Viper Trailng Arms?

bravo-guy

bravo-guy

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I bought a right side trailing arm for my sled, and not seeing it before I bought it (ordered it used through phone), it came off a Viper, not a Mountain Max, as said. Anyways, now I have a Stock Mtn Lite trailing arm and a Viper trailing arm. Would it work if I cut off the spindle on the Viper arm the same length as the stock arm? If I got another Viper trailing arm, what would I need other than the arms and the spindle that attaches to the ski mount?
 
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i've read many diffrent places on here that the caster angle (rearward tilt of the spindle) is diffrent from one sled to another , and if differed by model and also the letter stamped in the front of the arm.
 
blk04700 said:
i've read many diffrent places on here that the caster angle (rearward tilt of the spindle) is diffrent from one sled to another , and if differed by model and also the letter stamped in the front of the arm.
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not sure why that would be... the shock length from the post 2000 sleds were all the same.... the only difference in the viper was the hood, and engine.... i might be wrong.... and if you put 2 of the same angle arms on it MIGHT handle a LITTLE different than stock, but its a mountain sled, so are you really gonna notice that in powder?

bravo-guy, not sure on the answer to your question, id assume its a direct bolt on, because its just the hood and belly pan that are different, its the same chassis and tunnel (i think)
 
The trailing arms are the the same just the viper one is longer.
I had the same thing happen to me a couple years ago but opposite(I have a Viper).
I just added a 2" spacer to my mmax trailing arm, you can cut yours off and it will work just fine.
 
the Viper trailing arm has "M" on the front, and the stock Mtn Lite arm has "S" on it. is this only because of the spindle length? I have also read that I will need new steering arms if I put Viper trailing arms on or is this just for the SRX were it sits lower to the ground than my sled?
 
bravo-guy said:
the Viper trailing arm has "M" on the front, and the stock Mtn Lite arm has "S" on it. is this only because of the spindle length? I have also read that I will need new steering arms if I put Viper trailing arms on or is this just for the SRX were it sits lower to the ground than my sled?
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With the srx when you put viper trailing arms and shocks on you change the steering rods because you want to widen the stance otherwise the front end is lifted too much. You shouldn't have to do this.
 
just found this in another thread:

Front suspension

Yamaha has made 3 front cast sections. This is the part that all supension components bolt. They all can be rivoted into the frame.

vmax and viper are similar in how they use clevis style shock mounts up high in the belly pan
Viper and SRX are similar in how they bolt the rh motor mount
Srx and sx are similar in the length of front shock used
Sx sleds use a vmax cast section with brackets to use the shorter shocks.
Srx cast sections can only use short travel shock unless a custom brackets are made.
Sx and srx cast secions share the same radius rod hole spacing
Viper cast sections use their own radius rod hole spacing that is wider.

Trailing arms are many different colors but the difference physicly is this.
Viper/Venture/Vmax using low mount skis have a longer spindle housing to make up for the lower mount hole in ski. They are about 1in longer, or taller depending how you look at it.
Vmax/Venture/Sxr trailing arms that use the steel skis or the usi style high mount plastic ski have the shorter spindle housing but have similar caster angle to the above trailing arms for long travel front ends.
Srx/Sx short travel trailing arms use the same short spindle housing as the above trailing arms but have a few less degrees of caster made into them.
 
you can run the viper t/a's with viper spindles and steering arms, but, without changing a whole bunch of other steering components, the steering arms wont paralell the trailing arms and you will loose about 20+ degrees of turning radious. in other words, your sled will not turn as sharp as it does now and you will fight alignment issues to no end. your better off to put any other short spindle arm on there as the rake and camber is as insignificant as 3 degrees and if you have rode your sled hard and all other components are slightly worn, the angle difference does not amount to squat, unless your doing 90+ on hardpack, which normally wont happen on a phazer mtn lite.
 
What do you mean by the rake and camber? And yes I use my sled hard, its no fun taken it easy ;)! I think i am going to cut the inch or so off the Viper trailing arm, everything else on the arm is identical except for the spindle length.
 
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rake= angle front to rear. camber= left to right. like i said, there is only about up to 3 degrees difference on any of the arms. unless you really dig in deep and do some serious measuring, its almost unnoticable. lay out 3 degrees with a protractor and you will see. if your going to cut the tube down, then within a degree or two you will have, in essence, any other short spindle trailing arm. just be sure to set the caster and camber as close as you can to the specs for your particular sled.
 
So now I have the spindle cut down some, that went perfect. But when I tried to put the bushing into the spindle, it wouldn't fit, So I had a couple Kimpex bushings laying around that were way to slack for the other trailing arm, figuring they would fit. They wouldn't, very easily. I manged to pound it in without damaging them, but now the bushing is stuck and so is the spindle, it wont come out and when in place the spindle will not turn. I am completely stumped on what to do? I need help guys, snow coming on friday (finally) and sled not fixed.
 
leverage and gravity! hook a ski on the spindle and turn, turn, turn. that cheapo kimpex plastic bushing will shape right up. if that wont work, the weight from the ski will eventually overcome the grip of the bushing and the spindle will be laying on the floor with the ski.
 
There is some misleading information on this thread . . .

The specs for the T-arms are in the Tech Update manuals for that era sleds. I and others have posted in the past. Some of it may even be on the Tech Pages.

By cutting down the spindle housing part of the arm, you do not have the same reinforcement for the bottom of the spindle. Will it cause a problem? Only time will tell, as I doubt any on here have tested it that way.

I would just keep an eye on it, as it sounds like you have finished it.

Good Luck anyway.
 
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