The easy parts done

6" wide kit in front , modified an exciter II skid got 2" extra travel just now almost 9" total in the rear .
now to clean polish and paint new pistons and rings polish some more
too much fun

you build the front end? looks funny without any bodywork leading to it, but neat idea going to get something going on the sides?

I love it! Everyone should mod old sleds to bring them up to date. Should turn some heads on the trail.

now figure out how to drop a viper motor in there, and really wake up the competiton. LOL Maxdlx

Nice Work

thanks ! sorry I didn't reply sooner was in NC working all week just got home this a.m.
have the side panels but I'm looking to replace the left on as it's pretty banged up ,
the motor has been bored and sleeved to 68.5 mm yeilding 472-473 cc had 44s with foam filters and burned down 3 times last year so I got some vmax 38s and an air box but ran out of snow before i had a chance to test them . built the wide kit myself , but couldn't have done it without help from Vmax540 thanks Chuck !

finished polishing the tunnel today

had to use aircraft stripper to get the stripe off the top edge of the tunnel , kinda like it without the stripe ! what do you think ?

looks sweet man!

Very cool.
What type of paint stripper did you use on the tunnel?
mul

aircraft paint stripper , its safe on aluminum

wow, looks great! what did you use to polish it up? great work, and nice job keeping us updated

little bit of everything , high speed buffer with 3M liquid rubbing compound , a drill with flitz polish , neverdull by hand

what else are you planning on doing to it? paint hood, recover seat, powdercoat? looks good!!! makes me wish i had an oldies to work on!!!

There is not alot of track on the ground. I realize the front will come down a bit once the engine is in. My buddy and I both had 81 SRX's and with those yokahama tracks they were always sideways. Had to run a minimum of 144 picks to try and make it go straight. We also use to run the 81 motor in a SSR in Heavy Mod and in a GPX for lite mod. Still have full mod cylinders and pipes.

Good luck with your project.

VMAX 535

yes paint is next hood and side panels , but have to repair all of them lots of dents in the side panels hood has 5 cracks that need repaired and the left inner shield is busted up pretty bad will have to be replaced from the looks of things I would assume the original yamaha cluch must have blown apart as every thing around shows signs of it , the belt cover , tool box , even the strut canister has some damage . seats already out gettin stiched
have to replace the rings and seals burned down 3 times last year could not find the problem seals seem fine but have a new set so replacing anyway plug color was good ??? local shop where I got the pistons and rings said the iron rings would be fine that I did not need chrome rings . my thought is with the jugs having been sleeved to 68.5mm . iron bore should have chrome ring or there will be excessive wear and heat with a iron ring running in the iron bore ? I realize it worked in the older cars etc. but they did not run in 9000+ rpm ! any thoughts ?

check your carb boots for holes or cracks. if it sucks air there you are running lean. check the crank case seals as well, anywhere air can get in unmetered

spayed ether every where then tried carb cleaner idle didn't change ? but it did have 44s with foam filter and no airbox on it befor and I read somewhere that with too big of carb and small cc's the pulse signal to the fuel pump can be weak ? those carbs are hanging on my shop wall got vmax 38 power jet carbs now and an airbox they have 290 main jets and 130,135 power jets did check the air jet yet but at least I should be on the rich side as they are jetted for a 540 I do have a small exhaust leak at the flang on the jugs ,I read that might cause some problems , the flanges look warped so I'll correct that when I replace the crank seals . lotta work to do befor the snow hit got my boys 74 sl338 tore down to paint he's got the bug bad !!!

What ignition, clutching, and crank are you using.

VMax 535

good question . I assume they are stock except for the replacement comet 102 all the weights and spings are correct as per my manual . but I havent had the bottom end apart yet . I bought her from a friend he got it from a guy he knew with no motor in it and bought a motor on ebay that was "stock"
put it in the sled fired it up never really ran it then put it away as he's a POO fan . when I got it i ran it around the yard for a couple days then decided it was ok so took off down the road nice and easy hit the first field about 1/2 mile up the road went about 100 feet WOT , shut down like someone pulled the plug !
then the fun started we pulled the top end off sure enough burned both pistons down to the ring at the exhaust port . I look at my bud and say Bill i thought these things had plated jugs he says they do I said this dont !
well to make a long story short which is impossible now it had been sleaved to 68.5mm and had 78-80 pistons in it 44mm round slides no filters .
honed the jugs replaced the pistons and rings cleaned the carbs put foam filters on it new box of plugs fired right up checked for air leaks did the test runs color looked good . went about 112 miles was climbing a big hill on the power line and lost power lilke it wasn't down shifting took it back to the garage burned the pto side to the ring other side good tore it back down
replaced the piston and ring again cleaned the carbs switched them side to side check the mounting flanges did the whole thing again no leaks that we could find . ran it about 200 miles same thing happed again seems to happen when climbing long steep hills when you really have to get on it hard to make the top ? so I hung those 44s on a hook in my shop got the vmax 38 and an air box new mounting boots gonna use chrome rings as the iron ones seen to loose there temper , new crank seals and tune it with the 38s on it
thats where she gat her name she put me thru hell i.e. SRXfromHELL

The 1982 500cc SRX was never released for full production. They had a factory recall on the 1981. They replaced the 440 crank with the 1982 500cc crank and CDI box and possibly some other stuff. I can't remember what else. Maybe a flywheel change that had more mass.The 81 cranks were great if you were just hammering the up and down the lake. But they did have resonate frequency problems in the trail that would prematurely wear clutch components, shafts would bend, belts would brake, waterpump/oilpumps bearings and assemblies would sieze or brake. I had friend that was a mechanical engineer that worked for Yamaha that quit over this. He figured that this was a bandade not a proper fix since the 82 cranks were heavier and slowed the sled down. Yamaha didn't care as the were releasing the 540 in 1983. The oil pumps had check valve problems in 81 as I remember. If things were pretty grey inside when you tor it down this may have contributed to you loosing pistons. Might want to put a 83 pump on it or mix the oil 20 to 25 : 1 depending on your riding conditions.

Best of Luck

VMAX535