New to me toy.

Hello
I'm finally getting back into the snowmobiling hobby. For two reasons. Reason one, I really missed it. Reason two, I really needed something different from my classic car restoration hobby. So it had to be a two up touring and affordable. No new 16 grand sled thank you.

My family has owned many Yamaha products. Four wheelers, outboards, and many snowmobiles. Our last sled and favourite was my father's 1999 Venture 600. Now owned by my little brother. Reliable, reasonably fast, comfortable for one or two people and sounds great stock. Got to love those redhead triples.

Last winter I was really thinking how I should have bought my dad's sled years ago, before my little brother drove it into the ground. Or if I could find one in decent shape for a good price. A week passed and what shows up on Facebook buy and sell near my home?
A 2000 Venture 700. Owned by a recently widowed middle age lady for almost it's entire life. So no crazy abuse, and / or was never rolled etc...
Picked it up for 1400$. It's solid and streight. Runs fantastic. One little rip in the seat, no damage on the tunnel or hood. Original track with studs, plastic skis and 11 000 km.Her deceased husband had taken very good care of it for many years.

I bought it late in the season. (March 4). Still managed to get alot riding time and accomplish alot of work on it. I.E. Cleaned carbs, inspected chain case, adjusted track, greased it etc... Ofcourse I learned almost right away the track offered no traction and was suffering the effect of dry rought.
So I bought a brand new 1.35 Cobra track for it (Love Spring prices). I am planning a rebuild before next season. So all new sliders, bearing, new track, bushings, clutch rebuilds etc.... This sled is a long term project and I hope to get many years out of it. That's my story.
Bye for now.

That is one niiiiice lookin sled!!! I think that Yamahas 2-up sleds look better that most.

Don't know why the order of my pictures got messed up.

Great looking buy!!!! Welcome back to the sport!!!!

Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk

looking good!

I'm starting the planning for the fall rebuild. Need to move things around the garage as to still have lots of space efficiently. I'm excited actually. Something new and different from the norm.

There are many members on here that can assure you that ya made the right decision on that COBRA. If you haven't bought bearings, here are some really smooth bearings. They also have 6004s.
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=261439184016&globalID=EBAY-US
Or get them direct
http://www.acerracing.com/index.php?p=catalog&mode=search&search_in=all&search_str=20x42x12mm

Thanks for the links.

At this point this thread is going from an introduction ( general) to a rebuild thread. I should have just started this thread in the redhead triple section, Vmax, Sxr etc... or non power valve threads. (Moderators if you can switch this is thread over please.)

So anyways I don't want to split this thread off so I'll just keep going with it. Moved my sled into position in the garage. Lifted the back end up. Removed the belt, primary and secondary clutchs. Unbolted the entire rear suspension but the front shock is keeping tension up front and I could not remove the skid yet. Tomorrow is another day.

Seems like those are the only good deals going nowadays...buying from people who've had the sleds sitting for a long time and just have no interest. That sled would've easily sold for over $2k from an avid sledder! Good score! And sharp lookin too!

This morning I removed the speedo assembly from the jackshaft. Removed the starter ( it's crap anyways), exhaust system, pull cord assembly , and the guts from the chain case. Took a while but got the snap ring off the right side bearing, and got the left bearing out. After that got the rear skid out. The only thing left it the right bearing is stuck and I can't move the jackshaft fare over enough to pull out the jackshaft and track. Later on I'll remove the clutch shaft and replace it's bearings on it to. So.fare things look good. Nothing bent or cracked. Just needs bushings, boggy wheel bearings, sliders etc..... Things were due for some TLC

Got the bearing off by making pullers out of scrap around the garage. Puller one moved it the first 1/4 in, puller two finished it. Only a slight amount of pressure was needed before it started to move. Jackshaft and track out. Found some stud damage on the rad and the tunnel. I knew there was some but I never got this good of look at it.

Crappy rad damage.

It needs heat exchanger protectors. Yamaha part number is SMA-8CR32-12-01 -if they are still available. They were also available in the aftermarket.

Work continued this morning. At this point I'm done with disassembling the sled. Now it's inspecting everything, cleaning and preparing parts list.

Not like others projects I've taken on, this one I've manage to keep my garage clean and more or less organized in all the chaos.

Diving right into it aren't ya! Gotta get all those kinks out!

Yes sir. That is the goal.

I have a neighbour with a long track Bravo. When the driveshaft bearing in the chaincase failed it scraped the shaft and the chaincase!

All my driveline bearings were original except the one
behind the speedo cover. It was changed with a cheap unidentifiable version. Everything was still ok but after 15 years and 10 000+ km they all had some looseness in them. And my track was falling apart rapidly anyways. So it had to be done

Like I mentioned earlier this is a long term project so I want the most worry free enjoyment possible.

In a few years I'll go threw the engine. For now it's fast and runs A1. Still has 115psi across all three cylinders using the pullcord.

Vincent said:

Thanks for the links.

At this point this thread is going from an introduction ( general) to a rebuild thread. I should have just started this thread in the redhead triple section, Vmax, Sxr etc... or non power valve threads. (Moderators if you can switch this is thread over please.)

So anyways I don't want to split this thread off so I'll just keep going with it. Moved my sled into position in the garage. Lifted the back end up. Removed the belt, primary and secondary clutchs. Unbolted the entire rear suspension but the front shock is keeping tension up front and I could not remove the skid yet. Tomorrow is another day.

Click to expand...

moved as per your request.

making good progress I see.

When looking everything over, hold that W-arm on the skid up to the light to inspect it for cracks, I haven't seen one yet that doesn't have some.

Yup those w arms take a sh!t kickin! I took mine out the one season and it fell apart in my hands...cracked in 4 different places and rusted out good! If it's cracked really bad, just buy a new one or a good used one with no cracks. If you weld them your just moving around the weak points...

You guys weren't kidding about cracks! Thanks for the heads up.