The Kachess treatment plus some twists

[bdm]

Re: RPM's

When you say SRX clutching... what exactly do you mean? Not sure if that's new this year, or if you ran that clutch set up last year... if new, I'd almost think that could cause the rpm dip more than the regearing.

And, chiming in w/ the others, very nice job on it, looks awesome!!!

Nomad

Thanks Nomad. The clutching was weights that were used in the old SRXs as recommended by Hartman. He set me up to get in the ballpark last year with weights, springs, and rivets, then I messed with rivets to get 10,200- again, that was last season. I am also wondering if the snow type may have had an impact... it was lighter and drier yesterday than I have ever seen in California. Although, as a lay-person I would think that drier snow would increase the RPM.

 

[bdm]

I am not sure if my bad luck is continuing or if I finally caught a break. I finally got my sled back from the dealer after they replaced the bulkhead and screwed up just about everything associated with the repair (including, but not limited to, leaving the engine unbolted and drilling into the water pump cover). On my first quick test ride it had a bad full throttle/high RPM miss that I traced to a coil that refused to stay seated. Kevin at Port rushed me my four new coil packs (ouch, that hurt the wallet).

I went out Friday for the first REAL test of all of the summer mods and new coils. It started out with a HORRIBLE mid-throttle miss that I never really
figured out but went away after a couple of hours. Then I had a fantastic day.

Started checking everything over today and found nothing out of the ordinary. Feeling good about finally being out of the woods I decided to pull a spark plug and check the color just for the heck of it. Looked fine, re-installed it and SNAP..... the damn thing broke off in the head! In all my years of wrenching and installing hundreds, maybe thousands, of plugs I have never had one seize, never cross-threaded or stripped one, and most certainly never had one BREAK. Mother Father Son of A biscuit!

Since I ALWAYS use anti-seize I figured that the piece in the head had to be relatively loose so just pushed a large phillips screw driver against it and unscrewed. After getting it unscrewed I fished it out with a coat hanger.

Wow! this riding season sure wants me to leave it alone.

 

[culvert]

I hear ya with the bad luck.. Getting ready to head out west for our MTN trip. Cleaning the carbs and changing MJ's. Decided to check the needle settings and when I put the little white plug back in the slide I broke 2 of the 4 fingers that hold the plug in place
Call 4 dealers in local area noone as every ordered in a slide??? So special order from Toronto warehouse shipped fast as possible all for $150 for a single slide. Part will be hear Mon, but is till 3hr drive to get to.

Only good thing is the dealer is on the way to the MTN's so I will be fixing it in the parking lot and going from there.

I wish I had EFI some days

 

[bdm]

Everything appears to be back together and working. I have a few trips under my belt and have some reviews.

The homemade cooling system runs hotter than I would like. On a loose groomed trail on the way to the hills with the ski scratchers down I saw over 190 degrees a couple of times. I plan to take RX1M5's advice and replace the stock rear cooler with a homemade one based upon the removed board coolers.

I have the clutching dead-on. 10,400 rpm when mashed dropping down to 10,200 when climbing.

I think that my gearing, 19/40 is too low. Acceleration and boondocking are spectacular but track speed when climbing is mid- to low-30 mph. I am going to try 20/40 next year and see if I can get it over 40 mph.

Nobody here on TY seems to like my nearly-free AOSROR (Anti-oil Spill Roll-Over Reservoir) but I have put it on its side a few times without losing a drop (doing the same in the past, before the mod, made a mess). I have not put it on its top yet so I have not tested a full roll-over yet.

I am pretty unhappy with the hand guards. They really help keep my hands out of the wind and warm but I am bumping them constantly. They pop off pretty easily and it is annoying. I may ditch them, try mittens on the trail, and then change gloves once I get to the hills.

The scratchers made from 3-dollar John Deer threshing teeth are great.

Overall I am very happy, down over 80 lbs and the thing is a blast.

 

[Kachess]

I "now" notice you are running the Barckbuster front end. I always thought it was just arms, but now see it's the whole deal. Is yours the wide version? Any observations on how it's holding up? Where's the cheapest place to get hold of it? They are a ton of money...and if joa can weld 4130.......

By the way..this year, for the first time ever, I rolled my sled while running and it stayed running way too long. I pumped a good quart out by the time I climbed back up and shut it off. Rode home with the light on and fingers crossed. Until I fab something like you have I'm carrying an extra quart in my trunk (weight!!!!)

 

[bdm]

I "now" notice you are running the Barckbuster front end. I always thought it was just arms, but now see it's the whole deal. Is yours the wide version? Any observations on how it's holding up? Where's the cheapest place to get hold of it?

Mine is the narrow version. I don't tend to ride them hard so they have not really been tested. That said..... I broke my bulkhead this season with a direct rock hit to the bulkhead itself. The arms looked fine but the dealer replaced both arms on one side. Since most of what the dealer told me during the repair ordeal was BS I am guessing that they were fine, I got the old ones back but haven't held them up to the new ones to see if they are different.

There are two guys on snowest that are retailers that give $100 off occasionally. One of them has a bad rep and the other gave me a fine transaction. I will have to check my records for the name of my guy.


On a separate note - This summer, In addition to making a new rear cooler, I hope to relocate the battery to the trunk to distribute weight a little better.

 

[bdm]

Well, like I have said many times, it ain't pretty.

I hacked up my take-off running board coolers. Can't weld so I had that done, felt so sorry for the guy, he was chasing pinhole leaks for hours - probably from residual antifreeze contaminating the welds. Pressure test OK. Am hoping that there will be minimal flexing of the tunnel extension when I ride 'cause I am not sure how much punishment that this thing is going to take.

Will post higher quality pics of the install later....

 

[culvert]

Can you post more info on this roll over kit? I know after last year I could use one....LOL more than once had to clean clutches & under hood from my adventures.

Pics & parts list if possible. Thanks

 

[bdm]

2 - 2" or 3" abs caps
1 - length of 2" or 3" abs
1 - 45 degree 1/2" pvc elbow
1 - 90 degree 1/2" pvc elbow
1/2" pvc pipe

I just threw it together - very simple and maintains negative crankcase pressure, it is essentially a baffle that will hold some of the spilling oil until the sled gets righted and then it pours back into the crankcase. Since it is all glued up can't offer any more detailed pics.

more explanation and another pic here

http://www.ty4stroke.com/viewtopic.php?t=62185&start=0

 

[bdm]

I finally got around to installing the homemade heat exchanger - that and the $3 scratchers performed flawlessly

 

[bdm]

Got the sled out and made some progress on mounting the doo seat and relocating the battery to the trunk.

photo deleted and updated below

 

[kinger]

What is the side panel made of plastic? The sled looks so light, very unique I like it!!

 

[bdm]

What is the side panel made of plastic? The sled looks so light, very unique I like it!!

Thanks kinger. It is textured ABS, the stuff that always like to use for my panels - cheap and easy to cut and bend. I try to do my all of my mods from scraps sitting around the garage and have been working from the same old sheets of aluminum and ABS for years. This mod I ran out of both and had to fork our a few bucks.

I originally planned on making a panel to cover the tank as well but weenied out. Instead I sprayed the tank with wrinkle paint and it matches the new plastic very closely.

I am excited about this mod because it is going to put me past the minus 90-pound mark, move more weight to the rear (battery and emergency supplies), and provide more storage than I will ever know how to fill.

 

[bdm]

It is put together enough to take pics, I know, it is July and nobody cares..... but if you did $150 mod that resulted in great weight savings, better riding position and an insane amount of storage space wouldn't you be hot to show it off?

The rear trunk is accessed by plastic thumb screws. I had planned to just rivet in the side panels and save some effort. You can access the front trunk through the rear but my poor bracket planning makes it a tight squeeze to get your hand in there. I am sure that I would have been cursing myself the first time that I needed to get into the front trunk area out in the snow so I went the more difficult route and now the side panels come off via the stock philips screws.

Pics deleted and updated below...

 

[Yakuza]

Nice!!