Shortening A Arms?

[n16ht5]

Looks like one person has done it here (Tmo Rebuild thread) but there really aren't any pics of how he did it. Looking to narrow up my stance to 35 or 36" to turn better. After riding my friend's XM I am ready to break out the welder and go to town. His narrow ski stance turns 999999%%% easier.

Anyone have a write up on it? Pics?? tips? I was planning to cut the arms where they mount to the bulkhead and re weld them shorter, than same on the bottom, then cut and re thread the tie rods. I don't trail ride.. period. I deal with a few miles of trail at Baker just to get to the mountain.

Thanks

 

[seanpistol]

The stock arms are beefy- you can cut out of the middle, re weld it and it's plenty strong.

 

[t300]

I shortened mine at the ends and then cut them 90% through at the bends to keep the proper angle. the first side took me forever. Cut, bend, tack, check fitment, adjust, repeat 100x. the second side was pretty quick as I could use the first side as a template. Sled is way more fun in powder now. Glad I did it. Good thing my time is free as its definitely not a quick evening job. I can take some pics later this week. I ended up at about 37.75" CTC. I also relocated my shock mounts so I could keep my 18" remote resi shocks.

matt

 

[kasey200]

I shortened mine at the ends and then cut them 90% through at the bends to keep the proper angle. the first side took me forever. Cut, bend, tack, check fitment, adjust, repeat 100x. the second side was pretty quick as I could use the first side as a template. Sled is way more fun in powder now. Glad I did it. Good thing my time is free as its definitely not a quick evening job. I can take some pics later this week. I ended up at about 37.75" CTC. I also relocated my shock mounts so I could keep my 18" remote resi shocks.

matt

do you have any pictures?

 

[n16ht5]

Thanks T300. Eagerly awaiting pics.

Tonight I 2-wheeled mine and got rid of the front outside track wheels. For the two-wheel I simply cut down the rear wheel axle, re-drilled and re-threaded it (10x1.5mm) cut down the spacer, and reused the outside wheels. Cost nothing, and should help with sidehilling. Next are the A-Arms.

 

[n16ht5]

pics. blacked skid and red wheels out with spray on bedliner

 

[big a 231]

Nice work on the 2 wheel setup. I did this last season and had a little flashlight holder helping me too.

 

[wildcard28]

Looks like one person has done it here (Tmo Rebuild thread) but there really aren't any pics of how he did it. Looking to narrow up my stance to 35 or 36" to turn better. After riding my friend's XM I am ready to break out the welder and go to town. His narrow ski stance turns 999999%%% easier.

Anyone have a write up on it? Pics?? tips? I was planning to cut the arms where they mount to the bulkhead and re weld them shorter, than same on the bottom, then cut and re thread the tie rods. I don't trail ride.. period. I deal with a few miles of trail at Baker just to get to the mountain.

Thanks

Hello, I`m who narrowed the frontend in my 04 rebuild w/ tmo thread, If you are interested I will sell the narrowed Stock A arms and tierods to ya. Make me an offer.

they are a final stance with stock x model shocks of 35.5 stance.

let me know if you are interested, you can pm me or email to wildcard282@hotmail.com

Darren

 

[t300]

Sorry my thread notifications always seem to disappear / go to spam. And..I forgot lol. Here are a couple pics. I believe I actually added a bit more length to the upper a-arm after this pic as it was a bit too short. I cut the tubing close to the mounts as the angle changes due to the shorter arms, so to me it made the most sense to adjust it there. I spliced the tube 90% through on the corners to allow me to simply bend the arms out as the shorter the arms are, the greater the angle (the more you have to 'pull them out'). Due to using the longer 440 resi shocks, I dropped the lower mount as much as I could. Took a lot of trial and error to fit the shock, make sure nothing binded, etc. Using Floats would have been a lot easier due to smaller diameter. Like every other rev out there my nun has a slight tweak so that didn't help.

I used a spare set of mxz arms for this to use as a trial. Worked great in the Big Horns, so this summer I will get some cromoly tubing and make some from scratch. I need to find a different solution to the oem lower balljoint so I don't have to replicate the balljoint stud mount (ie use hd rod end)

IMHO unless your time is free, just buy the AI ones. I like fabrication, I like a challenge and I have a fully equipped shop, but it sure took a lot more time than anticipated.

hth
matt

 

[wildcard28]

looks good, for the lower balljoint you could just convert the lower a arm to a Heim joint like the top one just drill the taper out of the spindle and install a bolt thru the Heim and the spindle, the xp Ai arms come with a heim joint outer option.

Wildcard

 

[n16ht5]

Halfway there....

 

[n16ht5]

EDIT tie rod is 10x1.25.. yes 1.25.

new stance, 3" narrower each side

lower a arm

going to bolt it back up hopefully tonight or tomorrow

 

[n16ht5]

Hello, I`m who narrowed the frontend in my 04 rebuild w/ tmo thread, If you are interested I will sell the narrowed Stock A arms and tierods to ya. Make me an offer.

they are a final stance with stock x model shocks of 35.5 stance.

let me know if you are interested, you can pm me or email to wildcard282@hotmail.com

Darren

Thanks for the offer, but I like a challenge

 

[n16ht5]

35" from outside of skis... If it handles well this weekend I'll do the upper a arms so it doesn't look funky.

 

[wildcard28]

Wow that's narrow, like a water skipper.

I found with my narrow arms that when they were narrowed up that when the sleds frontend was in the air (both skis) the down angle of the upper a arm bound up the upper balljoint and would make steering hard to steer, I made a limiter strap from top a arm mount down to shock bolt to limit the total amount of suspension fall out by 1.5 inchs and worked great after that.

when I had the narrow front end ctc spindle 35.5 and the ski set to the inside position on rutted trails at higher speeds the front end felt like was washing side to side under its self, I moved the skis to center and took this feel away.

Looks good, Wildcard

 

[n16ht5]

I found the binding thing too, so I took a flap disk to the corners below the upper heim joint on the spindle. You can kind of see the shiny part, it took away all the binding, they spin around freely now. If I remember right I am 30" ctc on the spindles now

I expect it to handle poorly on trails, thankfully I only have to ride a trail for a few minutes at Baker to get up on the mountain. Should be more like riding a dirt bike for banging through the trees . Just tipping it over in the shop was nice. Suspension feels just about right now (from my jumping around,) it was way too soft before.. I was bottoming out way too much.

Before:

After

 

[n16ht5]

Took it out for a quick ride with my wife, seems to be working really well. Can't wait for the weather to clear up and head to Baker

 

[n16ht5]

did the upper a arms today.

 

[t300]

30 ctc! snap, thats narrow! Nice to see guys still putting time into the old Rev's

 

[Danzick]

back when I narrowed mine up a couple years ago on my old rev, I ended up like wildcard. 35.5 CTC. Worked great, and I relocated the shock mount further down, so there was no binding on the upper joint, and it retained a close to stock ride stance. handling was much better.