Checking your rear skid

[Cubby's RX-1]

So I started tearing my rear skid apart to start chroming it and wow the broken and worn out stuff I found. Sheesh. Only 2,500 miles on it. the W bracket was cracked in 4 places, worn out plastic bushings everywhere, even a threaded aluminum rod that slides into the top of the W bracket was worn out on one side. I'm not even going to talk about how bad the bearings were on the inside upper and lower wheels. This is just a little warning to check out your sleds underneath because I sure was surprised to find all this on my sled because I constantly grease everything like every other ride.--- Cubby

 

[POWERHAULIC]

Last week I serviced the stock pro-action beacuse I am putting it back in to do some speed runs.
It was removed at 1400mi. both upper w-arm bushings were shot big time the shaft was worn heavily at both ends.
Slides were at about 50%, all wheels and bearings were OK.
w-arm has a crack starting on one side.

 

[170plus]

ive wrote this into a bunch of different posts,cost me 275 bucks to replace all bad bushings and wheel bearings,2 outside rear wheels are 85 bucks from yamaha and you cant replace the bearings so i now have 2 aftermarket ones on there,i thought it was a good thing i saved all that money on 2 stroke oil cause i needed it to repair skid and the front end wow take the weight off fron suspension and wiggle the ski,you will find some more worn bushings,outer a-arm bushings are 10 bucks apiece and you need 8 of them,i wasnt too impressed with this deal at all,no way to lube them so just replace them once a year i guess,my 2 cents

 

[xcsp]

Check your rear skid

I'm looking at going with a new Vector (2006?) but not crazy on Yamaha's thinking with their rear skids and use of these plastic bushings, and no way to lube them or push moisture (water) out without having to remove the skid and disassembly.

Looks like an annual maintenance item which I could live w/o. What type of mileage can a guy get out of these skids w/o major work. Will the new monoshock skid be better-hoping it goes in the Vector for '06!

 

[Silver]

My 98 SRX had 8,000 miles and 5 seasons on it.At 6000mi W arm broke fixed that and changed the bushing while I had it out some were worn out and some weren't.I never had one bearing go bad in the rear skid.The only bearing that went out was on the jack shaft chain case side. So it was not a high maintenence item for me.Maybe there using cheaper stuff these days.

 

[BIG BLACK WARRIOR]

With all the posts about bad bushings, bearings, and cracked W-arms, I thought I better take my suspension out, check everything over and change the Hy-fax. I have about 3,700 miles on the sled. Everything looked fine to me, and I weight 255 lbs, about 265 fully suited up, so I guess I am lucky not to have any problems on the suspension yet.

 

[POWERHAULIC]

BBW, Must be cuz you ride like an old woman :lol:

 

[YammiMoose]

W arm repairs.

I have encountered this issue on all my Yamahas since 1997

97 SX
2000 SRX
2002 Viper

I finally had someone strengthen it up by adding some addition bracing to the front section to my Viper. Holding strong after 9000 miles!

Just snowed checked a 2005 Rx1 ER.... Red rules!!!!!!
Can’t wait until October….

 

[4Fighter]

I think Yamaha really dropped the ball on that design :roll:

Hopefully I can pick-up an '05 mono-shock skid and seat for less than the nasty hit I'd take trading in my '04. Oh yeah and some Elka's or Ohlin's all-the-way-around would be nice too :wink:

 

[kawman]

good trick for hookup i tried while i had the sc10-3 in my rx1 take your trasfer rods out and ad a inch af tread on them or you can cut a quarter of each of the the two adjusting nuts off if you dont care if people see what you did i moved the siser bare back so i cuold let it drop right down but wow what a differance in hookeup i could not beat thef7s and sdi skidoos ine 500 feet runs inless it was perfect snow and now my sled beets em out of the hole every time give that a try youll love it . steve