Why did my sled die?

[cwh]

Went for a ride last night. Pretty warm spring ride. Ran and rode well to the hills where we did some hill climbing. On the way back to camp on the flats(5-7 miles of flat ground riding) I had it mostly pinned I started hearing what sounded like crackling. I though it might be the electrical system shorting to ground. My sled started to lose power and then died all together. I let it cool for 15 minutes or so and then was able to get it fired up again and rode it home. Seemed like it had full power as well. Not sure what an air cooled sled will do when it get too hot.

Thanks,

cwh

 

[buffaloHAWK]

sounds like it wanted to seize up?...

 

[andy_09]

could be the stator, when they get hot they will die but if you let them cool they will fire right up and run till they warm back up

 

[cwh]

I pulled the plugs today and they both looked great. One appeared to have run slightly leaner than the other but both were near perfect. I don't know. Sounded to me like something was shorting out at WOT. When I pulled the engine through just after it died it seemed to have good compression.

 

[Jeff C]

could be the stator, when they get hot they will die but if you let them cool they will fire right up and run till they warm back up

I think Andy is on to something. Sometimes the windings on the stator can expand enough to short out on itself when it gets really hot. It cools and the windings go back into place enough that it starts and does not demonstrate any problems until it heats up again..........

 

[cwh]

I'll take it for a ride without the hood and taillights tomorrow night. We'll see if it does it again. It was getting pretty warm out there. Awesome ride. Blue bird skies. Ours were the only tracks. Lots of steep. Only thing that sucked was my 4.5 gallon tank. Tomorrow the twoski will pack extra fuel for me.

 

[877snowhawk]

might want to get the bigger tank,,,its an easy install, and well worth it

 

[cwh]

It had one but I swapped it to my other sled. I guess I need another 8 gallon tank.

 

[snowhawk jockey]

I had a similar failure in spring conditions with too much WOT. It started and ran again shortly after it quit and I thought I had heat seized the little bugger. Now the lights don't work and, gathering from the feedback, I may need to pull the coils off the stator plate and inspect them for heat damage. Cool, Sure beats cyls and pistons.