Off-season maintenance

[Snowman11]

on our typical trail conditions it works awsome. need to moderate flipper use when it gets 3-4" loose snow on the top but still does the job. i also off trail with this sled and have no problems that are not usually rider error. it has broken 20-40 km of trail in 3' + of snow multiple times.

And who says big "heavy" 4 strokers can't play in the powder or break trails lol , I ride mostly groomed trails , but occasionally wonder off to play in the Abyss

 

[Snowman11]

doing my oil change , when I drained it all , I flushed the tank and block with about half a quart when the plugs we're out .... When filling I put 2 1/2 qts in the tank and half a qt in the block threw the plug in the top of the motor , It may be unorthadox , but my thinking is the block would be completely dry for like 5 seconds and why not add oil ?? Usually half a qt sits in there anyway .... Anyone see a problem with that ??

 

[APEXMTSEO7]

doing my oil change , when I drained it all , I flushed the tank and block with about half a quart when the plugs we're out .... When filling I put 2 1/2 qts in the tank and half a qt in the block threw the plug in the top of the motor , It may be unorthadox , but my thinking is the block would be completely dry for like 5 seconds and why not add oil ?? Usually half a qt sits in there anyway .... Anyone see a problem with that ??

 

[APEXMTSEO7]

Snowman,
I believe flushing the block and tank is good practise that may flush out any residual contaminants after the Initial drain.I have always done this with all my vehicle oil changes.
I usually refill the block with about 3/4 of a quart for immediate pick up by the oil pump.I also pre saturate my oil filter.
Some people may think these practises are a bit overkill but I don't think they can hurt.
A little bit extra flush oil is cheap.These engines sure are not

 

[Snowman11]

Snowman,
I believe flushing the block and tank is good practise that may flush out any residual contaminants after the Initial drain.I have always done this with all my vehicle oil changes.
I usually refill the block with about 3/4 of a quart for immediate pick up by the oil pump.I also pre saturate my oil filter.
Some people may think these practises are a bit overkill but I don't think they can hurt.
A little bit extra flush oil is cheap.These engines sure are not

Yes I always take a lil extra care in maintenance of my rides .. come may call it OCD lol but it's just being nice to the motor I'm about to beat for the season lol

 

[Snowman11]

My oil didn't look great comming out of the block .. the tank oil still had a nice golden brown/ black tint , but just smelled old .. the block oil smelled older .. if that's a thing ... When I asked the guy I bought if from when the oil was last changed he Stated it doesn't need to be changed that often on these but always got it "serviced" . And the cover under the bulk head for engine drain pan bolts were pretty rusty .... I bet the "service" was draining the tank and not replacing the filter or block oil ... But it's only at 4400 miles .. and he was an older gentleman , so I assume it was never beat , just never got ran alot

 

[Snowman11]

Got the #*$&@ end back together and fired it up for a "smoke test". Something an old mechanic I knew called it after getting it all back together lol .. it had some smoke lol , burning off all the pentrating oil I had all over the exhaust prolly ... Ended up taking a whole 3 1/2 qts of oil after everything.. assuming I got more out than usual on my drain ... Purrs like a kitten .. I still have the belt off and after she got a lil warm, I blipped it few times and I noticed that the primary clicks in and out of engagement rather abruptly .. (100% stock). Like u can actually hear it click . my first thought is it's "sticky" but it goes out and in of engagement all the way , just does it rather abruptly .. normal ?

 

[thor452]

yes the apex has a bit of a high engagement. The heavy spring start weight causes this. The oil in the bottom of the motor should be the same as in the tank as it is all circulated through the motor and tank they are not really separate. If you didn't warm up the motor before you did the oil change you could see a difference as it sat in the motor and not the tank but if it was recently run you must be just seeing some kind of illusion. the bolts that hold on the inspection panel are subject to lots of abuse especially if trailered on an open trailer even with a cover the road salt gets all over the bottom of the sled. it hurts nothing to put some oil in the block.

 

[Snowman11]

Wow awesome , thank you ! Thor452 u seem to have alot of knowledge of these things , u guys are always helpful on here , I appreciate it all ... I covered the whole block and most everything but the clutches with some "liquid wrench" silicone spray after cleaning , and yes it wasn't warm when I changed the oil , so maybe that's why.

 

[Snowman11]

I understand high engagement .. my mxz has team clutches in it and doesnt engage till like 4600 rpm , but it never really "snapped" in and out like this clutch did.. comming from the 2 smoker world , everything is just so different with these machines

 

[thor452]

Thanks I have been running this platform since my 03 rx one then my 07 apex then my 2012 apex and I work on a computer all day and have idle time so I spend most of it on here. short of opening the motor up I have had most every nut bolt and washer off the apex at some point. I also maintain 2 others that had 07 apexes then 2011 apexes. This site is a great source for a ton of knowledge there are many people on here with way more knowledge than me and best of all the crowd as a whole in general wants to help each other out. Tom does a great job of keeping it that way too. I would certainly suggest you buy a VIP membership to support the cause and help keep this site going. the knowledge you get far outweighs the cost. also when you go VIP you came request a link to download service manuals for free.

 

[thor452]

On the clutches I have ran many different sleds in my time and its extremely rare to have the heavy hit on engagement that the apex line up has. Travis at Barn of parts (BOP) has a soft start spring that many like. it is near impossible to make an apex move without the track spinning. The sidewinder I run now on the other hand is amazing the way it will just start moving with the slightest amount of throttle and has such a smooth engagement it makes me understand why people went with the soft start spring on the apex also the apex is kind of known to wear a groove in the lower part of the primary and I think this is due to the high engagement and the hardness of the 8DN belt. I would avoid engaging the clutch with no belt on it in my opinion it has to be hard on the clutch components to bang back and forth like that. It is normal thou so don't put any worry into it.

 

[Snowman11]

I love this site , yes everyone here is extreamly helpful and I've learned so much from being on here , otherwise I'd be guessing lol ... I was a mechanic by trade for 7 years and been around cars my whole life from a family of mechanics so this all comes natural , but the techincals of these machines is new to me .. I now make aerospace drive and PTO shafts .. witch sounds fancy but it's really not lol , but it keeps me paid and still get to dip into mechanics . I only ran it without the belt as a test basically after I had got the motor and all the components back togeather to make sure I didn't miss anything and it was all running how it's supposed to .. I buttoned up the engine and all last nite , and now I'm working my way into the skid .. I dropped the skid last nite .. witch by the way was the easiest skid ive ever dropped , the front arm layes down ans the whole skid is flat ! Comes out so easy , I've got it on the bench now and checked over all the arms and bushing witch all look great , but bassicly every idler wheel except the outside front ones are toast .. the back 3 main wheels bearings were all locked up and the rest and loud and loose . I'm not sure witch ones have replaceable bearings if any ... Plus some of the wheels look rough .. pitted and some have started to delaminate ... I'll also prolly be putting a 4th wheel kit on from BOP

 

[maim]

the rear outer wheels in your pic are non serviceable bearings in them. the others look to be fine for replacing the bearings. the pic you took of the rubber on the wheel is showing me that it is good. all my wheels look like that on all my sleds. the ones that i replace for delaminating have the rubber cracking away at the plastic on the wheel. the aluminum ones go the same way.

 

[Snowman11]

Yes the back axle wheels with the grey hubs are not serviceable ... The others seem like maybe ? The ones in question are the bigger idlers in top where the rear mounts for the skids are. They dont seem serviceable.. the front four "outter" wheels were replaced last year