When doing the pre-season inspection on my son's snowmobile, I noticed that the chain case oil was low. I immediately went out, bought some chain case oil, and topped it off. The next time I was in my garage, I noticed a pool of oil under the sled... chain case oil. Just when you think the sled is ready to go.
Ok, How do I fix this...??
My first step. Post something to R.S.S. (The newsgroup Rec.Sport.Snowmobile) and ask the question. It's always a great source of information. So I asked... What is involved with pulling the cover off a chain case to check on things? What should I expect? Will anything fall out...?
Most of the reply's told me that it was fairly easy to do and that I should have not problems What I forgot to mention was that small fact that this snowmobile has reverse, which as it turns out, did make a small difference.
Step two. Purchase the Clymer manual for this sled. While I'm sure this book will prove to be valuable in the future, I was disappointed that section on chain cases, did not include any images depicting a chain case with reverse. Plenty of pictures of a standard cover, but none with reverse.
So one night after work, in the bitter cold, I decided it was time to try to pull the cover.
Here are the steps:
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Drain the oil. (Of course - I could not get one of upper the Allen head screws out to drain the oil - it was stripped... So I ended up having to clean up allot of oil.)
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Undo four bolts around the cover (seemed odd - they were two different sizes).
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Undo One bolt in the center of the cover.
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Remove the reverse cable (two bolts).
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Carefully pry the sucker off keeping a few things in mind....
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There are two pins that guide the unit into place. One on the cover and one on the portion that stays on the sled.
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The "U" shaped reverse arm slides up and out of a groove on the drive shaft. (the pictures will explain this a bit more). It might be easier to ease the reverse arm down as you are pulling out???? (Note: in this picture I've super imposed the "U" arm - which I doubt that you could really do as it is attached to the chain case cover.)
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On my sled one of the pop rivets for the rubber muffler boot was somewhat in the way. It make it a bit harder to pull the bottom of the chain case cover out.
The guts of my sons chain case, looks to me as if it's in pretty good shape... Now I just needed to get the gasket and put the hole thing back together.
6. I ordered the gasket from Al's Snowmobile in Maine along
with some Chain case oil. It was a pretty good fit. I also followed the
suggestion of a guy on R.S.S. and used some Gasket seal (bought at you local
automotive store). I also put some on the cover.
7. Next I carefully put the cover back on chain case. At this point I noticed that the rubber boot for the muffler could be removed... so I did.
The replacement of the chain case cover went much smoother and faster then the removal. I slipped the "U" arm into place and the cover pushed right on. I then replaced the four outer bolts, and then the center bolt. I then let it sit for 24 hours to allow the gasket seal to set.
8. The next day I added chain case oil, put the muffler back on, and prepared to start it up..... the moment of truth.
Did I get everything?
Will it work?
Or will I hear the grinding of gears?
The snowmobile started right up and with no grinding noises... So far, so good. I let it warm up and then hit the throttle. The track spun. Again, so far so good. Now for the next step - Reverse. I kicked it into reverse and the track has spun backwards just as it should.
The last step:
The only thing I have left to do is give the sled a test drive in the field....... of course rain is in the forecast. It figures!!! Get the #@$% thing ready to go and NOT enough snow. Hopefully that will change.