Blew belts at 80 miles. I spent thousands of dollars to fix this problem, I have input from a lot of racers, aftermarket manufacturers, dealers, engineers. I have 5878 miles on my sidewinder & this past week I finally have it to a point I CANNOT BLOW A BELT! The spec that Yamaha is bs in my opinion. It works for one but not others. WHY , simple - quality control. We all know some sleds have a shim, maybe 2, to far out or in...
We got my 2 sidewinders to be able to withstand full throttle pulls time after time, 8000 rpm runs till your thumb was tired and then bang it wide open, Non stop hour rides as fast as we could go.(Chapleau to Searchmont ) in 4 hours. It doesn't blow anymore. 1578 miles this past week. 2 sidewinders both with TD flash running 265 powertrail.
Long story- not short, this is what how we did it & we are running now. ( not talking about the stuff that didn't work or how many springs, weights, primary & things that do not fix the issue.) For starters you must have the alinement tool from Hurricane. ( primary & secondary are not all the same thickness ) The tool allows you the only way I have found to measure wear the BELT RIDES, not how thick a casting is or how much was cut off a casting. Once you see how far out of alinement you are the hard part starts. I had to have my secondary shaft milled down 342/1000 & remove all shims to get it were I am running it now. ( this number is different from machine to machine or if we changed primary or secondary, this is why you must have the tool to start.) I worked with Micro Belmont to have my secondary shaft cut down. ( THANKS GARY ) NOTE: I cut down the aluminum plug the same amount as what I had cut off the secondary shaft. ( Thanks to PATS Motorsports) By cutting the plug ( part # 8kc-RA714-00-00) down it solved the floating clutch problem i got when we cut the secondary. Now its none floating or a fixed secondary. (ONLY 1 sled needed to have any cut off secondary to get it alined.) Next we needed OEM YAMAHA PARTS. larger secondary shims, cost about $1 each, 2 different sizes. part number 8jp-RA448-00-00 & 8jp-Ra449-00-00. (1mm and 2mm shim) AND small shims 8kc-RA446-00-00 & 8kc-RA447-00-00, .2 & .5 thick. Use the large shims to get the EXACT ALINEMENT!!! Nothing except exactly perfect will work. I quote dave from Hurricane: GET IT EXACT!
Now the secondary is alined you need to Buy a new helix, stock helix is a major part of the problem in our opinion. (YAMAHA changed the helix on the new 2019 models??) Because they are part of the problem? We are now running the Thunder Products secondary rollers & Holeshot 33/35 helix and also went added the Dalton Orange secondary spring. Why this product, just the brand WE picked with input from people we talked to. This helix shifts smooth & backshift smooth not allowing slack in the belt like the stock helix does. Now it time to set belt deflection or belt ride hight & engagement. We have our belts VERY lose. Belt sits very high on secondary 1/8 above or more. We have ours so it is able to just spin, turn or rotate the belt without primary or secondary moving. (TRAIL SETUP, NOT FOR OFF TRAIL, LOOSE BELTS WILL BLOW IN POWER EVERTIME)
By doing this the sidewinder belt life increased a lot, But we were not satisfied, we both were having primary spring bind, I broke my first primary spring in less than 500 miles & and jasons lasted much long with glide washers, but still broke, we tested different weights & springs. 1 sled runs Dalton QAY-70 and 1 sled runs Dalton DTYA -1 weights. WHY? by mistake, Two same model sleds, same flash, same helix, Completely different shifting & top end speed with these weights, so different you would not believe you are ridding matching sleds, not even close. We both like the spring rate of stock springs but by adding the Dalton Black Green spring to the primary the horsepower came ALIVE, not for everyone, very jumpy, quick or racy feeling. Along with the spring we installed Thunder products glide washers to cut down on the primary spring bind. (helps but still broke a STOCK spring with them.)
Belts -- 8jp's we cannot get to last on flashed sidewinders. So we went to 8dn belts. How? We simple added shims to the belt ride hight. We had to add different combinations of shims to get the very loose belt that is needed to make the belts last. NOTE: remember I need to cut my plug, so how much you add WILL be different from sled to sled. ( factory shims a .2 & .5 thick. we are running a equivalent to .7 or one of each. MOST PEOPLE disagree with adding this much shim, but we aren't blowing belts anymore.
This is no BS, NO product pusher, just what a spent, THOUSANDS of dollars to enjoy my sled, I HATED this sidewinder from the first ride. Now at lease it doesn't blow belts.