Check your drive bearings!

V

Vmaxin

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So i did all my regular maint. this year before I started riding: replace clutch springs, chaincase oil, torn down carbs and cleaned them blah blah. Ive had my sled for just over a year now and the speedo has never worked, the guy before me had it since 02 and he said it hadnt worked in years so i didnt think much of it. Anywho, had put on about 300km this year, was cruisin with my friend and boom! shit hit the fan. At first I figured... okay the engine went, after 9000km on a 2 stroke I was like whatever. Nope, my chain had grenaded. So ordered new gears, chain and jb welded my little chunk of case back together... check the bearings in the case they are all screwed, pull the case off replace them. Checked the bearing on the clutch side of the drive shaft... it was completely oblitherated. the inner race was GONE, the outter race was a U and the drive shaft had started chewing into my fire wall, so... no doubt in my mind this is what caused everything! Check your damn driveshaft/chaincase bearings.... 17 bucks is a hell of alot cheaper than the 350 i spent to on my parts. Lesson learned, hope you all dont have to learn it the way I did. Let it snow!
 
Bummer.

A tell-tale sign of a faulty left side driveshaft bearing is an inoperative speed-o.

The shaft starts to wobble (excessive drive shaft run-out) and takes out the speed-o key first. Then... well, you know the rest.
 
snomofo said:
The shaft starts to wobble (excessive drive shaft run-out) and takes out the speed-o key first. Then... well, you know the rest.
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I always get a charge out of guys that are selling sleds and say ........"The only thing wrong with it is the speedo doesn't work".
 
Question of the day is can you replace that bearing without removing the driveshaft?
 
Yup, just replace mine at 4500 mi. Still ok but getting a little rough. Speedo still worked. Simple, important maintenance.
 
I lost the speedo on my arctic cat 2 years ago and only rode a couple of miles back to the trailer. I was amazed at how much the drive shaft had torn up the remains of the bearing in that time, I can't imagine riding as far as the OP did!
 
Racing666 said:
Question of the day is can you replace that bearing without removing the driveshaft?
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Yep its pretty simple. Take your 14mm wrench, pop off your secondary clutch. That gives u lots of room, then spin off the speedo cable.. you cant miss it in the bottom of the belly pan. Then you will see that there are 3 12mm nuts holding on a cover where that speedo line goes, pop those off. Luckily my bearing was in a state of complete distruction haha so it came out very easy. Take the bearing off, there will also be a little lock collar, look under the sled at the back side of the hole. take that off... its a little allen key or if its OEM i believe its torx. Put your new bearing and lock collar on and put everything else back together and you are good to go!
 
little fyi put a grease fitting on the cover of that bearing. That way you can lube it and should last a long time
 
Speedo bearing

I have seen the grease zert installed and there was no grease in the bearing. Grease everywhere but in the bearing. I pull the seal on the bearing off, clean the crud out of the bearing and grease by hand. Have been doing this for years on every sled that I work on. Pre season maint. I also grease the jack shaft bearing and idler wheel bearings the same way. All the bearings I have replaced have no grease in them so I pack them before installation. Have a look at a new bearing, you will be surprised with the lack of grease in them.
 
I had an issue with my speedo not working at the end of last season, I replaced the bearing but the new speedo key I bought is too long, there is nothing jammed in my speedo housing. So im assuming there is part of the old key jammed in the driveshaft, anyone ever have this happen? How do I get it out, just drill it out? I really dont want to mess up my driveshaft, so right now Im just running it without a speedo key
 
SpartaSXr said:
I have seen the grease zert installed and there was no grease in the bearing. Grease everywhere but in the bearing. I pull the seal on the bearing off, clean the crud out of the bearing and grease by hand. Have been doing this for years on every sled that I work on. Pre season maint. I also grease the jack shaft bearing and idler wheel bearings the same way. All the bearings I have replaced have no grease in them so I pack them before installation. Have a look at a new bearing, you will be surprised with the lack of grease in them.
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Can someone give me a lesson on taking the seals out to grease a bearing? Im always worried about messing the seal up.
Thanks :)
 
JDViper said:
Can someone give me a lesson on taking the seals out to grease a bearing? Im always worried about messing the seal up.
Thanks :)
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JD you wont mess up the seal. I use a very small screwdriver with a sharp tip. Then carfully slide it under the seal at the inner collar and pry up. If you bend the seal a little bit just lay it on a hard flat surface and pound flat with a rubber mallet. Ive been doing this to every bearing on every sled i have each season and never a problem. In fact most of the bearings still have nice blue grease in them the next season but i still clean and repac every year. I use a needle grease insert to get it in to the bearing well then fill the rest and replace the seals.
 
Speedo

I have not found a solution to remove the broken key. Running without a speedo for 4 years now other than replacing the axle the broken key is there for good. Anyone been there and got it out ?
 
I dont mind not knowing how fast Im going I never look at my speedo anyway, but I dont like not knowing how many miles Im doing.
 
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