anti ratchet driver problems

S

Steven DeMarco

New member
Joined
Feb 16, 2004
Messages
109
this year i installed antiratchet drivers (mountain performance 9 tooth)
i fount that they caused a terrible vibration through the whole sled.
the handle bars vibrated so bad that i could only drive the sled for about 15-20 minutes at a time. my hands would get so numb i could not hold the bars any longer than that. has anyone else experienced this type of problem with anti ratchets???
I am running an expert x rear skid and did not have any vibration with the stock drivers and the expert x.
also i have tried running the track super loose and super tight and just about everywhere else in between with no change in the vibration.
also the drivers look like they have an awful lot of wear on them. is that normal???
i intend to just pull them off, throw them away and cut my losses but was wondering if anyone else might have experienced this and if there is any kind if a fix before i toss them
 

Why?

I thought people used those drivers to prevent racheting. In my experience (on 3 sleds now) with the Expert X you can basically run the track as loose as you want and it will never ratchet. Why did you but them in the first place?

Madmatt
 
they may also be hitting your front heat exchanger a little bit, or possible the rails. A lot of guys have to shave a little bit off of the tips of the extroverts (9 tooth) to get them to clear everything. You just have to get in there and see what they are contacting and take care of it.
 
9 tooth drivers will clear the stock skid sometimes but will not clear a M-10 skid. Dont know on the Expert skid. Maker of extrovert drivers will make a difference as well
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the input guys
I finally have the sled at home and have looked into it.
The drivers are from mountain performance but i don't know who manufactured them. the paper work from mountain performance stated exactly where they needed to be pressed onto the shaft. i laid out the shaft and marked the locations with a digital height guage so i know they were installed exactly where they (mountain performance) claim they should be.
The drivers are not hitting the rails or the heat exchanger.
The wear that i wrote about is located on the inside of the drivers. where the track clip would contact the driver tooth.

Mad matt has your experiences actually been with an expert x on your own sled ?
my instructions with the skid claim that you will need to run the track a little looser than the stock track would be run. I originally ran the original drivers with the expert x and from time to time i could feel the track ratchet.thats why i put in the anti ratchet drivers. since the track needs to be run looser i wanted to be sure there would be no slipping/ratcheting. i have never read or heard anything about the expert x preventing ratcheting as you are suggesting.

back to the original Question. has anyone ever had any vibration problems with anti ratchet drivers. I know for a fact that i read in either snowtech or snowgoer a little blurb about anti ratchet drivers being more prone to vibration than std style drivers
but they never got into an explanation as to why or if there was a cure or who made the best.
 
Bluewho
when you say out of time, you mean not in line on the shaft? 1 tooth would be in contact with the track and the other would not.
i never looked into that. good suggestion i will check it out
 
Yes, out of time would mean out of alignment on the shaft. There are alignment marks on the drivers that must be lined up during installation.

Recheck your spacing on the shaft. You can lift the sled and look up in there with a light to see if the drivers are centered in the track windows.
 
steve i put the kimpex drivers on my sled had to remove 1/4 of plastic off the ends so they would not hit on the main shaft not a big deal but found the marks to line up on the drive axle not in the proper place?i had to try it on the track first to keep them in the middle of the track windows and it took a couple of trys to get it right.work good no problems with vibration.
 
are they hitting the w arm ?? when i installed mine on a 02 viper i had to grind the tips back alittle cause they were hitting the w arm ..
 
b2so i have an ad bovine expert x rear suspension not the stock suspension. no w arm. thanks though..

ok, so i checked the drivers again today and they are not out of time.
what i did notice is that they are set perfectly in the center of the track windows.
i am wondering if i should push them out a little to help the outside part of the driver catch the track better. they look like they are only driving the track through the track window. i think they should also be driving on the track (nubs??)
what do you think??? keep them dead center or move them???

this doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere so i am going to start looking for other problems. bent crank or bent drive shaft, bad track.

i changed the track at the same time i changed the drivers and i am starting to wonder if the problem might be an unballanced track or something like that
anyone got any thoughts about that?????
 
You could pull the shaft and have it checked out, but I have been running extros for 4? seasons and have no vibration to speak of.
 
steve they should be good if they stay in the middle of the window turning the track a few turns but why is there a lot of wear?on the tips would be timeing, on the sides would be not in the rite spot from them walking on you or improper fit when put on. when you pull it apart turn the track inside out over a work horse and run the cog shaft on it, and roll it on a flat surface to see if the shaft is bent some guys will lathe the cogs so they will turn balanced at high speeds.sounds like a bearing or a missing spacer for it to be that bad dude.let me know len.
 
bluewho
I was under the sled again tonight. the brand of driver is ppd out of canada.
The wear is not on the tips of the drivers it is on the inside edges, between the drivers. the part of the driver that would contact the track clips is where it is wearing (really bad) it almost seems like the drivers are too small for the windows and are just slopping around in there.
If you push the driver to the front of the track window so that it contacts the track clip there is about 3/8 to 1/2 inch of room on the back side of the to the back of the track clip. any thoughts about this??
at the beginning of this year i installed a new track and antiratchet drivers. i changed both drive shaft bearings at that time. (just to be safe since it was already apart)
i am seriously considering pulling the shaft and putting it in the lathe to check it out.
i put a down payment on an apex rtx and will be getting rid of the viper this fall.
i was hoping to find an easy fix to this but it does not look like that is going to happen. i cant sell it like it is, i just dont feel good about doing that to someone.
 
I've got a set of those and wound up putting dykem on the teeth and running them through the clips to see where they hit on the way around. After that I ground the high spots down with a die grinder.
 
Kimpex drivers

Have a close look at where the external drivers come through the windows. They actually never push against the clips the way they should, at least this is what is happening in my case with Kimpex external drivers on a 97SX.
Look at a set of Micro-Belmont dual drivers, the external drive lugs line up perfectly with the involute drive lugs. The kimpex ones never do regardless of which way they are installed. I have contacted Kimpex and they are looking into it. Yes they also have to have the ends shaved down also to prevent contact with the front suspension shaft.
 
When i say out of time i mean if you are still running the origanal drivers and slide the non slip beside them they have to be in the right spot |in the middle or the windows|if the origanal drivers are removed and only non slips are used than the line up arrows are used.
 
'''i changed the track at the same time i changed the drivers and i am starting to wonder if the problem might be an unballanced track or something like that
anyone got any thoughts about that?????'''

What track did you use? Taller lug height?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top