W arm

journeyman

journeyman

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Joined
Aug 11, 2003
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1,181
Age
61
Location
Prior Lake,Mn.
Anyone know what a new W arm in the rear suspension of a Viper costs? Mine is broken on both sides and might be beyond repair.
 

I was thinking a lot more from the dealer ships. I thought list on my SRX W arm was like $240. Put an ad in the wanted section and see what you can find used. Unless you get real lucky with reinforcing, the new one will grenade too.
 
There are several members of this site who sell used parts, you should be able to pick up a used one. New or used, reinforce it properly and you will not have anymore problems with it.
 
rx1jim said:
There are several members of this site who sell used parts, you should be able to pick up a used one. New or used, reinforce it properly and you will not have anymore problems with it.
Click to expand...

My W arm was "gusseted up" by the PO and ended up in three or four pieces. I was impressed by the way my new take off was reinforced by a coworker, but know that only time will tell. I plan on using this sled a whole lot less now that I drive the 2007 Attak.

Unless someone can convince me otherwise, I think most all W arms will break.
 
The quality of the welding, the material used to reinforce the W arm are all critical to how strong the final product will be. Below are some pics of the W arm I just completed for an SRX. This W arm started to show 2 very small cracks after 13000 miles. The welding of the W arms was very poor from the factory. I reweld (TIG process) all of the joints which are under a lot of stress with a very high strength filler rod. I add 3/16" x 1" bars along the bottom of each of the 4 main tubes and add 2 gussets at the top of the W arm to tie the main tubes together. This allows the load to be distributed across the 4 tubes rather than being concentrated. I have strengthened several W arms using this process and have not have one crack despite people pounding the crap out of their sleds.

Sled122009018.jpg


Sled122009017.jpg


Sled122009016.jpg
 
My W arms were reinforced in a very similar way, but I had to cut out a place for the rails. I have to assume there is proper clearance. Boy does that look clean!
 
you will need a little more clearance on those gussets for the rail to come up when fully compressed or it will hit your gusset. here is mine only about 1 1/4 high.
 

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Thanks everyone and thanks for the great photos!! I have some real good machinists at my work ,one who is an SRX owner who has broken his twice and his wife's SX500 just broke. I'll see if he can fix mine. Otherwise I will be buying one. The SRX owner does have a relative who deals in used Yamaha sled parts but I am not sure what he has at the moment. I am going to pull the skid this weekend. Here I was cussing my new Cobra track for ratcheting and it turned out to be my suspension instead causing it to ratchet. :o|
 
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The gussets I added to the W arm do not need any more clearance. I installed the W arm on the rails without the shock absorber and cycled the arm, There is plenty of clearance. The shorter the gusset the less additional strength they provide.
 
If anyone gets into a bind and can't fix their cracked W arm, let me know. For the cost of shipping i would be willing to help out a TY member. All you will have to do is paint or powder coat the W arm when you get it back.
 
a new one here cost me like $250 for my SRX.I ended up welding and beefing up the old one which was in bad shape.I now have 4 w-arms..2 as a spare.But I re-welded and beefed all of them up.They are holding up with not an issue now,better then new.
 
you can buy new ones that are already gusseted also, not much more money than oem if i remember right. I got mine from maximum performance a few years ago but not sure if they are even still in buisiness anymore havnt heard much about them lately. im sure others have them out there though. i used to go through 2 a year from riding hard and pounding the rough trails around here, this one has lasted a couple years now and dont have 1 crack in it.
 
Maxximum Performance went out of business a few years ago. If I could get 1 or two cracked W arms, I would start a replacement service.
 
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