A
ak49er
Well-known member
Greetings sledders.
I just resurrected my old sled, which had finally been parked for last season. this thing was a runner when I parked it, and surprisingly started on the fifth pull.
I bought it as a Demo Sled in 2004, and had all the known issues with it fail on me at various times, half of which fell within the warranty period. This sled is what taught me to wrench on sleds.
Since I have had it, I have stretched it out to 136", added Sly Dog Skis, pulled the sway bar, put stronger springs up front, added spring spacers up front, vented and filtered the cowling, replaced the Nun with an '07 unit, all 440 Bracing, rail stiffeners, tunnel stiffeners, revalved the shocks, put a tunnel extension on, gutted the thermostat, added a digital temp guage, riser, handlebars, new mag, new recoil, and rebuilt the motor due to the PTO seal failing.
Which leads into my question.
For those familiar with this sled, you know that the PTO side bearing is lubed with ISO-Flex grease, and when the factory built this motor they put in too much grease and did not vent that chamber, so eventually the grease would push out the PTO seal and the grease and eventually the PTO bearing would fail. Which happened to me 18 miles in the back country.
I rebuilt the motor, added the PTO seal retainer mod, added a vent line with filter at the top. I rode it for another 700-900 miles with no problems. I read that the ISO-Flex wold creep up the tube, but when it all got hot and liquefied it would fall back inot the chamber. Well the grease has always creeped up the tube and melted back down into it, but now, (and I beleive the last few times I rode it hard) the grease just spurts out the top of the tube.
So what is causing this?
I am thinking either the grease has become saturated with water/condensation and is expanding more or maybe the Inner PTO seal has failed and I am getting high crankcase pressure venting out though the PTO bearing?
Any help would be appreciated, before I tear into it.
I just resurrected my old sled, which had finally been parked for last season. this thing was a runner when I parked it, and surprisingly started on the fifth pull.
I bought it as a Demo Sled in 2004, and had all the known issues with it fail on me at various times, half of which fell within the warranty period. This sled is what taught me to wrench on sleds.
Since I have had it, I have stretched it out to 136", added Sly Dog Skis, pulled the sway bar, put stronger springs up front, added spring spacers up front, vented and filtered the cowling, replaced the Nun with an '07 unit, all 440 Bracing, rail stiffeners, tunnel stiffeners, revalved the shocks, put a tunnel extension on, gutted the thermostat, added a digital temp guage, riser, handlebars, new mag, new recoil, and rebuilt the motor due to the PTO seal failing.
Which leads into my question.
For those familiar with this sled, you know that the PTO side bearing is lubed with ISO-Flex grease, and when the factory built this motor they put in too much grease and did not vent that chamber, so eventually the grease would push out the PTO seal and the grease and eventually the PTO bearing would fail. Which happened to me 18 miles in the back country.
I rebuilt the motor, added the PTO seal retainer mod, added a vent line with filter at the top. I rode it for another 700-900 miles with no problems. I read that the ISO-Flex wold creep up the tube, but when it all got hot and liquefied it would fall back inot the chamber. Well the grease has always creeped up the tube and melted back down into it, but now, (and I beleive the last few times I rode it hard) the grease just spurts out the top of the tube.
So what is causing this?
I am thinking either the grease has become saturated with water/condensation and is expanding more or maybe the Inner PTO seal has failed and I am getting high crankcase pressure venting out though the PTO bearing?
Any help would be appreciated, before I tear into it.
