Loose front end

[phazerdrew]

Any one else notice the entire front end being loose on their sleds.. My front end is shot.. A arms, shock bushings, steer bushings ( upbushman kit ready to be installed) and upper ball joints all have a significant amount of play to them. Sled has 2600 miles on it, cant believe its this worn already, Worth talking to the dealer for parts warranty on the shock bushings, ball joints and A arms or just forget it and order the right stuff ?

 

[cannondale27]

Order the right stuff and grease fittings or manual greasing as much as possible.I am glad I had warranty when I first got sled.They did do many worthwhile improvements but I think Yamaha makes major components like motor so dependable they feel they need to nickle and dime us on bushings and slides etc.!Simple solution.Fix it yourself and do it right.End of problems.Warranty doesnt allow that so I ditched warranty last year and started the mods.Amazingly I had no failures at all last year thanks to all the help of people right here.

 

[Old Thumper]

Where possible use aftermarket bronze bushings instead of the OEM plastic.

 

[phaze5]

bull #*$&@ get it covered under warranty

 

[Ruckus]

bull poop get it covered under warranty

...again...and again...and again...

 

[cannondale27]

Warranty is great up to a point then time,lost riding,worry about modding and just the stress of dealing with it when everyone else is having fun just outweighs the warranty.Add to that 8000mi a point in which many sleds are scrapped.And waranty just doesnt make sense anymore for me at least.

 

[phazerdrew]

I looked into replacing the parts myself with all yamahahahaha parts what a joke almost 200 bucks. can get the oilite kit from ulmers for 75. Any one know where i can get float bushings? ive checked the yamaha parts break down and they only list the shocks. As far as the ball joints, has anyone made a better replacement? or is stock the only replacement for now

 

[cannondale27]

I believe the balljoints are a hit or miss thing.Some seem to last forever and some go right away.If you can make a drawing of the bushing I bet we can come up with something.

 

[Old Thumper]

The A arm bushings on my Nytro were really sloppy right out of the box. There are a couple of issues involved. First off they use plastic bushings which are not all that precise to begin with.. But beyond that, the A arms are made from tubing which is not perfectly round to begin with. Then you have weld joints right where the bushings insert, and the welding distorts the tubing even more. So they can't make bushings that fit real tight because the hole the bushing goes in is not round. Then the extreme length of the arms amplifies the slop, and the slop will in turn speed up the wear of the bushings, so the problem kind of snow-balls.

On my Nytro I machined the ID of the tubes where the bushings insert, just enough to make them round. Then I made oilite bushings that fit very tight to the tubing and had minimal clearance on the inside bearing surface. The end result is a front end that is as tight as a Swiss Watch, but if you had to pay a machinist to do that you would end up shelling out stupid money for it. (Having a machine shop in the back yard is pretty cool).
The Phazer I just got my wife is not too bad, so I'm leaving it stock for now. When it gets sloppy (and it will) I'll do the same treatment on it.

I also want to try making lower ball joints the next time I need a pair that Yamaha won't replace.

 

[phazerdrew]

The dealer rep denied my a arm bushings and then proceeded to tell me not to bring it to any other dealers in his area b/c he will be letting them know not to service my sled for loose components, he was amazed at 2600 miles how loose my sled was and his answer was you really ride your sled hard and these are wearable items so they will not be warranty, he did however order me new ball joints and shock bushings but no go on the a arms. So i guess its a wash.. I'll just call ulmer tomorrow and order up the bushing kit.. Thanks yamahahahaha, I was looking into a nytro for this season but I will be looking at other brands now, Stand behind your product 100% not 65%
sled is under warranty untill 12/25/09, in my eyes anything and everything minus blatant abuse should be covered.. Oh well the 10 slowdoo gade backcountry x is looking very nice, Still will keep the phazer but yamaha just lost my next sled purchase

 

[woolyviper]

Any one else notice the entire front end being loose on their sleds.. My front end is shot.. A arms, shock bushings, steer bushings ( upbushman kit ready to be installed) and upper ball joints all have a significant amount of play to them. Sled has 2600 miles on it, cant believe its this worn already, Worth talking to the dealer for parts warranty on the shock bushings, ball joints and A arms or just forget it and order the right stuff ?

front end has play from the factory - Schmidt Bros has a $15 dollar shim kit that fixes most of it - bushings are wear items. I'm wondering how your a-arms are shot - I don't know what year your sled is, but my 07 had a ball joint upgrade that fixed some of the slop. Nobody makes a sled you can beat for 2600 miles without something wearing out especially skidoo. Your dealer doesn't dictate to yamaha they dictate to him. if they say no, then it's no to you. if you tell him that you are going to another brand his response is probably "good".

 

[phazerdrew]

its a 09 with 2600 miles there is a ton of play in the a arms upper and lower, They tried to say it was normal and showed me a 10 phazer rtx that had some factory slop.. mine is atleast double the amount of factory slop.. My sled isnt raced, trail ridden in northern maine.. I can see maybe the factory shock bushings being beat from riding 2 foot moguls for miles on end but for everything to be hammered is a joke to me, I guess its ya get what ya pay for, cheapest four stroke out and they didnt cheap on the motor so the cheap goes into crappy plastic bushings that are toast after 1 season of riding

 

[phazerdrew]

its a 09 with 2600 miles there is a ton of play in the a arms upper and lower, They tried to say it was normal and showed me a 10 phazer rtx that had some factory slop.. mine is atleast double the amount of factory slop.. My sled isnt raced, trail ridden in northern maine.. I can see maybe the factory shock bushings being beat from riding 2 foot moguls for miles on end but for everything to be hammered is a joke to me, I guess its ya get what ya pay for, cheapest four stroke out and they didnt cheap on the motor so the cheap goes into crappy plastic bushings that are toast after 1 season of riding

 

[woolyviper]

do you think ski-doo uses different shock bushings? they wear out - so does arctic cat so does polaris. bushings are meant to wear out - that's why they use bushings - otherwise you'd be replacing the a-arms, the bolts and everything else. replace the bushings, buy the shim kit - if your ball joints are worn - yamaha should replace them - why do some people think since it's a yamaha you don't have to do any maintenance?

 

[phazerdrew]

viper, I could understand everything being beat if it was a 4 wheeler that saw mud and sand.. but its a sled no mud or sand riding.. Ive had plenty of arctic cats and still would if they made a 4 stroke that wasnt ugly as hell and is almost as heavy as a small car, my 01 sno pro has all brass bushings in the suspension with heim (sp?) joints on the shocks, never have replaced anything on that sled. I was just expecting a brand new sled to last longer than a season