rxrider's Turbo Garage - pics back, will continue

[rxrider]

UPDATE - February 7. - Changing gears in the chaincase. Swapping out carb springs.


Today I changed gears in the chaincase. I changed out the upper 23 tooth with a 24 tooth. Reason why, with the 23 up it felt flat up top past 200 kmt or 125 mph. Cruising rpms also went up too much, and I got too much track spin. No pics taken because I have already covered the subject.


Changing out carb springs. I've been having a hard time figuring out what spring needle combo to run. Have been running the Holtzman green spring with needle in clip position 2 and 3, not satisfied. Been running the stock springs with needle in clip position 3 and 4. In position 4 I felt it became way too fat down low. In the 3rd position it goes scary lean at 12-14 lbs steady cruise at 100+ mph, AFRs dropped to 14.7. I figured I should give the silver springs a chance to prove themselves Maybe the silver springs will allow the slides to go higher at the same throttle position giving more fuel at high speed cruise without going way fat down low.

 

[rxrider]

My sled runs much better with the 24/38 gearing

The Holtzman silver carb springs worked very well, I'll keep them in.

 

[rxrider]

UPDATE - February 14. - Adjusting belt ride height aka belt deflection.

I have just changed the belt for a new one. Primary started to squeal real bad so I had to adjust belt deflection. To adjust the belt ride height you have to add or remove washers on the 3 - three small 8 millimeter bolt on the inside of the secondary clutch.

Here we go. First remove clutch cover. Then unhook the plug in the upper right corner of the side panel to gain access to the secondary clutch.

Remove the belt from the secondary clutch.

Pull the side cover away from the secondary clutch, loosen the bolt holding the clutch in place, remove the secondary clutch from the sled.

To adjust ride height you have to take off the 3 - three 8 millimeter bolts shown in this pic.

If your belt rides too low in the secondary add washers to raise the belt.
If your belt rides too high in the secondary remove washers to lower the belt.

My belt was riding too high, thus I had to remove washers. I had added a 0.5 millimeter washer when the old belt got too low in the secondary, with the new belt in the primary started to squeal real bad. The belt was riding 1 millimeter above the secondary, too high. Belt ride height spec is from 0.5 millimeter above to 1.5 millimeter below. I started out by removing the 0.5 millimeter washers.

I had one 1.0 millimeter washer and one 0.5 millimeter washer under each of the bolts.

I removed the 0.5 millimeter washer

and installed the secondary clutch, clutch cover and plugged the side cover in place. Done.

 

[rxrider]

UPDATE - February 16. - Fixing a boost leak in the rubber charge tube beween turbo and pre-cooler.


First off I had to remove exhaust caps, rear end covlings, seat, heat shield, drop the skid and hoist the sled up in the rear to gain access to the tunnel area. Then I removed the damaged rubber charge tube.

Studs have rubbed the exhaust pretty bad.

I had to install slider material on on the tunnel protectors to keep the studs away from the charge tube and exhaust.

After installing the new rubber charge tube, which I got from MCXpress for free thank you Erik, I installed the WBO2 sensor and connected it to the LC-1 WBO2 computer.

I installed the heat shield.

Then the seat.

I tightened the track because it was too lose ratcheting. I added oil because I had the low oil warning light come on, needed 1 litre or about 1 quart to reach the F mark. Yeah I know, I should have checked it more frequently, my bad.

I added more pressure to the front shocks, pumped the Fox Floats up to 70 lbs.

I adjusted the track tension and alignment, then I added preload to the ZX-2 shock absorber coil springs. I'm now at 6 on the preload.

 

[rxrider]

UPDATE - February 20. - Installing Apex Mountain skis.


I was not happy with the Slydog Trail skis. I installed them before last season. I had the ski-saver on at first but I threw them away for two reasons;

1st. the ski savers added to much flotation to the keel taking away from the keels ability to carve in on the trails, taking the ski-saver off did help a lot when trailriding, still not enough.

2nd. the ski-saver made the carbide bars bolts too short for the nut to seat well on the bolts, not good.

The Slydogs do float well in powder but they do not steer in powder or loose snow, no amount of ski pressure did change that fact. The keel is too wimpy. On hardpack trails the Slydogs did very well, on glare ice also, no problems to get the skis and carbides to bite in those condition.

The Slydogs are very lite compared to the stock skis, a little too lite perhaps. I hit a rock, not very hard, but enough to bend the ski, the Slydogs did not return to it's original shape like the stockers do. The left hand side Slydog did remain bent out of shape, the type of plastics used in the Slydogs do not have the property of memory in them like the stockers.

Altough beeing a fairly good ski, the Slydogs didn't cut it for me.

I bought a set of Apex Mountain skis this summer, but because of the poor snow condition this winter I have postponed installing them until we had proper snow conditions, which we finally got during the last week or so.

Installing the Apex Mountain skis was a PITA. The rubber boot was too tall to fit the '03 RX-1 spindle. Installing the bolt that holds the ski in place caused me a lot of pain literally speaking. While at it wrestling to get the bolt installed I managed to hurt my left tumb OUCH
After figuring out the trick it was fairly easy to install the bolt to hold the ski in place. Here we go.
- Remove the old skis.
- Remove the old collar, it's too short for the Apex Mountain skis and has to be replaced.
- Install the new collars and spacers.
- You need to remove the 2 reinforcement washers from the skis, one on each side of the ski. On bolt install, thread one of them onto the bolt and fit the bolt in place.
- Here comes the tricky part, with the bolt in place it's time to force the washers into place. You need to apply a lot of force to the ski to compress the rubber boot enough to be able to get the washer into place, you need to be angry to find the strength to force the it in place. First you have to force the ski in a so-so position before tapping on the bolt with a hammer to force it into the hole. Don't use brute force or you may destroy the ski. When you have the washer in place on the bolt head side (the outer side of the ski) move on to the inner side of the ski and repeat the procedure. The inner side is the worst to get in place. I found that turning the ski all the way to the left working on the left ski made it easier. The weight of the sled is not nearly enough to compress the rubber boot, you need to apply pressure by bending the ski upwards with a suitable tool. When you have the bolt fairly centered in the hole tap the collar in place with a hammer. Install nut and install a lock pin in the bolt. I used blue loctite, but I may also install a lock pin for my piece of mind.

I didn't bring my dig camera, these pics are shot with my cellphone camera.

I will report back on how she rides with the new Apex Mountain skis installed.

 

[rxrider]

UPDATE - February 21. - Adjusting primary clutch. Adjusting drive belt ride height aka belt deflection. Adjusting off-set. Checking chaincase oil. Adjusting chain tension.


Today I had a clutch tuning session and a chaincase oil and chain check.

Adjusting primary clutch:
After riding a lot of miles I found I had too little weight in my primary clutch. When racing from a standstill the rpms went 9800-10000 on takeoff, then nearly bounced the limiter going 11000 when full boost power reached the track spinning it loose, it then settled down at 10600 for shift rpms all the way to top end.

I added 1 gram to the middle and 1 gram to the tip of each Supertip weight arm. I have the 60 grams ST trail weight now loaded to 83.6 grams.


Adjusting drive belt ride height:
The primary did still squeal after I changed to a new belt. Belt ride height was still 1 millimeter above the edge of the secondary, spec calls for 1.5 below to 0.5 above the edge. I had to change out the 1 millimeter washers behind the 3 small screws on the inside of the secondary clutch for 0.5 millimeter washers.


Adjusting clutch offset:
When pushing the secondary all the way in on the shaft I measured 14 millimeter offset. With the bolt in place I pulled the secondary all the way out agains the bolt and measured 15.5 millimeter. I removed one 0.5 millimeter washer on the outside of the the secondary, one of the washers on the bolt and collar. Now it measured 16 millimeter all the way out. Spec calls for 15 millimeter offset +/- 1.5 millimeter with 3 millimeter maximum free play. I have 14 millimeter offset with a 2 millimeter free play, pretty OK I'll let the secondary float.


Checking chaincase oil level:
Took out the pin and wiped it clean of oil, installed it completely and removed it once again. It had enough oil.


Adjusting chain tension:
- I loosened the lock nut on the chain tension adjustment bolt.
- I tightened the tension adjustment bolt finger tight, as tight as I could with my bare fingers. The chain was a little on the loose side, glad I checked
- Retightened the lock nut.

I'm good to go.

 

[rxrider]

UPDATE - March 25. - Apex Mountain ski review.

I have not got more than a month of riding on the Apex Mountain skis. The ski does steer very well on the trail and also in the loose stuff off trail. The higher keel gave me more ski pressure over the Slydogs. One very nice feature with the Apex Mountain ski is the trapping of the ski with the added side area, the ski does not allow the ski to dive when making a sudden turn in loose snow, or when riding side hill with both skis on the snow. You can actually ride the sled alot tilted over to one side without loosing floatation, very nice.

I have only one negative about the Apex Mountain ski.
The Apex Mountain skis have a high keel which is very good for off trail riding. The high keel can be a problem on a soft trail where the ski dig in very fast when they catch up in old tracks and holes in the trail. I had an encounter with mother earth after getting ejected off my sled at 85+ MPH or 140 KMT. The skis all of a sudden went all the way to the left so fast I wasn't able to react, the sled went up to its right hand ski and off I went for a bumpy ride. I got beat up pretty bad without hurting myself, thank god for that. The sled stood some 100 ft or 30 meters down the trail from where I stopped the bumpy ride. It was waiting for me rubber side down, engine had stopped else there were no damage done to my sled. Thanks to the TekVest, helmet, good shoes and gloves I was not hurt in the fall.

This incident happened on a 1000 meter or 3000 ft straight in the middle of a lake, I was riding fast and was very relaxed cause of the smooth trail (so I thought) not holding very hard on to the bars. It might have been all my fault, and nothing to do with the ski hmmmm.

Bottom line. I would recommend the Apex Mountain ski for those who ride in loose snow and/or off trail a lot. The skis plain work in those conditions. They are also fairly good trail skis making them a great all around ski for various riding conditions.

Those who are riding trails only there would be better skis to run, I assume

 

[silversurfer]

Wow. Great thread, Jan-Ove. This may come in useful someday for people like me who are clueless when it comes to doing their own wrenching!

 

[rxrider]

silversurfer - Thank you for the acknowledgement

 

[Jigger]

Rxrider I've had similar results with the apex mountain ski. I find they work well in all conditions except when the snow as a light crust on it then the ski just grabs for no reason. I was aware of this happening and I watched a buddy on his new Apex mnt do a low speed face plant when he was cutting a cross a pond. He was not injured and then I told oh ya these skis do that when the snow is crusty.

 

[rxrider]

Jigger that could be it. The keel may ride on top of the soft snow and all of a sudden they dig in and turn over to one side, and off you go.

 

[rxrider]

My turbo sled is up for sale.

http://www.ty4stroke.com/viewtopic.php?p=503315#503315

 

[kinger]

Nooooo my partner in crime!!!!

 

[rxrider]

It's in the Classifieds

I hope I can find a new home for her here in Norway

kinger - no worries, I have some stupid ideas for next season LOL

 

[rxrider]

UPDATE - March 28. - Fixing loose exhaust clamp. Adding slider material to the tunnel protectors.

Last time out one of the clamps on the Y-pipe, going back to the turbo, came loose and I got a exhaust leak. Luckily the clamp and bolt were still on the exhaust tube so I only had to drop the skid, take the clamp apart, bend it back into shape and reinstall.

I found that the studs had been slamming on the exhaust clamp until it came loose. To prevent this from happening again I added some slider material to the tunnel protectors to gain more clearance between the studs and the exhaust tubing.

Sorry no pics taken.