2010 vk540 III overhaul

Maim

Maim

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Joined
Mar 13, 2004
Messages
4,790
Age
50
Location
sudbury on. canada
A friend of mine who I hunt with and help with trapping had an issue with his vk. We both knew the previous owner and that he was having issues with the pto cylinder flooding out the spark plug. Was advised coil was bad. Replaced and did not make a difference. Anti fouling plugs helped but just kept getting worse. Finally took it in for compression test. Mag side, 120 psi. Pto side 10 psi. As he could not use the sled, I picked it up in late October but it got put on back burner until my sleds got serviced. Owner was ok with that. I got to it just before Christmas of 2021. Tore the engine down in enclosed trailer I had it in. Pto cyl came off when I wiggled it. Mag side I had to beat off with a rubber mallet. Found the issue, bad base gasket. With Covid supply chain issues, I didn’t get the pistons/rings from Yamaha until end of January.image.jpg

old pistons.
 
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Got the cylinders bored and cleaned. Reassembled with lots of 2 stroke oil and used lots of aviation form a gasket on all the gaskets but the head gaskets. Pulled and cleaned the carb. Drained all the old gas and filled with fresh premix. Got it all assembled with corrosion getting sworn at as I was doing it. Filled the empty oil reservoir, owner doesn’t know how that happened. Serviced the clutches and decided to crank it over to prime the carb up. After 5 min of cranking it fired up with no choke 2nd week of February. Owner was very happy.

There was a few other repairs that I was asked to do to it as wells as a service and a once over. Started on list. Fixed speedometer with new cable as old was broken. Serviced jackshaft bearing and speedo bearing while I was on there. Onto the next repair.
 
Next one was a bad idler wheel/bearing. Got to looking at the rear suspension and found 8 of the 17 wheels flat spotted and decided to pull the suspension out. Came out not bad but found other issues as there was sticky and seized shafts. Had to cut out rear axle as it was seized in the spacers after I twisted it off trying to save it. Had to order 2 wheels from Yamaha as the aftermarket did not acknowledge that they were different than the other 6 I replaced and had to prove it to the parts guy to get them ordered. Got that assembled and put it in with 10 year old nephew help and quite a few swear words as I cannot find a sled lift for a wide track snowmobile and had to lift it all in by hand. God I missed having a lift to do that. Onto the next discovery.
 
When I went to replace the chain case fluid and adjust the chain, I found the front steering seized and discovered the tss was stuck as well. Round 3 started. All the tie rod ends are seized and 1 tss collar on the right side for sure where it mounts to the strut. 4 of the 6 tss linkage bolts are stuck in their bushings and I need a hammer and 12” crescent wrench to get them to even turn stiffly. In looking up the parts on port Yamahas’s web site, I discovered that it shares the same tss parts as the phazer sleds witch I happen to have one I am scrapping that the steering is not seized. Tomorrow’s project is to strip the steering parts I need from that chassis before I start cutting and beating the seized stuff out.
 
So as it was bugging me, I swapped out the cracked windshield, replaced broken hood cable that happened while doing that and finally got the seat hinges freed up during the last week.

As I didn’t want to disturb the neighbours with the grinder cutting things apart, I decided to take care of some rust on the sled and cleaned up the tunnel and rack befor taping them off to apply black spray on box liner. Looks not too bad now. Putting 2nd coat on tomorrow and I probably will clean the mildew off the hood at some point before I bring it back to him. Adventures for later today.
 
me and the photo resizer are having an argument. I will win though.

B0E9ADAC-A4E7-45B8-A2FE-C52499C7BFD2.jpegafter the 1st coat.8AC85EDD-7B2A-4780-811A-996808DDEFAD.jpeg

some of the thumb nails show the before on the paint.
 

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some after pics of the painting with the hood cleaned. told owner to get me a seat cover and i would do that as well but have not seen it yet.


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some of the aftermath of sunday destruction i mean repairs. 6 hours to get that far with disassembling 1/2 a parts sled and a spare set of tss off of a 90's venture for parts. if it would have been worn out, it would not have seized up but as it has only 3000 mi showing, it was nice and tight when it seized. had to drill and torch the tie rod bolts out after i cut them with a grinder in the steering arms. took me an hour a side to get the steering arms freed up using a hammer, cresent wrench and grease gun. the zip gun/air hammer was used liberally during the whole process and the oxy acetelne torch came out too as everything was a bitch to get out. needed some polishing on my salvaged parts but got it all done and mostly assembled but for the last one stuck in the ski bracket in the pic for witch i need to try my heat gun to get the collar out as i am trying not to disturb the ski bolts if i can help it. it should then be set the toe and bring it back to him so i can get to my sleds/atv's.

I get motivated and do a bunch of work without taking pics and then go to bed as it is 3 am after work and my pillow mugs me until I need to get up to get rdy for work or help the contractor.
 
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started with the heat gun heating up the ski shoe. once it started smoking,



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hit it with this zip gun. nope no movement at all. heated it up until it was smoking again and

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this zip gun got it moving and out finally! good thing i brought my spare one home. got it all tightened up and lubed. set the toe out with a bungee on the back of the skis like i did on betsy witch worked well.


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all done! now to load it up and bring it back to the owner. there is a few other things that could be done to it but it should be totally functional and reliable now. just wish i could have found a used tss hood cover as they are listed at $200 each here in canada.
 
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Nice work.There is a kit sold under the MAXX brand(RoyalD sells it) that has all the bushings/collars for the TSS units.Really removed alot of steering slop along with the shim kit in my fathers ET410II:wink:
 
low slung said:
Nice work.There is a kit sold under the MAXX brand(RoyalD sells it) that has all the bushings/collars for the TSS units.Really removed alot of steering slop along with the shim kit in my fathers ET410II:wink:
Click to expand...
i used oe as that was not availible when i did betsy a few years ago. this one was still stupid new tight when it seized up.
 
update on this sled, i now own it. it was given to me after owner passed last year. brother is planning on putting it to work already and breaking in the motor right.
 
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