Time for a change?

Now has finally returned to north central MA and as usual I'm caught completely flat footed. Fortunately the '78 Pantera fired up nicely yesterday, took a bunch of pulling but we got there. It needs the tinwork pulled to release a mouse nest but other than that no worries.

The big '95 Ski-Doo was a different story. I put the battery charger on it even though the charger said the battery wasn't taking charge, after sitting all summer the battery should have at least been a little flat, especially considering how little exercise its had for the last 2 years. After an hour I hit the key and the starter goes "thunk" but nothing else happens. I pulled the starter rope to ensure that the engine wasn't seized which it isn't but theres NO WAY I can start the big 670 with the rope. I feel like an 8 year old trying to start a 440cc...

Battery should be here...

So the battery is pooched, hardly a surprise its 5 years old. I headed down to the shop for the bad news, Randy says I'm in for $65 which isn't bad, $13/yr which puts a pretty positive spin on things.

However I've never really fallen in love with this machine, its huge, its heavy, I can't start it without the electric start. I think its time to move on. The boys hanging around the shop knew of a couple 440/500cc fan cooled 2up machines in the $1000 range. We refinanced the house this year so money is actually more available than it has been in the past. A quick look at Craigslist shows a bunch of machines in the $1500 range, some with reasonably low miles.

So I guess I'm in the market for a new machine:
370-500cc
Fan cooled
2up
Electric Start
Reverse

At this point in my life reverse is something I really like. I'm thinking 2up because then Angie can ride with me, I think 2up sleds also have a smoother ride just from being longer. That said I could give up on a 2up since Angie rides with me very infrequently and we've got extra machines so she could ride her own. I could also give up electric start if I had a machine I could pull over myself although I really like estart.

Finally I'd like something with a lot less throttle weight. The 670 is a wrist breaker. I spent some time last year lubing all the cables and it got a little better but its got 2 huge carbs with big springs, its never going to have an easy throttle. Apparently theres a throttle lightener which costs you some top end. I don't really care about top end but I've never been find one...

Got my grip on!

Last jobs on getting the heated grips wired up were to connect ground and power. For ground I pulled one of the screws that holds the handlebars in place, the Polly Heater grips come with a ring terminal that fit perfectly though I should have shortened the leads a little before crimping it together.
Finally for the hot lead there was a wire with a banana plug lying next to the fuel filter which was t-tapped into the voltage regulator. My test light show it was hot, I ran it through a 4a fuse to the switch.

I couldn't get the spade lugs Polly Heater provided to work with the wires since with the exception of the hot lead you're connecting 2 wires at a time so I used some other larger (and more protected) ones I had.

With everything connected I fired up the sled and flipped the switch, the headlight dimmed so clearly 2 things are true:

1. Everything is wired up correctly
2. The electrical system is marginal for these heaters.

On low its not so bad, the headlight dims but its not the end of the world. I don't think running the electrics full on will hurt anything but I should ask. Maybe I'll look into swapping in the lighting coils from a newer sled.

Coming to Grips

The mailman delivered my new Poly Heaters grips today so even though it was 10F in the garage I knew I needed to put in some time.

Outside grip Poly Heaters are nice because they're easy to install, slide 'em over the bar, drill a 1/8" hole, install a screw and you're done. If they need to come back off its no big deal, especially if you spray the bar with something like WD-40. Normally WD-40 is something to avoid, its not a lubricant although most people use it for that purpose. In this case it makes a nice water seal between the bars and the grips and it dries to a film that sticks around and resists rust a little.

I had to spend a little time on the throttle side because at full throttle the grip would grab the thumb throttle a little and hold it wide open, obviously not something I want to encounter on the trail! A few seconds with the drum sander in my rotary tool plus installing the throttle side grip a little farther out cleared up the interference issue and I got both grips installed.

I routed the wiring for the heaters down the bars with a couple zip ties and found there was already a hole drilled to install the switch near the keyswitch.

Here you can see the switch for the heaters installed between the keyswitch and the choke control. Its not wired up all the way yet, I wired from the heaters to the switch but I still need to figure out where my ground is coming from and where I'm going to pick up power. Theres a wire tapped out of the voltage regulator already which I suspect will provide ground and ground shouldn't be too hard to come up with. Before I do anything else though I need to get a fuse to install between the switch and the power lead. There aren't really any fuses on this sled at all as it has such a simple electrical system and I don't want a shorted heater to burn my sled down...