ditchbanger2002
New member
How many miles can you go before you do anything to the bottom end? what kind of work is it to freshen it up? Is it something i can do myself or should i bring it in?
mopar1rules
Active member
on a srx, you could go up to 10,000 miles easily, before thinking about tearing it apart.....but this is if you take care of it properly....fog for storage, give it enough oil while running, etc. if you ever melted down the top end, i always tear the bottom end apart to inspect/clean out any piston debris, etc....cause that will only cause problems. how many miles are on your sled and what sled you got? if you got a viper and have 6,000 miles on it and nothing went wrong yet, i would disassemble and inspect the center rod bearing and main bearings. vipers like to go thru rod bearings and crank bearings, over the srx, sx-r, etc.
I am unsure where your getting your "hear say" crank information there mopar but its completely false. The srx and vipers use the same bearings, there is no problem youll have with a viper vs a srx, same thing. The thing that leads to loss of bearings is moisture build up during off season storage causing rust in the crank bearings. Most times this can be traced to the engine not being fogged or stored in a enclosed trailer and in the summer heat, it sweats inside. The moisture then runs down and rust the bearings, when you start them up they self destruct within no time..
forgot to add , but the crank seals will fail before the bearings do if its taken care of, how many miles you get is based upon how its used and how its stored more importantly. In my opinion after 5000-6000 miles you should look at replacing the crank seals, if they leak your engines toast. 
tedgoesfast
New member
like everyone says service it right and store it right i start mine once a week and still service carbs in the fall ive got 24000 kilos on my old exciter sx orginal crank
ditchbanger2002
New member
I have a 2002 viper, it has 65 or 6700 miles on it, its never burnt down but with that many miles i was gonna do rings and pistons for cheap insurance. then i wondered what the bottom looks like. Ive done top ends but never been in the bottom before, besides i dont have a clutch puller. This sled has haucks venom kit on it also so i was wondering if that would shorten the life span.
Since ive owned it, it has been fogged for storage and carbs get cleaned before use the next season, and is stored in the garage.... is crank seals hard to do? can i do it myself?
thanks for the info guys.
Chris
Since ive owned it, it has been fogged for storage and carbs get cleaned before use the next season, and is stored in the garage.... is crank seals hard to do? can i do it myself?
thanks for the info guys.
Chris
daman
New member
With that mileage amount i would be going through it for sure,,take your time get a service manual and this site should get ya through it np...
mopar1rules
Active member
mrviper700 said:
mrviper, i gathered up this info, about the viper rod bearings from this site. after hearing about all the folks that have a viper w/a bad center rod bearing, or are parting out a viper w/a bad crank or rod bearing etc, it seems like 90% of the time, its the center cylinder. it also seems like 90% of the time, its a viper w/crank issues, not a srx. i know that moisture will kill any crank bearing, in any engine, and that its up to the owner to execute preventative maintenance, etc. i also, know that the vipers and srx's share the same crank bearings and even same rods. i know of people w/srx's and vipers. both take care/maintain their sleds. i know of personally 2 srx's w/high miles on them. '00 srx w/15,000 miles and a '99 700 srx w/23,000 miles. neither of them had a crank failure and both of these engines have never been apart yet. 1 of my other riding buddies had a '02 viper w/hauck venom kit and 5800 miles on sled. the center rod bearing let go, after having put on 1400 miles w/the venom kit. his sled was fogged, maintained, etc...just like the high mileaged srx's. so, why did his (viper) bearing go? when his engine was pulled apart to be repaired, there was no rust anywhere, on any of the other rods, bearings, counterweights, etc. so, i have to believe that if there was a rust/moisture issue going on, there should have been some other spotty rust, to be found elsewhere. is there some sort of weird harmonics going on in the viper motor, that kill these rods bearings over time? harmonics that these srx's engines don't see? i also say, that the operating max rpms of a motor, have a role in determining bearing life also. a motor that is going to see 10,000 rpms down the trail, isn't going to survive like a motor running at 8400 rpms. i talked to a guy, that worked for yamaha, and he said that yamaha backed the oil pumps off, on '00 and newer sleds. he said, that's why you see a few '00-'02 srx's w/bad cranks, versus the '98-'99 srx's. he said the '98-'99 srx's, had a fatter oil pump. even tho the part #'s are the same on the microfiche, he said internally, there are different. oil quality will also determine crank life, etc. also, please read my pm i sent to you and reply. i don't know why you hate me so much.
hate you?? dont know anything about that. 
Its just you seem to post information without really having either done it first hand or have any working knowledge of it first hand, "hear say" is just that, hear say. Sometimes you have to just not reply to something if you dont have the answer. Its not a contest of who has the most post on this site. Its all about giving others factual quality information to help them, to guide them, and to flat out keep them from throwing money away. This site is so good because most of the senior people here are pretty knowledgeable and they go out of thier way to help others. Just posting "hear say" isnt helping others and gives the wrong information out, possibly costing others money for no reason.
Now I know this is gonna be hard to believe but I may have just taken apart and rebuilt 1 possibly 2 more engines then you have and have seen the cranks broken in numerous differnt ways.
If you have any sled with detonation it will soon damage the rod bearings as the detonation destoys the bearings by beating up on them at all the wrong times, from the normal combustion process which is "softened" by crankshaft rotation and not a direct hit to rattle the bearing, maybe a better description would be jarring the bearing against the rod and crankpin. I have seen both srx and vipers with the same damage. If the motors been burned down, run with lean jetting rattling the pistons, broken belt, etc, it all leads in time to the crank taking the damage. The rod bearing is alot weaker then the main crank bearing.
Its just you seem to post information without really having either done it first hand or have any working knowledge of it first hand, "hear say" is just that, hear say. Sometimes you have to just not reply to something if you dont have the answer. Its not a contest of who has the most post on this site. Its all about giving others factual quality information to help them, to guide them, and to flat out keep them from throwing money away. This site is so good because most of the senior people here are pretty knowledgeable and they go out of thier way to help others. Just posting "hear say" isnt helping others and gives the wrong information out, possibly costing others money for no reason.
Now I know this is gonna be hard to believe but I may have just taken apart and rebuilt 1 possibly 2 more engines then you have and have seen the cranks broken in numerous differnt ways.
If you have any sled with detonation it will soon damage the rod bearings as the detonation destoys the bearings by beating up on them at all the wrong times, from the normal combustion process which is "softened" by crankshaft rotation and not a direct hit to rattle the bearing, maybe a better description would be jarring the bearing against the rod and crankpin. I have seen both srx and vipers with the same damage. If the motors been burned down, run with lean jetting rattling the pistons, broken belt, etc, it all leads in time to the crank taking the damage. The rod bearing is alot weaker then the main crank bearing.
mopar1rules
Active member
mrviper700 said:hate you?? dont know anything about that.
Its just you seem to post information without really having either done it first hand or have any working knowledge of it first hand, "hear say" is just that, hear say. Sometimes you have to just not reply to something if you dont have the answer. Its not a contest of who has the most post on this site. Its all about giving others factual quality information to help them, to guide them, and to flat out keep them from throwing money away. This site is so good because most of the senior people here are pretty knowledgeable and they go out of thier way to help others. Just posting "hear say" isnt helping others and gives the wrong information out, possibly costing others money for no reason.
Now I know this is gonna be hard to believe but I may have just taken apart and rebuilt 1 possibly 2 more engines then you have and have seen the cranks broken in numerous differnt ways.
i get the feeling you "hate" me, cause it seem like you reply negatively back to something that i've posted in and reply w/a smartass tone....ex "Now I know this is gonna be hard to believe but I may have just taken apart and rebuilt 1 possibly 2 more engines then you have".----c'mon. if i'm wrong, you could be a little more polite about it. also, you never answer my pm's, which is giving me the idea the you are blowing me off (cause you hate me). also, i kinda understand where you are coming from w/"hear say". but i specifically said, that it was something i had heard and not actually experienced myself. if this ditchbanger2002 guy, needs to get his viper crank rebuilt, it would cost the same to buy a used srx crank or to just get his viper crank rebuilt, so just for the peace of mind, i would use the viper crank in the viper motor and vice versa.
the thing with reading type on a forum is sometimes you the person reading "reads" more into the sentence then just the type itself, its not like you can hear the voice tone, persons facial expression, etc when reading type. Your making more out if it then is there.