Broken Drive Shafts - 2 1998 Vmax's

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Yooper_Bob

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Feb 7, 2005
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35
Location
Marquette, MI
So....who all has had a drive shaft break on their 1998 Vmax's?

I had the shaft break on my '98 Mountain Max 600 several years ago....I didn't hit anything, just snapped while riding. Dealer claimed he had never seen one break before. I figured it was just my blind luck to have it happen.

Jump ahead to this past weekend...my wife is driving her '98 Vmax 500 across a smooth flat lake at approximately 35 m.p.h. and suddenly a horrendous noise erupts from under the sled. Get it to the dealer and surprise, surprise...broken drive shaft.

Now my sled had definitely been ridden much harder than hers, but two broken shafts on the same year sled?
 
yup its actually a fairly common problem, the alloy on the older ones isn't near as strong as the 2000 and up driveshafts. I would recommend getting an updated one to replace it.
 
yamaholic22 said:
yup its actually a fairly common problem, the alloy on the older ones isn't near as strong as the 2000 and up driveshafts. I would recommend getting an updated one to replace it.
Click to expand...
Were they all the same just swap 'em out???
 
can you see the difference in the updated shaft?
got a shaft with drivers and it got me wondering?
if my shaft could be a older shaft????
 
..SNAKEBIT.. said:
can you see the difference in the updated shaft?
got a shaft with drivers and it got me wondering?
if my shaft could be a older shaft????
Click to expand...
I think it's the secondary PTO shaft that snapped not the lower axle with
the drivers on it????
 
never heard of the jackshafts breaaking??

so any one?
what is the difference in the 2 drive shafts?
can you tell by looking at it??????
 
Here are a couple of photos of the axle out of my '98 Mountain Max...the shaft has been on my workbench for a couple of years, hence the rust.

I don't yet have my wife's sled back from the shop.

IMGP2681.jpg


IMGP2682.jpg
 
You know honestly i dont know if there are any consistent tell-tale signs of the updated shafts compared to the older ones. I know that mine on my newer ones are a lot shinier silver than the two pre-2000 ones that i have, but i dont know if that is because of manufacturing or if the pre-2000 ones are just a little bit more corroded than the newer ones. Anyone else know for sure?
 
I just got back from the dealer and picked up the other shaft....both broke with 1/2" of each other....I'll post pictures later.

Fortunately, this time it did not destroy the chaincase as well.
 
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