Steering the Ski-Doo

Yesterday's ride made me think about the steering on that big Ski-Doo, its always been a little weird and lately it darts all over the place. I asked about alignment over on the Vintage Sleds board and got:

Never toe in, I always use a bungee cord to pull the ski's together and set the alignment about 1/8" toe out. then when the cord is released pull the ski's apart, the slop in the bushings and pins will be apparent, then measure again. Usually I end up with about 1/4"- 3/8" toe out.

Which is good, I couldn't remember if it was toe in or toe out.

I'd intended to get to it today but it rained all dang day, sometimes real hard, theres flooding in some of the low areas and our sump pump came on once or twice. Tonight its supposed to turn real cold, with luck my sleds won't all be frozen down 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.

New belt, new problems...

You might remember last year when I had the Pantera frozen to the ground and had to tow it with the Cobra to get unstuck, you can read all the gory details here. Well in all that messing around I managed to put a flat spot on the belt. In looking at it you wouldn't think there was much, 2 teeth have a little spot worn off one edge but you can feel it any time you take off and that spot is on the engine side which is about half the time. So I figured we were due for a belt, I don't think I've ever put one on the sled so who knows how old it is.

I got Randy to order me a new Dayco MAX. The MAX series is their hardcore strong belts, figure I'll not need to worry about it for a good long time, its spendy but I really like this sled. I picked it up the other day and installed it yesterday.

I noticed that after I installed it the sled started hard, well thats odd... Rode a lap around the yard and then out to head to the trail. Got to the trailhead and stopped to adjust my helmet, when I did the sled quit. Thats odd too, this sled has been running very well. When I tried to restart I realized the engine was pulling over really hard. I pulled the new belt off and reinstalled the old one.

Got going again but the engine sounded BAD. Oh man, old gas and crud in the carb yet again. Oh well, turned around and headed for home. I'm happy to say I made it home without help but I was frustrated so I left the Cat and took the big Ski-Doo out instead.

Today I pulled the carb (brrr its cold!) and although it looked fine I cleaned it again, even took the jets out and ran them through my ultrasonic cleaner. Reinstalled and the sled started right up but still ran weird, didn't sound right and stalled out. Pulled the plugs and they were both wet. Put in new (well new to this sled) plugs and it started right up with no choke and ran great...

I posted about it on the VintageSleds board and got:

I ran into the same problem with a 85 El Tigre 6000.  The cogs on top of the belt seem to make the belt either shorter or wider and it engages the side of the clutch.  You will have to see if you can find a old stock belt.  I put the original back on.  If you have the dimensions of the new belt look for a slightly longer one.

He goes on to suggest  a Dayco HP3006 but hasn't actually used one himself. MFG Supply suggests a Dayco HP3012.

So now I'm all confused. Fortunately theres still some miles in the old Kimpex belt. I'll spend some time looking for one of those and maybe call Troy Arctic Cat and see what they suggest. If they can get a real Arctic Cat belt for not too much money I'll do that. With luck somebody will come on VintageSleds who has figured this one out.

Engine out

Got some time to pull the engine out of the Polaris Cobra. Actually an easier job than I'd thought. The last engine I'd pulled was the Wankel Panther, a job made more difficult due to no sockets on the wiring. This one maybe took me 20 minutes start to finish.

With the engine out I made sure to mark the stator, I don't want to lose the timing settings, I don't have a timing tool to reset them with and don't really want to buy one. When I rebuilt the 300cc in the old Ski-Doo I used my multi-meter but thats a single cylinder engine with the simplest points system imaginable.

I hauled the engine down to the shop to pull the clutch. Randy and I messed with it a little but this is something I really want Chuck for, he pulls a lot of clutches and knows which tool to use just by looking at it. I left it there the day after Christmas but haven't had time to get back yet. I intend to go today, hopefully they're open, we're in the midst of the latest "storm of the century" which promises a good amount of snow. Once I get the engine home it should be no big whoop to get the oil seals in and get it all back together. Then let the Three Bond set overnight in the warm basement and have it installed and running tomorrow...

Got sleds?

Friday I finally had time to go get the battery for the Ski-Doo, installation was no big issue and it fired up like it'd been run yesterday. I really shouldn't complain about this sled. I haven't ridden it much but it also hasn't asked for much from me. Getting it out of its parking space was a bit of a challenge, I'd parked it on a pallet and since it doesn't have any picks it really didn't have any traction. I jockeyed it back and forth for awhile and it finally came out. My biggest complaint about this machine is that the backup beeper is REALLY LOUD. Its like driving a big truck...

After I took this pic I put the windscreen on. I take it off during the summer so it doesn't get bent or broken.

The Wankel Panther didn't have spark so I pulled the recoil and its cup and cleaned the points. Caig Deoxit to the rescue again. After only 2 strips of business card I had good spark and the sled fired up with little trouble. I rode it about 10 feet, came of throttle and went right over the handlebars. It was warm and the snow was very sticky and that sled tends to stop quick anyway and I was caught off guard. I landed with my hands on the headlight and the windshield across my chest. Even 3 days later I can still feel the line across my chest where I landed. Last year after the blizzard Angie did a similar trick but landed with her face on the handlebars, this is clearly a machine to be careful on.

I made a couple laps of the yard with each machine and then tarped them up.

Unfortunately the weather turned warm, it was actually over 50F for the next 2 days and nights and the snow has rapidly disappeared. Today its colder, just over freezing but its raining which is even worse. The only good side is that there wasn't much ice on the lakes so now it'll hopefully get a chance to freeze without snow on so people who can't resist the allure won't be killed by thin ice.

New snow and the taste of failure

This month's "Storm of the Century" is upon us, 10-12" of snow overnight into tomorrow. I'm glad I got the Pantera out already.

So I decided it was finally time to deal with the Cobra which if you remember seemed to have iffy spark last year. Tonight I pulled the exhaust and recoil and cleaned the points. Interestingly there seemed to be a coating of black crap on them. I cleaned and cleaned.

For cleaning I turn the flywheel until one set of points is open, then I shoot some Caig Deoxit into the gap, then spin to the other side and repeat. I bought some 100% Deoxit in the hope it would do an even better job than the already excellent regular Deoxit which is only like 20%. They sell lower strength formulations to be safe on sensitive electronics. Points really aren't all that sensitive so the 100% stuff seems the way to go here.

After they sit for a minute and the Deoxit softens whatever crud is in there I flip the flywheel until the points are closed, then open them with a screwdriver and stick in a piece of cardstock. In this case I'm using cut up strips of business card.

Yank on the strip and it pulls crud off the points. Flip it around, open the points and repeat. Snip off the dirty part and repeat, then throw it away, get a new strip and repeat. And repeat, and repeat.

Reassembled and tried to fire it up. It'll go and sometimes even fire on both sides but not reliably. The mag side is firing 100% while the PTO side is recalcitrant. I need to look up which set of points controls which plug as I can't remember. I'd guess the rear since it was dirtier.

Anyway I took it all apart again and this time even pulled the flywheel. Thats when I found a little oil below the stator plate. I think the reason the points are so dirty is that the crank seal on this side has been leaking and allowing the gas/oil mix from this side to get out a little. That might explain why the points are so dirty after a relatively short amount of running.

So it looks like I need to do crank seals. I've actually never done them before on anything other than the old single cylinder Rotax in the Ski-Doo 12/3. It'll be an adventure.

Tomorrow I'll give the old Wankel Panther a shot. I probably should have tried it today instead of the Polaris. Last time I tried to revive the Panther it had the same spark trouble but responded very positively to cleaning. Hopefully this year it'll just go, I hate working outside in the snow.

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...