How did you learn to work on snowmobiles?

[eidem024]

I just thought i'd throw this question out there. How did you learn to work on snowmobiles? Who taught you? Did you just tear into something and learn how it worked?

I mainly learned from my father, i would just be out in the shop when he was working on the sleds and i always watched to see what he was doing. So over time i learned how to work on snowmobiles both new and vintage. He would show me how something was done once and if that broke again, i would know how to fix it. So when i got my own snowmobile, he didn't have to work on it. I also have done a lot of just take it apart and remember how it goes back together.

 

[banditpowdercoat]

Same way I learned Bikes, cars, etc By breakin them and fixin them. My dad worked construction shutdowns alot of the time He was allways on the road. So, it was me and Mom. She still lookin for that Metric crescent wrench I asked her for in 88 LMAO

 

[BigTruck]

I was alway's tinkering on stuff when I was younger. My folks wouldnt buy me a dirt bike or snowmobile and I really wanted one when I was younger. When I turned 16 I got the oppertunity to go to work for SKAGGS SNOWMOBILES as a summer job tearing used sleds apart for the used parts. (he had the largest used dept in the west) I did that for a couple of summers and one year after I graduated he asked me to stay year round. He sent me to some factory tech schools (my fondest memory was going to a crank truing school in MN). When I left the Portland area and moved to the Yakima valley area I went to work for the Kawi/Ski Doo dealer as a tech. Worked my way into sales and started making the good money! Went on to own a Polaris dealership of my own. Now I wrench in my spare time (never want to do it full time again) and sell Harley's full time.

Thats kinda my story...

 

[C-man]

nice story big truck.

me, well ive just been around anything with a motor in it since i was a wee boy. can take apart most stuff no problem! sometimes puttin it back together is tough, but i do it!

 

[shell_guy]

my father taught me years ago.

 

[dragonrider08]

i learned by crashing my dads sled......
then him telling me to figure it out or it was my a$$

thats how you learn to fix sleds lol

 

[sodfarmer]

I am a farmer so fixing things comes with the territory.

3 years ago I was given a 90 Polaris 500 with a seized crank bearing. A friend helped me take it apart ahe assembled the motor then I installed it. Sold if for $1000 and bought a 2000 700 Rmk that someone had done alot of not so good motor work. Buyer beware. So now I can do anything to the motor or sled since I have done the crank 2 times and a few pistons and 1 cylinder. Now the motor is solid it is alot more fun.

I am glad I know how to work on sleds, but I wish it hadn't cost me so much. Next sled I buy will be stock or I will know who tuned it.

 

[sdobbs20]

in comparison to some on here, i do not know very much, but that is not what is important.

i personally have learned a lot. i would spend as much time out in the shop with my dad when he was building a 36 chevy street rod. on motorcycles i never really learned theory of parts or anything, just basic maintence on them - plugs, oil, battery, cable lubing - just the simple stuff. same thing goes for sleds - although i have helped him probably 4 or 5 times pull the clutch off and put in a different spring.

when i turned 15 my dad picked up a 63 ranchero that needed a ton of work - learned a lot on the motor of that. unfortunately i don't think it can get much simpler - a straight 6 170cubic inch haha. don't think you can screw it up.

and now, since mid march this year i have been working at a kawi / brp dealer and have learned a ton about bikes, jet skis, and sleds. i have gained a lot of knowledge and understand things better. but i still have to have someone watching over my back to make sure i'm doing things correctly.

 

[VTMTcowboy]

I learned by trial and error. Basically modding my sleds with parts that arent supposed to fit. Learning by doing and messing up along the way, especially when do engine/drivetrain work. Thats the fun of it though, its like a big puzzle in a way.

 

[Blu Du]

i have an xp. need i say more

 

[Rixster]

I also have been intrigued by anything with a motor since I was a wee lad. I learned to fix them right after I broke them. Eventually I learned the importance of preventative maintenance. I really enjoy working on my own sleds. And most of my friends sleds, I have become the group mechanic.

 

[Motley Doo]

It was trial by fire for me! Then again, that is how I learned to work on bikes, sleds, cars, and about every other thing that will come apart. Just spent rediculous amounts of time tinkering, hanging out in the shop was all I did over the summer vacation, and stuff got taken apart! a LOT!

 

[HOBB-Z]

wrench'n

My dad owned a dealership selling coleman skiirole, been riding and wrench'n most of 42yrs.

I started MODSHOP RACING in 94 when I come home from being a heavy equipment diesel mechanic in nevada working in the gold mines.

I'm currently a millwright for nucor steel and build sled engines in my spare time.

Trial and error is how most of us learn, I've sat in class rooms for days learning one piece of equipment but you still have to go get your hands
dirty to truely understand.

As a millwright I learn something every day and I've been in over my head
more than a few times but those times are what makes it interesting, experience and confidence take time but you have to start some where.

Sleds are simple, if you haven't had your sled in a thousand pieces buy a manual and dive in, it will make you a better all around sledder when you understand how everything works...

 

[grubbn]

Huh...Wwhat... Learning... here is how i do it .Tear it apart...






























Wait for it










































Take to dealer

 

[Doolerious]

My brothers and I grew up riding I think a 1972 or 1973 Polaris Charger TX440. We rode it and Dad fixed it. After about a year of that and many repairs, Dad said, "if you're gonna ride it, you're gonna fix it. Cause if yer out in the middle of nowhere and it breaks down you better figure out how to make it run so you can get back home." After that, if it broke down he would walk us through the steps to repair it and then he would go back to his warm seat in front of the fireplace and wait to hear the roar from inside once again.

 

[06 RMK 900]

I grew up on a farm so I was always fixing things. Since I was five I have always liked turning wrenches. I guess I learned the most about motors was in high school, when I took Auto Tech, and also a class on two stroke motors. I have learned that if your not sure what your doing just give it a try and hope for the best and if not you will know how to fix it better next time.

 

[SHERMAN]

Nothing but a little beer and a lot of time. get drunk... take apart....think you made it better... sober up...put it back together. then repeat and try Captain and coke ect ect

 

[Ex-Member]

start a new thread on snowest?

 

[hilinerider]

been wrenchin since i was 10, mom and dad were elderly, (dad 56,mom 43) when i was born, youngest of 3 boys all about a yr apart, older brothers would break the equipment on the farm and dad would sit in the pickup and tell me how to fix it, he had emphasima so bad he could barely make it into the house from the pickup, when mom and dad died when i was a senior in high school we all took jobs off the farm to keep it, i got my heavy equipment degree and whrenched at the mines til i started this oilfield repair company and i am still fixing stuff and yes i still have to repair stuff at the farm that my oldest brother broke and have to fix my middle brothers company outfits when he needs it too, on sleds i just tinker, to get my mind off all the other crap, its good therapy

 

[teeroy]

learned from my pa, we had sleds as far back as I can remember. he used to say to me "if I can't fix it, it can't be fixed..." lol. I busted up a lot of stuff when I was young, he could always repair it. bikes, sleds, trikes, quads, he wasn't afraid to rip 'em apart and fix 'em. buying parts was last resort.

he's a heavy duty mechanic, started his trucking company in '67. now I'm the one that does the repairing, my toys and his.....and soon it will be my boys tearin' sh!t up. I'll will be glad to repair them, despite the obligatory complaining I'll do, just like my pa did.....

oh, and I also have an XP. I put it together myself out of the crate, it hasn't seen the dealership yet...and never will.