Cross Shaft Damage and Repair info and pics

[tator]

stronger rr shaft part # 3604-711
weaker shaft part #3604-663

 

[ViperRTX-Turbo009]

Ya that sucks ... my dealer knows about it ..he said just drive it till.it breaks or bring it in. I'm going to hope.itll make.it 4 more weeks. That's orb all the winter we got left around here. I have a feeling if I take it in its gonna be gone for a while ....

 

[tator]

i made my own for now. STEEL!

 

[cannondale27]

Works great! No real issue but always nice to have steering lubed and tight.

 

[ksiesel]

Cannondale,

I'm going to be installing the steering bracket upgrade so I'll have access to the bellcrank at that point. I'd like to install a grease fitting on the bellcrank like you did. Do you think I will be able to easily figure out where to drill for the grease fitting without removing the front subframe entirely from the sled? I'm concerned about the front plastic being in the way.

Also, you mentioned in another thread about not over tightening the bolts on the bellcrank because you'd just bend the top and bottom washers. You commented about putting a spacer in the center so it could properly be tightened. Did you end up doing that?

 

[Handy]

Travis at Bop has a repair kit for the tunnel and a reinforcement kit for the shaft.

 

[ksiesel]

Travis at Bop has a repair kit for the tunnel and a reinforcement kit for the shaft.

Handy,

I'm looking for info around the steering bellcrank assembly, not the tunnel cross shaft. I already have plans to install the RR shafts to address that potential issue before it happens.

It looks like Cannondale may be the only one on here who has really done much with the bell crank and it's plastic bushings. I'm trying to take as much slop out of the front end as I can. I'll also plan to file fit the upper and lower a-arms to remove some play there. My goal is to get this Cat chassis to have as little front end play as my 8k mile Poo IQ chassis did.

 

[cannondale27]

Cannondale,

I'm going to be installing the steering bracket upgrade so I'll have access to the bellcrank at that point. I'd like to install a grease fitting on the bellcrank like you did. Do you think I will be able to easily figure out where to drill for the grease fitting without removing the front subframe entirely from the sled? I'm concerned about the front plastic being in the way.

Also, you mentioned in another thread about not over tightening the bolts on the bellcrank because you'd just bend the top and bottom washers. You commented about putting a spacer in the center so it could properly be tightened. Did you end up doing that?

Remove the plastic then drill hole in plastic after fitting the grease fitting.

 

[ksiesel]

Remove the plastic then drill hole in plastic after fitting the grease fitting.

Thanks Cannondale, I'll look at that more this evening.

Did you do anything else in an attempt to eliminate slop? (aftermarket bushings, spacer to be able to tighten the washers more, etc)

 

[ksiesel]

More good info that others may find useful.

Procross from 2012-2017 used plastic bushings 8JP-RA816-00-00 in the bell crank assembly. It looks like they made a change in 2018 on all the Cat and Yamaha models and no longer use these bushings, but instead the bushing is only sold with the front lower sub frame. I suspect those may no longer be plastic bushings, but don't have a way to confirm. The bell crank itself is the same part number from 2012-2019.

FYI, I sent an e-mail to OFT asking if they have any interest in making Oil-lite bushings for the 2012-2017 styles. If they respond with interest, I'll update here.

 

[cannondale27]

Thanks Cannondale, I'll look at that more this evening.

Did you do anything else in an attempt to eliminate slop? (aftermarket bushings, spacer to be able to tighten the washers more, etc)

No I didn’t. It’s been real good and less play than buddies with half the miles.

 

[cannondale27]

I also put grease fittings in spindles for greasing the ski spindle bushing. That sleeve is aluminum wears quickly giving play.

 

[Kkurz]

I also put grease fittings in spindles for greasing the ski spindle bushing. That sleeve is aluminum wears quickly giving play.

Any pics? Spindle and Bell crank nipples?

 

[gpxsrx]

i made my own for now. STEEL!

I also made a steel one more weight but will not break.

 

[ksiesel]

Here is a video of the steering play I was talking about. This Viper has 3500 miles on it and I believe it pretty much had this much play from the day I bought it new. I’ve always been disappointed by this and now I’m finally going to try to do something about it. I have checked other ProCross chassis sleds on the showroom floor and they seem to have just as much play.

You can easily see that the source of the play isn’t tie rod ends and other joints, but instead the pivot for the bellcrank itself. I’m sure just having a pressurized grease port will help, but I may try to go even further. You do have to take the upper plate of the steering post lower mount out (10 rivets to drill out) in order to disassemble to the bushings, but I’m going to update this one to the newer stronger lower mount so it’s a good time to address the bell crank assembly too.

A couple more video's clearly showing the source of the play and the amount of wear on the bell crank stem.