Out in a tight bush behind my house tonight,and while trying to negotiate a tight turn I glanced off a tree, and tweaked something in the steering. I hit the arm which clamps to the spindle, and attaches the steering arms. I can't see anything which looks out of the ordinary, but yet the alignment is clearly off, and appears "pigeon toed" Anything I can check for I may be missing? Should I just re-align the front end, and ride? The sled is an '01 sxr700
i think its gonna take some pics to help figure this out for you. what your asking is like picking up the phone and calling the doctor and asking him " hey doc it hurts right here what could it be ?? " if you could visibly see the alignment is off then something is bent somewhere pretty good.
sleddineinar
VIP Member
Probably tweaked a TA, but you can still adjust it and ride if nothing is broken. But yea w/o some pics it's just wild guess...
If I can't see anything bent looking right at it, I highly doubt a picture will show anything. The first thing I thought of was the torsion arm, but it looks fine. I'm going to do some measuring tomorrow. Just thought someone here may have had the same type of thing happen, and be able to point me in the right direction quicker.
sleddineinar
VIP Member
I tweaked my TA last year when I hit grass stump in a swap. I couldn't see it right away either, but I could tell something was bent. I adjusted the toe in to toe out and rode the rest of the night w/o a problem, but it was almost impossible to steer on the trail until I pulled over and adjusted it. About 2 weeks later I walked past it in the garage when I saw what was bent. The trailing arm was bent so that the spindle tube was turned in slightly. When I took it apart to inspect everything I found a bent ski spindle too.
You may have twisted the spindle.
Now that's what I was thinking! I looked at it again this morning, and everything looks normal, except that you can plainly see the primary side ski turned nose in.crewchief47 said:
I think I may have twisted both spindles, as both skis were toed in. I hit a buried log a couple weeks ago, HARD. Never noticed any damage until the tree bounce last night, and that wasn't all that hard. I adjusted both steering arms using all the adjustment there was, and just got the alignment back in. I still for the life of me don't see anything bent or damaged??? The sled works good now.
dwarf717 said:
I'd bet the cheif is right. Can't really tell about the spindle until you pull it out of the TA tube. Even then it may not jump out at you. Try rolling/twisting it along the edge of a flat table looking for run-out/wobble. You may even be able to see the twist in the grain of the casting.
Has the turning radius changed left or right too or is it just toed in?
If you can't get a replacement quickly you could reclock to the steering arm the spindle to gain back the adjustment at the tie rod-end if you're maxed out (heim joint with jam (or is it jamb?) nut screwed way out of the tie-rod - no good).
Don't forget, if it is twisted you've compromised it's strength.
My bet is on a twisted spindle. Did this on a Viper once, hit a rock and twisted the spindle. Just moved it over a tooth or so and still riding it.
SXlover said:
X2 - rode my SRX a couple years without issue too but figured I'd mention the possible fatigue.
You sure that sled will run around the same house again?????????AUGDOG said:
What about the steering arms that run under the motor that you can barely see ? possible that one of those has a small bend in it causing it to be slightly different length and pullg the ski out of alignment
Had the spindle out. Appears fine, but hard to tell unless you have a good one to compare it to by putting the two side by side, and comparing where the alignment dots are. Bars were still centered, and lock to lock was the same. Steering arms are fine. One had a slight wow to it, but I pulled, and straightened it. I got the skis back into alignment, and the sled works fine. Anyone care to post a pic of the top of their spindle with the cap removed, and steering set straight?