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Cam Chain Tensioner Replacement (3 cylinder engine 05-07)

I have been having the same problems with cold starting/idling as canadianhunter, rage, and bradford, on my 07 venture. The crappy idling and stalling occurs only after the temp light goes off and ends up idling ok after the sled is fully warmed up.

Does anybody know what the electronic control system is doing after this light goes off? Sled runs markedly different after the light goes off. Is the timing advanced or retarded electronically? If so I think the cam chain may be off. My tensioner was updated in 2008 before I owned the sled, I have confirmed it has the blue dot.

Thanks!
 

Or are the electric carb heaters shutting off as the coolant temp comes up to heat the carbs? anyone know the ins and outs of how this works?
 
elyislander said:
I have been having the same problems with cold starting/idling as canadianhunter, rage, and bradford, on my 07 venture. The crappy idling and stalling occurs only after the temp light goes off and ends up idling ok after the sled is fully warmed up.

Does anybody know what the electronic control system is doing after this light goes off? Sled runs markedly different after the light goes off. Is the timing advanced or retarded electronically? If so I think the cam chain may be off. My tensioner was updated in 2008 before I owned the sled, I have confirmed it has the blue dot.

Thanks![/quo

Is this sled carbureted? If so, try larger pilot jets(45's are stock, go to the 50's). these are available at your dealer or through many online sources. I have an 05 rage with the 3-cylinder carbed motor. Would not come off idle properly, died all the time when cold. Grizztracks changed cam chain tensioner, cured funny noise on that side of the motor, but still really boggy off-idle. I installed #50 pilot jets when i cleaned carbs this year. Runs like a different sled coming off idle now. No bog, no problems now.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, yes it is carbed. i do have the #50 pilots in it. It is much better when cold but still a little finicky. Should have held out a few model years for a fuel injected model, I guess.

Still overall I like the sled, just a little annoying when it is warming up.
 
I am starting on this project on a 2006 Rage.

How in the world could you do this job in 4 hours? I am an hour into it already and am staring at the handle bars and all of the wires and cables that will have to come off so I can get the bars out of the way to get the fuel tank out. I am never going to get all this stuff back together correctly... :o|
 
You do not have to remove the bars to get the fuel tank off. You have to remove the seat, unbolt the tank, remove fuel lines and unplug sending unit. Then slide tank back.
 
Thank you! I got the tank off without removing the handlebars.

I do have maybe a slight problem when I get to the reassembly part. My rear muffler came out a bit more than an inch...it came all the way out (see picture).

I guess that clamp wasn't very tight :-(

What would you do to get it back together? Just cram it back in there and fish for the end of the mating pipe, or drill out the 5 rivets in the panel near the back of the snowmobile so I can reclamp the muffler...maybe replace the rivets with captive screws or something?
 

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Your muffler should slip back onto the header without too much trouble. Be carefull not to damage the edge of the exhaust pipe sleeve. I have taken a trailer hitch ball & carefully tapped it into the end of the pipe to give the gasket a bit of a lead in. Do your line up from inside the tunnel.
 
Handy said:
Your muffler should slip back onto the header without too much trouble. Be carefull not to damage the edge of the exhaust pipe sleeve. I have taken a trailer hitch ball & carefully tapped it into the end of the pipe to give the gasket a bit of a lead in. Do your line up from inside the tunnel.
Click to expand...

Yes, thanks. It was a lot easier than I thought because there is a rubber plug right where the two pipes join together that you can remove to tighten the coupling. No need to drill out anything.

The tensioner was a pain the in ###. The old paper gasket was severely stuck on, and I do not have little hands. Lots of WD40 and plastic scraper finally got the old gasket off.
 
A big thanks again to grizztracks for all of the pictures and info.

I got my 2006 Rage tensioner replaced (along with the exhaust donuts) and everything is back together and runs great.

Compared to fixing the problem bearing in the Diamond Drive on my Arctic Cat though, this job was a beast.

I did a lot of extra things while I had the machine apart (grease steering bearings, etc) but all in all the job took me about 16 hours...meaning I think I will keep my day job. Still, it was great to get to know the machine a bit better.
 
Glad to help out. I have two 06 Vectors in the garage now waiting for new tensioners. I'll do both in a day but I've done this a few times.
 
Started to hear the chain tensioner noise at the end of my trip to the UP a couple of weeks ago. Sled has 2596 miles. Put 1500 miles on the sled in the UP and it ran fine.

I have the sled apart except for taking the old tensioner out. My problem is that the cam gears and the timing marks won't line up as described. When I line up the marks on the gears, I have to go approx. 1-2 mm past the two slash marks on the flywheel.

Looks like the engine is one tooth off, but I know it is not, because engine has never been open and it starts and runs fine.

My concern is: when I put the new tensioner in, should the marks on the flywheel line up as they look now or will they line up in between the two slash marks?

Chain seems tight, but could a bad tensioner case the marks to be that far off?

Pictures are what it looks like.
 

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grizztracks can likely give you the correct answer.
Anyway when the dealer did my 2 Rage's I felt that they did not idle as well and needed more warmup. Drove them approx. 2000miles like that. Power and fuel mileage seemed OK. After some grizztracks posts lifted the valve covers and they were both off. Chain had jumped one tooth when dealer did them. Took them back to dealer, he put them back in time and idle and warmup were back to original.
Sounds to me like yours may have slipped a tooth. Your lucky cause if it slipped more the engine would have been distroyed.
 
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