Anyone drill and tap in drain & fill plugs on chaincase yet?

[XP123]

I've taken mine apart twice now and I thought it was much easier than my 1200 Doo's. No problem with the torx bolts or anything else. This year I drilled out the rivets on the bottom panel and put in rivet nuts. Now it's really easy to work on the chain case. I did have a problem on a couple Doo's with those self tapping screws stripping out.

 

[hardfacer]

I would advise against using epoxy. Saw too many times that an epoxy repair came in for Welding after it failed. Also you cannot weld Aluminum to Magnesium.

 

[hibshman25]

For quick lower belly removal I've replace rivets with plastic push pins. Just need to drill the holes out to a larger diameter.

http://www.barnofparts.com/apps/webstore/products/show/7107089


Nice thing about these push pins is you don't have to pry the inner pin out to remove them like the nytro style push pins. You simply just press the inner pin in and it releases

 

[Beerman]

Thought about that Jamie, but then I'd never get the last bit of heavy oil off the bottom of the case, ya I know, it's a OCD thing, but at that point I'd think about just vacuuming the oil out.

Thought about epoxy to glue a boss to the bottom of the case too. I've used epoxy to build ports in cylinders and cases before on the two-strokes, but not too sure I want to trust it to the bottom of a chain case. Well, no guts, no glory. Maybe its time, if I cant tap the magnesium decent, I could epoxy on an alum boss on after.

Mike, do you know any cylinder head guys? I can call a good friend of mine in MI that owns a speed shop (Alternative Auto) and see if his guy will tell me, they use a special epoxy to reshape intake and exhaust ports. Granted, it's bonding to aluminum and not magnesium, but still, it has to be a hell of a lot better than JB Weld. It's not as common as it used to be since most modern heads are pretty good and boost solves most airflow issues.

 

[Beerman]

Don't get me started on TORX!!!!!!!!!!

It's been well documented all across the inter web and the twitter - Textron owns the patent on Torx, so they get a few pennies for every single bolt, fastener and tool that uses the pattern. Fractions of a penny when they're made in China because of the trade imbalance Obama agreed to, but when you're making 1,000,000,000 a day it adds up pretty quickly. If you have your packaging from a Torx tool it's there in fine print somewhere.

At least I think it's been well documented, has to be somewhere, there's no other way to explain why Arctic Cat would have made half the bolts on our sled with these STUPID fasteners.

 

[ROCKERDAN]

Guys how do these look for nutserts/rivnuts....the M5 is what we want correct?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/80pcs-M3-m...108309?hash=item1ebfeeaa55:g:gnUAAOSwZQRYf9Y2

This kit will give me a ton of sizes for extra to have and the lesser quantities are not much cheaper so I sorta like his kit.

So what length m5 SS bolts/screws are you guys using then?

Have not looked at sled yet so not even sure if we need a nice button head for looks or not, let me know and a pic or two of them all installed would really be nice.

Dan

 

[TurboJamie]

Mike, do you know any cylinder head guys? I can call a good friend of mine in MI that owns a speed shop (Alternative Auto) and see if his guy will tell me, they use a special epoxy to reshape intake and exhaust ports. Granted, it's bonding to aluminum and not magnesium, but still, it has to be a hell of a lot better than JB Weld. It's not as common as it used to be since most modern heads are pretty good and boost solves most airflow issues.

It's called Devcon
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51i3aI7jV8L._SX342_.jpg

The trouble with the gear case and using ANY adhesive or trying to weld do it is that it has been in oil since day one. Trying to weld that correctly or get anything to bond to it on an acceptable level to ensure reliability and durability is near impossible. Drilling and tapping or going the bulkhead fitting route is about all that is acceptable.

BRP finally smartened up on the 850 case, it has a mint drain plug in it, you can drain, flush and refill the gear oil in about 15 minutes, or 2 beer.

 

[Beerman]

Guys how do these look for nutserts/rivnuts....the M5 is what we want correct?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/80pcs-M3-m...108309?hash=item1ebfeeaa55:g:gnUAAOSwZQRYf9Y2

This kit will give me a ton of sizes for extra to have and the lesser quantities are not much cheaper so I sorta like his kit.

So what length m5 SS bolts/screws are you guys using then?

Have not looked at sled yet so not even sure if we need a nice button head for looks or not, let me know and a pic or two of them all installed would really be nice.

Dan

I have a handful of those that I bought to fix the mounting holes for a belly pan on my Apex. I'll measure them tonight as I can't remember what size they are, but definitely metric. Though I'm kinda with Mike on this one, I think you'd still have a fair amount of oil in the bottom of the chain case with them.

 

[snowbeast]

For quick lower belly removal I've replace rivets with plastic push pins. Just need to drill the holes out to a larger diameter.

http://www.barnofparts.com/apps/webstore/products/show/7107089


Nice thing about these push pins is you don't have to pry the inner pin out to remove them like the nytro style push pins. You simply just press the inner pin in and it releases

Do you have instructions for what size drill bit to use,and pics are always nice. thanks

 

[snowbeast]

For quick lower belly removal I've replace rivets with plastic push pins. Just need to drill the holes out to a larger diameter.

http://www.barnofparts.com/apps/webstore/products/show/7107089


Nice thing about these push pins is you don't have to pry the inner pin out to remove them like the nytro style push pins. You simply just press the inner pin in and it releases

Hi bro. how many does each side use,i like the thought of these vrs renuts.

 

[Sevey]

There are 9 per side.
I have recently drilled all my rivets out and replaced with SS 6mm rivnuts. I am planning to use 6mm hex head bolts with a wide washer to re fasten panel to frame. Should work great.

Get a good riv nut gun - the one with the handle that looks like bolt cutters, not a pop riveter type. Some of those go in with a lot of force as they have to crimp with thick material. Rivnuts work best with one layer of alum, some areas like in the shock tower require a fair bit of force cause the material is real thick.

Back to the chain case. Has someone tried using a rivnut to use a drain plug on the chain case? You would have to have the flush end on the inside. You could create a fill hole in the top as well....anyone....????
MS

 

[snowbeast]

For quick lower belly removal I've replace rivets with plastic push pins. Just need to drill the holes out to a larger diameter.

http://www.barnofparts.com/apps/webstore/products/show/7107089


Nice thing about these push pins is you don't have to pry the inner pin out to remove them like the nytro style push pins. You simply just press the inner pin in and it releases

Yup,that's what I plan on doing,need a few other things from you to.

 

[hibshman25]

Back to the original post....I'm working on a drain kit for the chain case. Waiting for my prototype to come in from the machine shop.

 

[jagger2014]

has anyone thought of using a rubber plug

 

[cannondale27]

I don’t see how a plug for easy drain addresses the potential top gear bushing wear and crud stuck to all the magnets in there. Would be nice for a quick change if a guy sunk sled in water Or to keep oil from going all over but really other than that it needs to be cleaned and inspected.