Finally frustrated enough to swallow my pride and look for some help. We are a family of five and new to sleding (4 years but still sticking to the trails for now). We currently have (2) 2008 Polaris Dragon 800's, (2) 2009 Polaris Dragon 800's and (1) 2006 Polaris RMK 900 (its my "tow truck" 
). When you buy 5 sleds at once to start a new hobby nothing is new or pretty. Last winter I had one of the 2009's go down. Now I am certainly no mechanic, but I love to work with my hands and I figured what better way to get to know my toys then to tear into one and see what makes it tick. That was 4-5 months ago and I have to say for the most part I have had an absolute blast learning about these machines.
OK enough about me!
Started by hooking up a compression gauge to the cylinders and both were less than 30lbs which kind of surprised me because when I purchase it last summer I was told that it had recently been rebuilt and it did have the "Dragon Saver" 1/4" plate between the block and head. But regardless, I pulled the motor out of the 2009 Dragon 800 and both pistons and head was destroyed. I ordered and installed a new Dragon saver kit which included a new plate, pistons, rings, gaskets, injector O rings, and a new head including longer bolts and new stud inserts (pretty standard kit i guess). put it all back together, started it up and the backfire blew dust off my rafters that i am pretty sure had been there since i built the place. I did a lot of research and discovered that i should have checked the TPS reading and also should have changed out the reeds while i was in there...pulled the motor again, still having fun at this point... ordered and installed new reed valves (used the old reed stiffeners from the old reeds), figured since i was this deep i would order a new TPS and a TPS meter from TPS.com. Installed the new TPS, backed off the valves and set to .74, adjusted the valves to .9399 (couldn't get the .94 to happen), cleaned off the orange rubber valves and carbon off the valves, put everything back together and still it will not idle and backfires depending on how i adjust the idle screw. it runs sounds great when it is running. i need to hold the throttle in for it to start. It will not start at all if i do not hold it open. reading this morning i fear that i did not back off the idle screw when setting my TPS (not sure if this makes a huge difference or not??) . anyways if i need to pull the motor again i certainly can (i still have everything taped and labled) but starting to pull the white flag from my pocket. if there is anything that someone can think of that i can check i would love the feed back. if i did something wrong or missed a step please let me know. i am ready to continue to learn but would be great to either figure it out or cough up some $$ to the real mechanic.
thanks for help in advance everyone!
). When you buy 5 sleds at once to start a new hobby nothing is new or pretty. Last winter I had one of the 2009's go down. Now I am certainly no mechanic, but I love to work with my hands and I figured what better way to get to know my toys then to tear into one and see what makes it tick. That was 4-5 months ago and I have to say for the most part I have had an absolute blast learning about these machines.OK enough about me!
Started by hooking up a compression gauge to the cylinders and both were less than 30lbs which kind of surprised me because when I purchase it last summer I was told that it had recently been rebuilt and it did have the "Dragon Saver" 1/4" plate between the block and head. But regardless, I pulled the motor out of the 2009 Dragon 800 and both pistons and head was destroyed. I ordered and installed a new Dragon saver kit which included a new plate, pistons, rings, gaskets, injector O rings, and a new head including longer bolts and new stud inserts (pretty standard kit i guess). put it all back together, started it up and the backfire blew dust off my rafters that i am pretty sure had been there since i built the place. I did a lot of research and discovered that i should have checked the TPS reading and also should have changed out the reeds while i was in there...pulled the motor again, still having fun at this point... ordered and installed new reed valves (used the old reed stiffeners from the old reeds), figured since i was this deep i would order a new TPS and a TPS meter from TPS.com. Installed the new TPS, backed off the valves and set to .74, adjusted the valves to .9399 (couldn't get the .94 to happen), cleaned off the orange rubber valves and carbon off the valves, put everything back together and still it will not idle and backfires depending on how i adjust the idle screw. it runs sounds great when it is running. i need to hold the throttle in for it to start. It will not start at all if i do not hold it open. reading this morning i fear that i did not back off the idle screw when setting my TPS (not sure if this makes a huge difference or not??) . anyways if i need to pull the motor again i certainly can (i still have everything taped and labled) but starting to pull the white flag from my pocket. if there is anything that someone can think of that i can check i would love the feed back. if i did something wrong or missed a step please let me know. i am ready to continue to learn but would be great to either figure it out or cough up some $$ to the real mechanic.
thanks for help in advance everyone!
