I was told this little tale about a month ago by a guy that has a '99 V Max 600 twin and just have to share this with you guys it's just too scary not to.A little background on the guy first,he's a diesel mechanic I believe by trade as he works at the local Dept of highways maintenance garage so he should know a bit about small engines too although you'll see here that could very well be a huge misconception.Anyway while out on a trail ride with some friends we came across another group of friends stopped chit chatting and decided to stop as well.Well in the course of all the conversations I ended up talking to our hero here about his sled and some of the things he'd like to fix up on it as I am somehow regarded as the local Yammi guy I guess when it comes to what to look for when doing service etc.There aren't very many Yamahas in my area let alone Yamaha 2 strokes and most of the guys I know and ride with know that I've had pretty much every nut and bolt apart on mine so they kind of look to me for advice when it comes to Yamahas.
Anyway we were talking about engines and how tough Yamahas are or seem to be and I asked him about any problems he's ever had with his;now here's the good part.He tells me that he really doesn't take care of his sled all that well,in the spring he parks it out of the way usually under a tree,I KNOW!!!,with a cover on it and walks away til fall.He tells me that last spring he parked it and pulled the spark plugs to use in his Banshee and left the sled to fend for itself.I mean how much can a set of BR9ES's cost?$5 at the most right.When he told me that I just couldn't believe it until he followed it up with the rest of the story.Last fall he decided it was time to get the sled ready for winter so he goes out yanks the cover off and throws in the spark plugs and proceeds to fire it up.Well it wont pull over,or very little so he does some preliminary diagnosing and pulls the plugs back out and pulls it over.Well I'm sure you can guess what came out of the S-P holes,WATER!!!!!
He tells me that there was so much water in the base that he had to lay the sled on it's side and pull it over to get the water out.I almost fell over when he tells me this,I just could not believe what I was hearing!!!!!
He gets the engine running after while and lets it warm up which I thought was purely amazing,first that the crank bearings weren't rusted completely stuck and second that the engine started and ran.I don't know what is keeping this engine together and running but this is one testament to how tough a Yamaha engine can be.
I'm sure you guys no doubt know someone like this too so feel free to share your horror stories.
Anyway we were talking about engines and how tough Yamahas are or seem to be and I asked him about any problems he's ever had with his;now here's the good part.He tells me that he really doesn't take care of his sled all that well,in the spring he parks it out of the way usually under a tree,I KNOW!!!,with a cover on it and walks away til fall.He tells me that last spring he parked it and pulled the spark plugs to use in his Banshee and left the sled to fend for itself.I mean how much can a set of BR9ES's cost?$5 at the most right.When he told me that I just couldn't believe it until he followed it up with the rest of the story.Last fall he decided it was time to get the sled ready for winter so he goes out yanks the cover off and throws in the spark plugs and proceeds to fire it up.Well it wont pull over,or very little so he does some preliminary diagnosing and pulls the plugs back out and pulls it over.Well I'm sure you can guess what came out of the S-P holes,WATER!!!!!
He tells me that there was so much water in the base that he had to lay the sled on it's side and pull it over to get the water out.I almost fell over when he tells me this,I just could not believe what I was hearing!!!!!
He gets the engine running after while and lets it warm up which I thought was purely amazing,first that the crank bearings weren't rusted completely stuck and second that the engine started and ran.I don't know what is keeping this engine together and running but this is one testament to how tough a Yamaha engine can be.
I'm sure you guys no doubt know someone like this too so feel free to share your horror stories.
ottawaair
New member
great mechanic. I know a local "mechanic" that works for a utility company in the garage, I wouldn't let him touch anything of mine. He thinks he is really technical, he's not, we call him "nostics", as in diagnostics. He hates it.
bluemonster1
LIFE MEMBER ONLY ONCE!!!
cool story and amazing Yami motors eh!. And he is still riding that sled after all this and no breakdown from the motor..maybe we are are all doing it wrong. 
sleddineinar
VIP Member
My friend owns a '89 SRV that he's had since it was 5 or 6 years old. Last year he cleaned the clutches for the first time. I think he said he's never cleaned the carb and doesn't drain the gas, all he does is put new plugs in every year. it ran almost flawlessly this year, just like it has for the past 14 or 15 years for him. I think it has 5000 miles on it.
bluemonster1
LIFE MEMBER ONLY ONCE!!!
we did that in the older days with our exciters and SRX's back in 78 to 81.Never ever cleaned carbs or drained gas.Clutches weren't even in our thought.We rode them every year like that ..putting on some 5000 miles plus.Ran like a charm.
staggs65
Moderator
i know when i was younger and didn't care about maintenance, on anything with a motor, i never seemed to have as many problems as i do know that i try to do the right things. (thats a blanket statement not pertaining to my srx's ive owned)
goody_700
New member
The 2nd sled I owned was a 1991 Polaris Indy 400. This was years ago when I didn't know ANYTHING about sleds, cars yes, sleds NO. Picked it up from a buddy of mine for $400, who had incidentally upgraded to a 96 Vmax 500. Sled was in really nice shape for the 6700 miles that were on it. Anyways, my idea of storage was parking it behind a friends shed uncovered for the summer. Come winter, a quick wipe off, a little starting fluid and away I went, flipper to the gripper. I'll say it though, tough little sled, took all I gave it and never failed me. Always got me where I needed to go, never broke down. I ended up selling it a few years later with over 9800 miles on it for $375, still ran like a champ. Never worked on it other than a few skid bearings one year.
Just my own personal story.
Just my own personal story.
My father used to store his sleds beside the garage on his trailer every summer when they lived in the Twin Cities. He did everything right when he put them away for the summer except one thing, he never tapped over the exhaust port. One fall he brought the sleds into the garage to get them ready for the upcoming season only to find that his '96 VMAX 500 would not turn over. He even tried a socket and breaker bar on the clutch bolt to turn it over and it wouldn't budge. So, he pulled the plugs to find that a friendly litte chipmonk had decided that one of the cylinders was a great place to store acorns. As he took the sled apart to clean the acrons out of the cylinder he found that the little bastard was very busy because not only was the cylinder full, the tuner and silencer were packed as tight as possible also. Since then he has been using duct tape to seal up the exhaust port to keep the mice and chipmonks out. As for me, I have been using a tennis ball to seal mine off because I don't want those little critters chewing through the duct tape. I did forget to take it out one fall and was swearing a blue streak because my sled wouldn't start - pulled the ball out and all was good.
Mills
Mills
TimeBomb
New member
wow, that is a miracle, especially being the 600 twin
Soup Dog
New member
A friend of mine had a Phazer...While riding on the ICE with his grilfriend on the back,was going over to a local bar when he decided to not take the little trail over the pennisula, But instead go around the tip of it...Now everyone knows that it never freeze's at the tip...So he sinks the sled in about 4 ft of water...The next day a bunch of us went to help him get his sled out of the water....A row boat and a few 4-wheelers we got it out after about a hour or so... Back to his house we pull the plugs pull it over blow out the water and decide to see if it would fire up....Holy $hit it did couldn't BELIEVE it...It was running the light was on and it was half full of water....It sat overnight in Lake Erie and still started...