blown engine and swap the suspension into it. The machine is a little lighter than the '98 and the dual carbs make a little more power.

The '98 ran like crap, it would spit and pop and fart and just had a terrible time. I had an inkling that the problem was the throttle safety switch. There are two little bushings where the pin that holds the throttle lever on are so I replaced them. I really miss having a shop just down the street to get parts like that.

Arctic Cat calls these "seals" and you can see that they're kind of chewed up. The new ones didn't make any difference though so I pulled the connection. Arctic Cat is interesting, they used 2 different electrical systems. Some are "normally open" which means there is an open circuit and to shut the sled off you close the circuit and ground the coil. Then a bunch of them are "normally closed" so the circuit powers the coil and you open the circuit to shut the machine off.

My '91 Jag is "normally closed", when the throttle switch failed on that and the previous owner wanted to jump around that switch he had to add a little jumper. The '98 is "normally open" and so I could just unplug the kill switch plug which includes the throttle switch. 

With the kill switch unplugged the sled ran perfectly. For the first time since I've owned it I could bomb around the yard. Used to be the sled ran great on the trail but poorly in the yard, now its fine all the time.

I had hoped I could just pull the throttle assembly apart and just jumper out the throttle switch but in doing I managed to break the kill switch. The sled still runs but I don't like not having a kill switch. Fortunately replacements are available. Unfortunately they cost about 15% of what the sled is worth...

The snow is gone now anyway, so I don't need to worry about it right away. I'll probably fix it, I like riding the sled. I'd thought about getting a brand new machine to replace both Jag's but they did so well...

And sometimes this happens...

We got another 10.5" of the blessed white stuff last night which managed to wipe out all the tracks in the yard. That of course needed to be fixed so I fired up the '91 Jag for a good rip. 10.5" is good deep powder but the Jag just eats it up, no problem at all so full of confidence I hit the trails for one of my pirate runs.

Nobody had been through since I went last week and even then I'd only made one pass out and back which doesn't make much of a trail. About 200 yards in I found a 5 FOOT deep drift, fortunately it descended to only 3 feet at the left side of the trail, unfortunately that was right next to a tree. I split the difference and blasted through a 4 foot wall of snow, had no choice really, there was nowhere to turn around and I didn't dare stop for fear I wouldn't be able to get going again.

With that behind it was a hard but slow run to where I leave the railbed and cross to a parallel trail. I was nervous about this because its a tight area and wasn't sure if I could keep headway but the Jag just kept slogging along. Finally got to where I could turn around, decided I'd do a clockwise turn but suddenly realized there was a deep spot right where I was headed, reversed course and ended up foolishly getting off the power and hitting that deep spot heading the other way...

I commenced to digging. This was a learning experience, with older sleds that have no rear suspension travel you heave the back end over to the side, fill in the hole under the track, heave the sled back on top to pack the snow, then back off and repeat. With a sled like my Jag that has some rear suspension you dig out under the footboards the length of the sled, then sit way back on the seat and apply power, the track hopefully finds traction and you're out. I had to try the old method once before I realized the new method would work better.

Here's a look at how close I was to completing the turn:

I think my mistake is that I thought I was going to stay in the seat through the turn, I should have been standing on the left footboard. I also realize now that I should always plan on a counter clockwise reversing turn when I can manage it because it'll be easier to stay on the throttle through the turn. In a right turn it gets hard to pull the throttle since the right grip is now down by my right knee.

Ahh live and learn right? The good news here is that since the Jag is such a good powder sled I feel much more confident about trying to make it to our camp in Maine in the winter. The camp is 3/4 of a mile from the road with no trails kept in the winter so we'd have to break trail through what would probably be powder similar to this.

I took the Jag yesterday into the state park and rode the groomed trails, it rides good but fishtails something awful. I'd decided that it needed a new track but considering its powder performance it might just need studs. Actually if I could get a deeper lug track AND studs and slightly wider plastic skis this would be an amazing powder machine...

A great ride!

Last week we got 10" of powder snow but I was in California so no riding for me. Then yesterday and last night we got another 10", this time its heavier stuff and there was some rain in between snows which makes for just perfect snow.

After lunch I dug out the big Ski-Doo and headed over to the local snowmobile shop, he's got a good trail in but had packed snow against the trail into a huge pile. I'm not usually the trailbreaker and didn't judge how the pile was built, ended up on a pile with one ski hanging out into space. If the pile hand't been built so strong I'd have rolled right over.

Its hard to tell in the pic but the top of the seat is 6' off the ground...

Managed to get the sled off the pile by tugging on the ski and turning the machine down hill instead of rolling it. Then it wouldn't start until I realized I'd hit the kill switch when I thought it was rolling over. Heading back out I did an X-Games style jump back over the pile and fell ass over teakettle as the sled landed funny. Fortunately it didn't take off without me.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful until on the return trip I lost the trail on a frozen pond where the wind had drifted the snow. Out in the 20" unpacked snow the sled tried to bog. I got way back on the seat and piled on the power. The sled has a 670cc liquid cooled 2 stroke which makes something like 90HP which is plenty for a 700# machine. With the weight shifted back and the power piled on the skis lifted and we made it across the pond no problem.

So anyway, my 4th good ride in 3 years, planning on another ride tomorrow.

Woo Hoo! A nice ride

What a weird winter, we had snow, then it got warm, then it got wicked cold and we got snow again, tonight its supposed to rain...
We had stuff to do today but I found a little time to sneak out and run the big Ski-Doo. Alan had told me about a new trail out to the Winchendon water tower. I'd ridden over to Randy's on Friday and then up to New Hampshire and back but didn't see the trail. Most of the way I was the first sled through which isn't so surprising on a weekday.

So today I found the little cut over. I didn't realize before but the railroad bed I'd been riding parallels a road that isn't plowed in the winter, the cut over trail is a goat road but its short so I had no problem muscling the big Ski-Doo through it. The summer road had been driven by a truck with is a pain in the ass because you bounce from rut to rut but again that part is pretty short. After that it was a short ride through a clear cut and then another good trail. I didn't go to the water tower because it was getting dark and I didn't want Angie to worry. I ran up to New Hampshire on that good trail (which I think is also a rail bed), turned around and headed home.

The speedometer has quit on the Ski-Doo, I think the drive had water in it from sitting, I'll need to pull it apart to be sure. So I don't know how far I went, I was gone for maybe half an hour so I'm gonna guess 5 or 6 miles, its only 3 miles to New Hampshire and back on the direct path and I don't think I did all that much more. So not a terribly significant ride but a good one none-the-less and it did a lot to restore my confidence in the big Ski-Doo which hadn't seen any miles at all in 2 years.

On another note when I ran over to Randy's the other day I found the big Ski-Doo very hard to turn. Turns out when we replaced the front suspension 3 years ago we forgot to put in grease fittings so the spindles were all dried out. I shot some PB blaster in there to drive out the ice, got a couple grease fittings at Randy's and pumped in some grease. Its better now but needs more grease, the steering is still pretty stiff. I also need to pull the throttle cable and lube it some more. This sled has always had a wicked heavy throttle which is weird because its a Ski-Doo 2 stage throttle which is supposed to be lighter. I was going to replace the cable last year but Chuck talked me out of it, he said the new manufacture cables are junk and I'd be better lubing my really good. I've found guys online saying you can soak the whole thing in a can of oil to lube it. I think I'll just hang it and run cable lube down into it until it runs out the bottom, then do it again for the bottom half.

I promised and I did it!

I've been promising to hit the snow for some time now and I finally did. Was it a perfect day? Nope, not even close but I enjoyed myself and thats what matters.

Anyway Saturday dawned and after running a few errands I loaded up and headed for the land of little trails since I didn't have any registered sleds and wasn't about to pay to register any at this late date.

I arrived around noon and as I was alone I unloaded just the Polaris Cobra and got to work. I'd ridden this area last about 2 years ago and buried the big Ski-Doo in soft springtime snow so I was cautious. Interestingly this year I made it to EXACTLY the same spot:

You can just see the house in the background so I clearly didn't get far...

It was around 50 degrees and the snow had the consistency of mashed potatoes, it was sticky and deep. At low speeds I couldn't get the sled up on top and of course if I opened it up I'd have no reaction time. I used to ride this area a lot but there have been many changes since I did so I wanted to go slow for awhile. I finally managed to hump the machine around in a circle and get it extracted only to get stuck again and again everywhere I went.

So not exactly the exciting conclusion I'd hoped for but not a terrible day if I'm honest.

Re-resurrecting the Cobra and having fun!

After my success getting the Panther going I spent some time giving its seat a good dose of leather treatment and reinstalled, even a few days later the sled still ran well so I pulled it out of the garage and pulled the 1979 Polaris Cobra back in. When we left it the Cobra was running well but just after that it wouldn't start, the plugs would foul immediately upon pulling the cord.
Turns out the fuel pump was leaking into the case on the PTO side. I put new gaskets into the pump but what a pain it was to get the gas out. Finally I had to let it run for about 5 minutes with the pump totally disconnected. I also added a fuel shutoff so we shouldn't get into this mess again.

With that done I pulled both the Polaris and the Cat out and Angie, our neighbor Bill and I had a fun time chasing each other around the yard with the two sleds. It was fun to compare the difference 8 years of development made. The Cobra is so much more civilized. Part of that can be attributed to the Mikuni carbs on the Polaris but most of it is the improved clutch and suspension. Bill said it best "You've got so much more control".

I like this shot, Angie is all sweetness and light, you can't tell that she'd just moments earlier been stuck and I'd had to bust my spleen to get the sled moving again. I don't know how she can stick a sled from a standing start like she does but she seems to manage it...

Through out it all the Cobra ran like a champ never missing a beat. The Wankel Panther with its stupid Tillotson HL on the other hand. Theres a kit to replace the HL with a Mikuni but its over a hundred bucks...