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Ice buildup in the steering area mtn lte

joel0920

Veteran
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Messages
49
Location
Sweden Lulea
Website
www.elvelin.se (soon)
I have huge problems with ice in the area whrer the stearing is located, the plastic cover seems to let the snow in and melting on the engine and get back to ice on the steering mechanism.. any one else having this problem?
This have to be solved soon!! i don´t want my children to ride if the steering can get stuck...

in my case the ice made its way in to the rubber boots and damaged those, after 30 miles i had to remove the boots and try to free the steering with my knife, another 30 miles is was the same again.

The ice buildup on the tunnel is the same on mine 2 inch of ice is not funny anymore!

and when ice buildup on the tunnel the suspension works even worse!
hitting the bumps hard every time..

If yamaha don´t solve this problems i have to let my phazer go and find something else.

/jonny

Phazer mtn Lite -07
RSventure turbo -05
 

I have experienced this problem also. I spoke to the dealer about it and he forwarded it on to Yamaha. I hope you plan to do the same. I agree this may be a liability issue for Yamaha and would venture a guess they don't like liability issues. I am working on prototype #2 to fix this issue and am happy to report it works very well. All I did was cut a piece of material to fit around the front where the snow is getting in. Rode 60km on Sunday in some great soft and deep snow. Boots were free and clear and I don't realy think I had any snow to speek of in the steering area. I ordered a tool bag for the same spot so thought I would wait for that to arrive to see how it will work with this. I may change my design to include deflecting the snow away from the tips of the boots as I am sure some snow gets in that way also. We had a lot of almost sugar type snow and it manages to get in everywhere. I suspect your conditions may have been the same.
 
Im on my way to the yamaha dealer today, and i have some photos of the ice buildup that i will give him, we can only hope that yamaha is working fast!
Blueheron/ if you have any pictures of your fixes it would be great!

This pictures was taken after a trip in -15 to -25C with dry snow 15-20 cm powder on top of hard snow.

/jonny
 

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Steering Taking On Snow Through Panel

Newbie here hope this works, do you guys having issues with snow build up in steering mechanism :rocks: have skid plates installed or not.
 
I tried with skid plate on and off. I also drilled holes in skid plate to get rid of water but once it is full of ice it is there till you pull her in and thaw her out.
 
do you put this sled inside a semi-warm shop everynight and not allow it to completely melt? I ask because your pics show the snow in a melted state that looks like it was semi-thawed!
 
When i took this pictures the snowmobile was taken from a warm garage, put up on a trailer wih cover for 6 hours (cold)
then was the phazer driven for 30miles in 20cm (8in)powder snow, about 12-15C below. (10-5F) no problem so far
snowmobile stayed outside over night
next day when running in same conditions the problems started after a few miles, at first the steearing only was cut off in the edges( trying to steer full) but after a while there was only a pair of inces to stear (ski tip)

after taking the boot´s off (they hade already starting to fall off because of the ice building up inside and forcing them when steering) and with an knife trying to get rid of the ice, the problem was getting back every 20 miles of driving, in the same conditions..
all the time there was 10F or colder.. some areas down to -13F
the cold seem to make the problem worse

when i got home in my garage i instantly took this pictures befor the ice was melting down.

No skidplate installed, and i even tried to run with the boot-holes open to see if the ice would fall out, but same result...

/jonny
 
I have now wisited the yamaha dealer, they had never heard of the problem (not so surpricing)
i can say that they was not that serviceminded... this it not our problem!
well anyhow they promised to send the info to Yamaha but let me know that not to expect any fix in the near future...

So anyone that have this problem have to go to their yamaha dealer to make this come in the light.

Let us know if you find any good soulution!

I have tried to put silicone in the holes and openings in the front area, and i can only say it´s like an swiss cheese, for those that never has seen one, it´s full of holes and not that much cheese at all.
in the same way the front of the phazer is constructed, several big and small holes and openings where snow can enter. and quite bad construction also where the plastic pieces are matching togeter (not matching) Have not tested yet..

The biggest flaw seems to be under the airbox, in the front part there is completly open to enter snow up under the airbox and in to the engine area. I will also try to cut out a piece of plastic to cover this hole but it seems that it can be difficult with all pipes and front suspension.
get back in that as soon as tested.

And i have closed the tunnel completly, not tested.

/jonny
 
I have talked to the yamaha dealer,
Yamaha does NOT support the tunnel closed!

The hole is for exhaust cooling and shall remain open.

This puts even more pressure on Yamaha to come out with a fix.

Please help to make this pressure even harder by go to your local dealer and reclaim a fix.
 
joel0920 said:
I have talked to the yamaha dealer,
Yamaha does NOT support the tunnel closed!

The hole is for exhaust cooling and shall remain open.

This puts even more pressure on Yamaha to come out with a fix.

Please help to make this pressure even harder by go to your local dealer and reclaim a fix.

Could he explain why the exhaust needed cooling? I dont think so... because yamaha have not told the tech teams in scandinavia why. They probebly dont know for themselves why they did this stupid thing with the hole in tunnel and are embarrised to admit it.

May be Hakkimoto Yama(hole)a is transfered to the garden equipment development :drink:

Can it be that the problems with ice in steering area also are caused by all the water running from the exhaust, down on tunnel and maybe spreads forward on top of tunnel and down in engine?
 
NO! i think the explanation is close to your guess..

But anyway, Yamaha will probably not take warrany if you get in to trouble if you have closed..

In what matters we can only speculate,, engine failure?
well could it be because of the overheated exhaust? who knows?
melting plastic? probably no warranty
seat melting, no warranty for sure!
exhaust pipe failure, your guess is as good as mine..

well, I will for sure run without cover until this matter is solved.

/je
 
Steering trouble

No i don´t think so

When i opened it up the ice was located in the front end and no ice what i could see was building up under the engine and more at the rear parts of the engine compartment.
as you see in the 00294 picture
the ice was located even up against the steering column, and i dont think that it will go there from tunnel.

But of course it´s possible! maybe the engine warms enough to keep the rest of the compartment free but not the most front parts? when you ride we can suspect that warm engine air is pressed to the rear parts.

it might be several problems? ice from melting water from exhaust AND snow blowing in thru the swiss cheese in the front?

Yamaha was supporting that you use silicone to make the front parts more tight, and i will test if that will make any difference.
be sure to buy a loot of silicone! the holes under the airbox is big enough for a cat to enter.. Beware! if your Phazer sounds like a cat, it´s possible is a cat!
and if you use silicone, you might close the exit way for the cat ;-)
/je
 
One guy with a mountain lite has over 1000km on it with tunnel closed. Plastic and seat are in the same conditions as it left the shop. He havent had any problems with engine temprature or noticed any drop in power.

Also, if its because of engine cooling how can boondocker even think of mounting a turbo in the engine room....? I know they use stock exhaust but I cant imagine how snow on the muffler will cool down the area between turbo and the header.

It beginning to look more and more that yamaha have done a really bad job testing this sled out. I think we will se a completely different phazer next year.. With hole in tunnel closed and all the poor fitting plastic pieces in front redisigned. I also think they have done a poor paint job on the steel front frame. All welding point on mine and on every other phazer I have seen are already rusty.
 


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