Issue with my viper skid

[SBailey.GP]

Hello everybody.
being new to this forum i'll give you all a quick introduction. My name is Stephen and I live in Grande Prairie, AB, Canada. I own a 2015 Yamaha SR Viper X-TX 162 LE with MPI 190 turbo kit, this is my first time posting on forums and also my first time owning a 4 stroke so please bare with me through my learning curves.

Ok. on to the issue.
My first ride on my sled I thought I heard rubbing from my track and couldn't really pinpoint the issue, so continued the day figuring it is a track tension problem. The next day I got a call from my local dealer telling me that there was a recall for the MPI Turbo because of the oil leak issue. I went in picked up the parts and starting talking about the rubbing noise that I heard on my ride, and he immediately said that it is a known issue and they were talking with Yamaha to find a solution. Then proceeded to bring me to a floor model and point out where the skid is coming in contact with the track and grinding away the aluminium!
Yamaha is telling them that they(the dealer) set the track/suspension setup wrong, and my dealer is saying that is not the case! who do i believe.

I want to hear from all the viper owners out there, are you having the same problems? if so it may be a issue Yamaha needs to address.. quickly. If not my dealer needs to get there stuff in order and fix my sled.

Attached are pictures of my sleds skid and the damage 154 kms has done to my skid and also a image of a skid with red circles where the damage is occurring.

 

[Tricky Nick]

Yep same problem. Im running a stiffer front skid shock spring and i have the track on the tighter end of the spec. It didnt totally eliminate the problem but its better than befor. I dont have any rubbing at the rear though

 

[Mr Nasty]

I have the same rubbing on the front part of my skid as well. I think it was from the track clips making contact with the swing arm. If it was just surface scratches I wouldn't worry about it but mine seems to have made some nice grooves into the arm. I'll be sending it back to the dealer to get repaired.

 

[shagman]

That is from the track clips hitting. Tighten your track. Run it on the tight side. I would go tighter than the minimum spec. I have an xtx 141 with a turbo and run mine very very tight with that much power. When track is rotating it pulls tight before the driver and balloons out in front of the rails and compresses the front skid shock in the process. As stated above a stiffer front spring will also help. The small diameter of the mtx driver to fit the large lug track make for not very much room there.

 

[Tricky Nick]

That is from the track clips hitting. Tighten your track. Run it on the tight side. I would go tighter than the minimum spec. I have an xtx 141 with a turbo and run mine very very tight with that much power. When track is rotating it pulls tight before the driver and balloons out in front of the rails and compresses the front skid shock in the process. As stated above a stiffer front spring will also help. The small diameter of the mtx driver to fit the large lug track make for not very much room there.

ON the MTX this issue is unavoidable. The rail is a lot taller where the front arm attaches on the MTXs VS the XTX. Its even taller than the Cat Proclimb rails. Heres a thread that talks about the changes Yamaha made to the MTX skid
http://www.ty4stroke.com/threads/rails.130625/ Read the Articles in the attachments on the second post

 

[shagman]

I agree with what they did. Moving the mounting position up makes the front arm flatter for the smaller space. We used to do similar thing to our skids for oval racing as to makes more room for the shock. All I can add is stiffer spring and tighter track tension. I think it will help but I don't know if it is a complete solution, it's just something to try as something needs to be done. I hate to see someone miss riding time as we wait all summer for snow.

 

[stingray719]

Put a 160 pound spring on the skid front shock in place of the wimpy 110 and see if most of that goes away, my bet is it will

 

[SBailey.GP]

Dropped my sled off today at my local dealer. They will be taking a look at this and talking to Yamaha, sending pictures, working something out... hopefully.
While in the dealers I was talking to another viper owner who not only knew of this ongoing problem but solved it before it was causing him grief. He put 8 tooth drivers on the sled before it had a mile on it, and guess what, no rubbing. So i'm hoping that this is what conclusion Yamaha will come to, to solve this problem. Until then i'm without a sled.

 

[Tricky Nick]

^ I plan on adding more boost and a 3in track in the future so 8 tooth drivers is a no go for me. Hope the bigger drivers help you out

 

[stingray719]

I have 7 tooth drivers and a 3 inch lug Camoplast X3, but I have the 2014 XTX skid with Ice Age Rails (not that the rails matter). No problem, a few light scratches same as stock 2014 XTX the girlfriend has.

 

[Tomkat700]

I have noticed a slight rubbing sound while descending with no throttle but chain tension is good and I checked last night and I don't have any rubbing issues. I have the 153" standard MTX with MPI 180 kit, Is this issue only effecting the 162's?

 

[yukon yamaha]

notice the "guild" clips on the power claw track are on the inside of the track were as ALL other camoplast tracks the "guild" clips have the nub facing the out side of the track........ I have seen on machine with 1/4 of the wear bar on top of the H arm rubber through, if it went all the way I would worry about it hooking a crack clip.

 

[Off Trail Mike]

I had the AC M skid in my Nytro 153 and with 7 tooth drivers the rubbing happened on that sled too. Not bad but it rubbed the paint off. Stingray is right, a stronger spring will definitely help the problem because it happpens when you bottom out the front shock. What makes it worse is that Yami raised the rail mount of the front arm so high on the MTX Viper it's going to touch your intravert drivers more easily and if the guide clips are above the top of the intraverts, they catch the suspension arm and thus the grinding. The old 2.25 powerclaw had short guide cleats which didn't rub much, but I don't know what's on the new 2.6 powerclaw.

Going to a 8 tooth driver would likely solve the problem as you would gain a solid 1/2" of clearance from the track, but that's a big exercise and kills the option to go to a 3" track in the future. If they were really smart they'd put a couple of small wheels to keep the track clear. Problem solved.

OTM

 

[Tricky Nick]

If they were really smart they'd put a couple of small wheels to keep the track clear. Problem solved.

OTM

That might be worth trying. Taking some 2 1/2" wheels like the ones that come on the anti-stab kits and bolting them to where the arm connects to the skid. might look funny but might work too

 

[mattyg1405]

My xtx le with 2.25 power claw does the same thing , I'm gonna try going tighter on the tensiontension