Center spring adjustment

[JCviper]

Man I wish I has known before I dropped 3 bills. Should I go with curves? Or arctic cat

 

[tsiceman]

I am running c&a razor with sno trackers on my winder. They work, very light steering. I also have a bill mohr spring.

I bought my sled used with c&a and shapers on it, it was terrible heavy steering. I almost hit a tree because I couldn't turn it!

 

[DMCTurbo]

I run C&As on my winder with 6" slim jims, love them. I would loosen off your front shocks until the spring is basically loose and then tighten 2 turns. That is the first thing I do on every new sled. I then adjust the centre shock until I get the steering set to my liking.

 

[Kkurz]

Man I wish I has known before I dropped 3 bills. Should I go with curves? Or arctic cat

Cheapest upgrade for these sleds is the Cat single keel skis. I run Snotrackers on mine and it rocks.
I'd tighten the centershock spring more before you touch the ski shocks. If you crank the preload on the skis, you raise the sleds center of gravity and screw your corning ability. You should take the sled to a trail to set it up. It's pretty hard to do in your yard. You have to be able to feel what it's doing coming on the throttle and coming off the throttle. Get a couple of shock spring wrenches and take an hour where you have a straight stretch and some corners to drop into.

 

[Joseph Zaloker]

JCviper, I have the same sled as you and over the years I have been upgrading the factory suspension and carbides to enable better handling on the trail. I don't know much about the model of CA skis you bought so I won't comment there. I started by setting the recoil spring setting based on my weight. The recoil spring is the first adjustment to make and can easily adjusted in the garage or on the trail using the tool kit supplied by Yamaha.

1. Place a piece of masking tape of the back bumper handle and mark a horizontal line on it
2. Lift the machine using the rear bumper/handle a couple of time to fully extend the suspension
3. Using a tape measure, measure the distance from the floor to the line on the piece of tape you added and record the measurement
4. With a full tank of gas sit on the machine with your riding gear and have a friend make the same measurement.
5. You are looking for 2.0- 3.0" of dip maximum.
6. If it is greater/less than then you need to adjust the recoil cam to increase or decrease the tension on the recoil spring.
6a Only adjust the cam one position at a time and perform on both cams - and rotate is a increasing way. Don't go from say the lowest the highest, rather go from lowest to next level of height to the next level of height. I am 250 lbs and I have mine set to the thickest setting.
7. Next raise the front end of the sled and as suggested remove all of the pressure on the coils, the -retighten until snug.
8. I would start with three full rotations on the spring collars as a starting point and ride.
9 Regarding the center spring and strap I have not adjusted mine ever, only as a point of reference.
10. I don't think I saw what shocks you have on the front of the sled. I updated to the Elka Stage 3 shocks and have never looked back. No more tipping, no more ski lift, and the ability to change the damper on the trail via the clickers is amazing. Friends don't let friends ride those poor cheap shocks many sleds come with.
11. Lastly I run 6.0" and 4.5" Stud Boy shaper bars on the sled. The 4.5" is on the outside of the skis.
12. Once you get the machine to a good know point then change the skis to test steering and performance. This way you are testing the just the skis and can make determination the CA skis require more pressure to turn.
Good luck

 

[JCviper]

I agree Rtbo I just didn't have the heart to tell him. To take out pre load on front springs you need to take the weight off the ski's and loosen up the collars, back them all the way off and then just snug them up so the spring doesn't move.

Ok,so I am trying to take the pre load out of the front ski springs. To back them of I need to turn the collar to the left? (Counter clockwise) because this seems wrong. The shock is showing more thread at the top after some turning it seems to be gaining threads shouldn't it be moving up?

 

[Kkurz]

Righty tighty. Less preload means you are lengthening the spring.

 

[JCviper]

I run C&As on my winder with 6" slim jims, love them. I would loosen off your front shocks until the spring is basically loose and then tighten 2 turns. That is the first thing I do on every new sled. I then adjust the centre shock until I get the steering set to my liking.

Are they c&a xpt?

 

[JCviper]

JCviper, I have the same sled as you and over the years I have been upgrading the factory suspension and carbides to enable better handling on the trail. I don't know much about the model of CA skis you bought so I won't comment there. I started by setting the recoil spring setting based on my weight. The recoil spring is the first adjustment to make and can easily adjusted in the garage or on the trail using the tool kit supplied by Yamaha.

1. Place a piece of masking tape of the back bumper handle and mark a horizontal line on it
2. Lift the machine using the rear bumper/handle a couple of time to fully extend the suspension
3. Using a tape measure, measure the distance from the floor to the line on the piece of tape you added and record the measurement
4. With a full tank of gas sit on the machine with your riding gear and have a friend make the same measurement.
5. You are looking for 2.0- 3.0" of dip maximum.
6. If it is greater/less than then you need to adjust the recoil cam to increase or decrease the tension on the recoil spring.
6a Only adjust the cam one position at a time and perform on both cams - and rotate is a increasing way. Don't go from say the lowest the highest, rather go from lowest to next level of height to the next level of height. I am 250 lbs and I have mine set to the thickest setting.
7. Next raise the front end of the sled and as suggested remove all of the pressure on the coils, the -retighten until snug.
8. I would start with three full rotations on the spring collars as a starting point and ride.
9 Regarding the center spring and strap I have not adjusted mine ever, only as a point of reference.
10. I don't think I saw what shocks you have on the front of the sled. I updated to the Elka Stage 3 shocks and have never looked back. No more tipping, no more ski lift, and the ability to change the damper on the trail via the clickers is amazing. Friends don't let friends ride those poor cheap shocks many sleds come with.
11. Lastly I run 6.0" and 4.5" Stud Boy shaper bars on the sled. The 4.5" is on the outside of the skis.
12. Once you get the machine to a good know point then change the skis to test steering and performance. This way you are testing the just the skis and can make determination the CA skis require more pressure to turn.
Good luck

You still using the tuner2s?

 

[Joe blk viper]

Man I wish I has known before I dropped 3 bills. Should I go with curves? Or arctic cat

Mess with that front spring tightening it up ride tighten another turn ride. It takes a little time spent but you won’t be dissatisfied in the end. I felt the same way at first but made the adjustments and they are fantastic and it is easy to steer and turn. My girlfriend rode it for two days in the UP she’s 5’4 120 and she is not a muscle head and thought it steered just fine. This was after my adjustment just on the lift. When I ripped it it was a whole new sled.