Lots of activity at the shop....customers dropping by, lots of shocks in the mail. Thank you, everyone.
I got the new track in the mail on Friday, today I set out to pull all the old studs out of....at least what was left of them.
The track is a Ski-Doo snow-cross track from 2002. They track is in mint shape, the studs.....not so much.
It has Stud Boy double plates on it. It had 96 studs in it, which is perfect as that is how many are going back in it. Whoever studded it put 1.75" studs in it. The track is a 1.450" so they were way too long. I will be putting 1.515" back in it, with 3/4" locking nuts on it.
You can see the double plates. Now that they are off the track, they are going to powder coating to done in pink, also. I have one trip left for the VanAmburg edge rails, and these. I have to redo the steering post. I forgot that I have to modify the steering post to fit the Sea-Doo riser. I didn't do that before sending it off the first time.
Out of the 96 studs that were on the sled, only 21 remained. The rest were broken off as the lock-nut.
I still have to cut open the 3rd windows on this track, that is always fun.
I dropped the axle into the open windows and it barely fit. Whoever lined up the sprokets set them at 9.25" on center. They should be 9" on center.
So I put the axle in the sled, took my measurements and moved the drivers so they are centered in the chassis.
Then I took the measurements from each side, and center to center. All good now.....except.....
After everything was lined up, the bearings all cleaned out I put the axle in the chassis and spun the axle. It is bent...not much...but too much for my liking.
I may just get a different axle and put the drivers on that. I am not sure it worth hasseling with trying to straighten. My guess is it has about .008 - 0.010" runout on it.
I may have another one here, I will have to look tomorrow.
Good news....I got my shock decals back from Jordan at ArcticFX today. They look killer with the clear background. I had make some up in Pink for the shocks on the wife's sled. I also had him make a bunch of red ones, blue ones and yellow ones. They look really nice....
I went through the shed and found a drive shaft I had from a REV race sled. It is lightened. Basically is drilled down the middle and is hollow. It weighs about half as much as a standard drive shaft.
So, tomorrow I will remove the old drivers from that one, and put the extroverts back on it and get that all lined up.
I have my last pile of stuff ready for powder coating. I also finished up the welding and tweaking of the VanAmburg running board edges.
I will be dropping off the last of the powder coating tomorrow night.
I have put Olivia to bed, and I will get some shots of the running board edges before calling it a night.
OK...Liv is put to bed, the truck is loaded with customer's shocks to be shipped tomorrow and the last of the powder coating is loaded up and ready to roll tomorrow.
Here is the final pre-fitment of the VanAmburg edges before they came back off are headed to Cool Concepts.
I forgot to fit the steering post to the SeaDoo riser before I sent it off last time, so I got that all fitted up and ready to go tonight.
I have 48 double backer plates to powder coat pink, the upper and lower spring retainers along with the spacers ready to powder coat.
I will be leaving the front springs natural colored as they are titanium. I have never tried to powder coat titanium....hmmmm....naw...I will leave them as is.
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No real photos tonight as they would look the same as they did previously.
I got the drivers pressed off the lightweight shaft, and the extros off the bent shaft. I measured the end to end measurements before I took them off the bent shaft.
I pressed the extroverts onto the lightweight shaft and centered them.
While they were out, I weighed them. The lightweight shaft is about 6.25oz lighter. It is pretty incredible how much easier it is to spin when put into place.
I also measured the runout on the bent shaft. It a 0.015" bend about 1/4 of the way in from the left side of the chassis. That is the side that had all the damage and had to be welded back together.
All is good now, and true.
I dropped off the remainder of the powder coating at Cool Concepts after work. I also ordered up the new 1.512" studs, and the 3/4" aluminum long nuts.
I placed the last order of parts for the windshield, BRP logo and some other little odds and ends.
It should be going together pretty quickly once I get that stuff back.
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Got home from work tonight, and got to cutting out the 3rd window. I HATE doing that, but it is done.
I also got the snowflap in the mail, the new 1.512" studs and power tower nuts. I am just waiting on the backer plates to come back from powder coating to put them in.
Well, I got a lot done today before the Michigan game. I also had some customers in from the Quad Cities.
I got the front end pretty much done up. I just need the spring retainers, spacers and steering post back from powder coating.
I got the front suspension done up, the belly pan and front bumper are also on permanantly.
This is kind of a two fold thing. My wife loves pink, and we have lost a lot of our family members (including my wife's mom, and my dad) to cancer.
So this is kind of my tribute to remember them AND give the wife a really nice ride in the process.
So......I got the front end finished up as far as I can without the steering post. I got the tower braces on and bolted in place.
I got the drive shaft installed, the speedo end with fresh Amsoil synthetic grease, the inner grease seal on, the guts of the chaincase in place, the jackshaft seal, jackshaft and wave rotor all put in, too.
I dropped a ton of reciprocating mass off the driveline. I dropped 4oz from the brake rotor by chaning out to the wave rotor, another 3oz by changing from steel lower gear to the all aluminum lower gear and then the weight from changing to the hollow race axle on the sprocket drive shaft.
Hopefully, that will make it a little snappier in the trails for her.
Once the steering post comes back I can get the front end back together. Along with that will be the backer plates for the track and the edge rails.
I did have a minor oversight. It was easily rememdied, though. I forgot that the rear bumper would not clear the VanAmburg plates. Forgot I was working on 121" and not a long track. But, instead of using 3 bolts per side I will cut it after the second and it will be fine.
I wasn't going to tell the wife until it was finished. I told her tonight and it hit her pretty hard, emotionally. She loves the idea and just got overwhelmed.
I lost my dad about 15 years ago. He held on long enough to see his only son get married, then passed 8 days later. Sheila and I got married on October 7, 1995, and we lost him on October 15, 1995.
We just lost Sheila's mom to bone cancer as a result of her breast cancer. It was in remission for 10 years then showed up in her bones and we lost her on March 29, 2009.
Jordan at Arctic FX is working on bumper decals for them to be on the sled.
It is hard working on this and remembering how they fought and eventually lost. They never gave up, never complained and thanked God for the time they did have.
Every time I work on this I remember all the stuff me and dad used to do. I still miss him 15 years later.
This is what I do best, and is something I can do to tell them how much I loved them and miss them.
Anyway...enough of the mushy stuff....
Got the final load of powder coating from Cool Concepts tonight after work.
I played indoor golf, then came home and test fit everything.
I have to sand off some of the inside of the ring spacers for the front shocks.
Tomorrow, I will get the VanAmburg running boards mounted up tomorrow after work, and hopefully all the studs in the track.
I am hoping to have a lot of done up by the weekend.
Here are 6 of the studs in....only 90 more to go.
Here is the front suspension ready with the Custom Axis shocks, titanium springs and ready to have the skis lined up.
Here is the VanAmburg running board edges clamped and ready to be riveted and bolted in place.
It is kind of starting to look like a snowmobile, now.
I took a couple of hours off early at work. Had a bunch of customer's shocks to do up, and I still wanted to get a couple of things done tonight.
Man! Do NOT buy cheap studs. They are fine AFTER you run a die over E V E R Y one of them! What a PIA!
Anyway. I got all the studs in the track tonight, I also got the steering post, riser and bars on tonight.
I decided I didn't like the pink shock spacers and retainers. So I pulled them back off and took them to Rick at Cool Concepts and having him strip them and redo them in flat black. It just didn't look right to me....so....off they came. It looked better in my head, than on the sled. It kind of looked out of place, to me.
I also got the clutch guard put back together and the mountings put back on.
I have Thur off and only about 5 sets of shocks lined up. I got the new fan shroud, bar pad and windshield in today, along with the used clear wind deflectors.
I also got the pink base coat on the gauge trim rings and I will clear them tomorrow.
Here is the track ready to have the rear skid put in:
Here is the steering post installed with the riser, the bars and one of the handguards in place.
Here is the clutch guard in place with Jordan's (Arctic FX) killer decal he made up for me.
Here is the sled starting to look actually like a sled:
I got a ton of stuff done today. I took the day off from Toyota, AND I had no shocks to do in the shop. I got a bunch in this afternoon to do up this weekend, though. So today was a good day to get it all done up.
I got and headed to the post office to sign for the starter that I got, I dropped an 08 Dragon 700 crank off at the shop to have new bearing put in it and headed out to Cool Concepts to get the spacers and retainers that I wanted redone from pink to black.
I had to clean out the furnace in the garage and get it ready for winter. I always pull the burners and clean them every fall before I fire it up. I also have to change out the pulley on the blower. Do I got all that done and set the temp at 65 and she fired right up perfectly.
I also cleaned the grill out and got it all ready for the winter BBQ's on Saturday nights.
So then it was at the wife's sled....
I got the motor put in, the front shocks on, the cotter pin in the top gear nut, the cover on, the HPV roller clutch set up with a 47-44 helix and a Goodwin Performance spring. I have the primary set-up where I think I want it, and the starter ring put on the primary.
I also got the wiring harness put in, the gas tank, tail light, headlight, console, kill switch, ignition key, seat and trunk all put in place.
I got the support plate bolted to the chassis on the underside, the primary side support plate in and the new holes in the motor mount drilled out and got the motor in the chassis.
I am still trying to find a pink paint that will match to paint the trim rings on the gauges.
Here is what got done today:
Here is the shock with the black spacers on it. This looks much better.
I am dumping the wrap that is on the sled now. The pictures don't really show it because it is muting the colors.
The powder coated stuff are almost idenitical to Pepto. It is called Pepto Pink. The wrap has a purple hue to it. When you put them together they clash really badly.
I got with Jordan at ArcticFX. When he gets back in the office on 11-12-10 he gave me some ideas he has for a matching wrap in Pepto Pink.
Come spring....Blade (my trail sled that I did last year) is getting a makeover. I putting a different wrap on it, and pulling it down to the tunnel this time.
I painted the tunnel last time.....it turned out nicely but it is starting to bubble up. I don't like the look of the wrap and paint. AND...when I was at the grass drags earlier this summer showing the sleds, some drunk tripped over the ski and put a huge gouge in the hood about a foot long with a ring when he fell into it.
I got a bunch of little stuff done up today. I had to work until 1p, the watched the second half of the Mich/Illini game....what a slug fest...or should I say....what a lack of defense on both sides...WOW!
Then I had a few sets of shocks to get done up.
I got the Y-Pipe back on...That is my least favorite job on any sled. Tight quarters, no room....YUK!
I then got the starter put in, then had to drilla hole in the PTO side support for the muffler stopper. I also still have to drill a place to mount the center spring, and drill out a rivet on the muffler side to put the spring support.
I got the oil tank cleaned up, the recoil done, the oil lines finished and the brake caliper cleaned and put on.
I took today of work to get a bunch of customer's shocks done.
Tomorrow and Thur I have Tech Training for Toyota. So I will be out of town.
I got the shocks done up this morning and worked on the wife's sled this afternoon.
I have to make a fuel tube for the fuel line. It mounts in a different location on the clear tank, than o the orginal. No big deal, just time and $3 in parts.
I got all the wiring on the handle bars done up. I have to put a new electrical connector on the throttle side as when the previous owner changed out the pin connectors, they hogged out the connector so they will not stay in.
I had another old junk throttle that the thumb warmer burnt out, so I just used that one.
I did find out that the hand guards I got won't work...so....bummer there.
I got the brake system installed and bled out along with the handwarmers all finished up. I am just waiting on the J-Hooks to finish that out. Those will be here Friday.
I got the carbs done all back to stock. They were supposed to have 45 pilots, and 260 mains. They were running 55 pilots and 220 mains.
So those are all cleaned up and ready to go. I also synchronized the carbs. They were off a tad, but they open at the same time, and at the same distances.
I got the rear skid in the sled, and then played around with different front ski shock lengths to try to help Darcy out with his SC4 conversion.
That is it for today..I am heading to bed. I have to be on the road tomorrow by 7a.
