front a arms twisted.

[snowbeast]

Have 1500 miles on my pioneer front end kit with no problems.

How much wider does it feel going thru the trails,and do you have stock skis on,i have much wider than stock skis and am now afraid if i install the wide kit i will have problems with some smaller trails,plus right now its a bugger to load two sleds inside my trailer with my new skis,but i like the wide idea.

 

[joey1]

The spindle shouldn't bend, though it may break. Either the outside bolts have now got an S shape to them, or the A-rms have twisted. Likely both. Changing out the a-arms is a snap. They're just very pricey from the dealer. Got mine from South Seattle Sports Plaza. Even with delivery, exchange and handling charges I still saved $200.

I can guarantee that the spindle is bent on my apex mtn and the bolts that hold it on to the a-arms were only bent enough to make it a bitch to get them out. I had to beat the snot out of my spindle to get the shaft down far enough to let the steering arm off.

I haven't ordered the new a-arms yet until I try to install the new spindle. I am guessing the outer part of the spindle is a cast aluminum and the shaft inside is all steel. I hope this works cause I don't want to disassemble the whole damned front end to put on these arms. It looks like a whole pile of rivets and crap to do. I hope I can tweak the arms back into shape because there are no dints or kinks or any visible damage whatsoever.

Is there a measuring point i can use on both sides to see if my arms are pushed back?

Thanks again
Clint

 

[craze1cars]

I'll be ordering up a set of '07s next time because yamaha reenforced them with extra gussetting.

This is interesting and new to me. Is this yet another part that Yamaha has upgraded between 06 and 07? Or is this a rumor?

Check out the upper a-arms on a 2007 Apex and you will see 4 gussets not present on my 06 attack.

Thanks. That's very interesting. I would love to see a photo comparison between the two since I don't have both at my disposal right now. I will be keeping an eye out however to look for these differences.

Ever since the 07's first started to be delivered this summer the whole forum was saying "no changes" between 06 and 07 except handwarmers. Now we're slowly learning of some more little tweaks...different chaincase parts, a few models got reinforcements in the tunnels, now we have reinforced A-arms, and there's still rumbling/rumors of different shock valving and possibly different computer mapping, but I haven't heard of any authoritative confirmation on those two.

Not saying there's anything wrong with all these tweaks...in fact it is as it should be as models improve over the years. But I just find it interesting how this info seems to gradually weep out over time and nobody knew of it or was willing to admit it when the 07's were first introduced.

 

[hayastusa]

The inside a-arm bolts can be accessed by taking off the lower nose panel (five screws), and the nuts can easily be reached by taking out the battery box. No major disassembly required. You'd be better off taking the arms off if you're going to try and straighted them. Hate to break the bulkhead while tweaking them. I was able to straighten an upper a-arm in a vise, but the lowers are much more difficult.
Hmmm! Bent cast...that's new to me.

 

[joey1]

I probably won't have to pull off the battery if I'm replacing the clutch side a-arm correct? Also I went out and measured from a reference point i used on each side of the tunnel and the left hand lower arm is about a half an inch out so I'll be orderring for one of those in the morning, my upper arm is ok though so thats a relief I'm only spending another $350.00 to fix this puts me at nearly a thousand dollars so far. My dealer won't give a nickel off of list for parts and I can't wait 3 weeks to get parts out of the states.

 

[gamer1]

How much wider does it feel going thru the trails,and do you have stock skis on,i have much wider than stock skis and am now afraid if i install the wide kit i will have problems with some smaller trails,plus right now its a bugger to load two sleds inside my trailer with my new skis,but i like the wide idea.
Does not seem any wider on the trail's. I have about 1400 miles with the stock ski and 50 miles with simmons. I can load my apex with the simmon's ski and a Rev on my two place. Totally different machine with the simmon's.

 

[hayastusa]

I probably won't have to pull off the battery if I'm replacing the clutch side a-arm correct? I'm only spending another $350.00 to fix this puts me at nearly a thousand dollars so far. My dealer won't give a nickel off of list for parts and I can't wait 3 weeks to get parts out of the states.

That is correct you can get at the left side OK. For me saving the $$ was worth the wait (about 10 days right before Christmas). Besides I was still able to ride with the damage until I received the parts.

 

[craze1cars]

Check out the upper a-arms on a 2007 Apex and you will see 4 gussets not present on my 06 attack.

Just got in from working a bit on my 07 Attak so I took a close look at my upper A-arms. There are no gussets...just welded tubular steel. The lower A-arm has gussets (they have holes drilled in them to mount A-arm protectors). The whole setup looks identical to every close-up picture of the 06's I can find in my stash of last year's magazines. So if there's actually been some sort of change to the upper A-arms or anywhere else in the front suspension, it did not come on my 07 Attak.

Again I'd love to see a pic of what we're talking about here if it actually exists, just for my own understanding. If there's a stronger alternative, I will want to seriously consider it if/when I bent my A-arms, which I'm unfortunately somewhat famous for.

 

[hayastusa]

Hmmm. I wonder why the 07 Apex mountain has reenforced upper a-arms and the 07 Attak doesn't. Anyone? Can't put Apex mtn upper a-arms on my Attak. They must be shorter as the stance is narrower. Isn't it?

 

[craze1cars]

Ahhh....didn't realize you were talking Apex Mountain. Indeed I'm sure they're different due to ski stance difference. Doubt you could just bolt them on without other mods...like different length tie rods for example. Also doubt you'd want a narrower stance on your sled anyway. Just thinking out loud but I don't really know the answer.

Very odd that the longer (therefore weaker) Apex arms would be non-reinforced, and the shorter/stronger Mountain arms have reinforcements. Maybe they're just expecting the mountain arms would take more abuse...which is likely quite true.

Still interesting. Thanks.

 

[hayastusa]

In an enlarged view of my avatar you can see the bend of the rear span on the lower left (your right) a-arm. By the way, that is the Pioneer wide front end kit. Two rides after this photo was taken all four a-arms looked similar to that one and I had to replace them all...again. Just figured out how to attach a photo, so I thought I'd put this on here so people don't think I'm just bashing Pioneer or Yamaha.

 

[berge75]

Hmmm,looks like they need a little more beef on those arms. Do they claim that there're cromemoly.or steel?

 

[jds1000]

In an enlarged view of my avatar you can see the bend of the rear span on the lower left (your right) a-arm. By the way, that is the Pioneer wide front end kit. Two rides after this photo was taken all four a-arms looked similar to that one and I had to replace them all...again. Just figured out how to attach a photo, so I thought I'd put this on here so people don't think I'm just bashing Pioneer or Yamaha.

Hey nice choice of colors on your sled! I'll bet that on more than one occasion your not wearing matching socks!

 

[4Fighter]

Last year, I came over a hill and hit the face of a bump at about 75 MPH. My left spindle bent back and the A-Arms twisted. It cost me over $700.00.

Hey Paul,

I didn't know you could ride that slow.

I got the bars yanked out of my hands this weekend trying to cross the tracks on 4th Ave. this weekend.

 

[Bigmax]

4Fighter, the question is... did you have any damage getting the bars yanked out of your hands crossing the tracks?