I decided the other day that I would replace the crank seals on my 98 SRX just to be safe. I got it apart this evening and found that my clutch side seal was shot. The spring on the seal was completely off and laying between the seal and the crank. I did notice the sled was working a bit weird toward the end of last season so I'm thinking this could be the reason. It was bogging a bit and backfiring once in awhile. For anyone with a slightly older sled it might be a good idea to think about replacing the seals. My sled has about 7500 miles on it which isin't a lot for the SRX but I guess seals can just get bad with age. This defintely would have gave me problems this season.
yamaholic22
Active member
wow, lucky you caught that, bad crank seal will usually lead to a burndown because it leans out the mixture by allowing extra oxygen into the crankcase, leaning it out and pop! A good way to check crank seals is to spray some ether near the crank seal with the engine running. If the engine revs up, the seal is shot (make sure the ether is getting into the intake of the sled, giving you a false reading.)
daman
New member
you say ether.... is that the same as starting fluid???
shortstop20
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Yes, ether=starting fluid
daman
New member
I knew that..... LOL 
sxviper32
New member
not quite actually. there are less potent starting fluids than ether. ether is some bad stuff for 2 strokes...
yamaholic22
Active member
For a generalization yes ether is a type of starting fluid.