Soft Rear Suspension Bottoming out...

PoPPin600

PoPPin600

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Joined
Sep 18, 2014
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Michigan
I was Finally able to get my rear suspension in the sled this evening! My bushings showed up and I went straight to work as soon as i got home. I was really excited to finally have my sled complete and back together since it has been apart in my garage for over a month it seems. Anyway I got it all in there and tightened up. When I sit on the sled now, it sinks down like i weigh 400+ pounds and feels like it bottoms out, like a whomped out ditch banger. when I get off of the sled, it returns to its normal height.. There is Maybe a total of 3" of travel before it feels like its bottoming out.

I do not recall the rear suspension being so soft when I got this sled. Although I did go through every bushing and actually greased everything so It might be actually working and showing its true colors now thats its all greased. I was hoping someone had a similar problem and was able to fix it by "simply moving this or that" or "adjusting that". as far as I know, it is installed correctly. It was quite a pain installing it all by myself, Maybe I just overlooked something and did something goofy. As of now, the sled just feels like the rear is completely clapped out. Anything that I should look for or try? Thanks
 
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Probably just closing the gap on the track rods and hitting the coupled part of suspension travel. Lean over the side of the sled and see if the gap on the top of the rods is the same as the bottom, if it's not Make sure the fra is in the middle and adjust with rear shock pre load.
 
mes882 said:
In the tech section there is a video on the pro action. There is some good information it. Here is a link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz5denu8Cec
Also read this
http://www.totallyamaha.net/forums/printthread.php?t=34503

Like roudy says check your gap on the transfer rods. Where did you put the FRA?? top middle or lower?? Did you change any of the spring preloads??
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Follow the directions from Betheviper in second link. Will be perfect. You skids like new and needs the shocks readjusted for sure. They may even need a rebuild and revalve now that they are allowed to travel correctly. Remember the travel is all the the spring preload.
 
The Full Rate Adjuster was in the mid point of adjustment, I dropped it down to the firm setting lowest hole and it made it slightly stiffer, but not really much of an improvement. still feels like it bottoms out, or maybe I am just confusing the bottoming out feeling with the coupling of the rear. Either way, This suspension SUCKS and i will more than likely rip this crap out and try to find something a little more up to date. I am going to go through it and double check everything still though. I have to rip the skid back out anyway because After I got it all installed, I Then noticed that my W arm has a crack in it, I'm just having bad luck with this sled. I have had to go through and replace basically EVERYTHING on it so far. I'm going to end up having $2500 into a sled that I couldn't sell for $1500.... I just Hate Dumping More Money into this thing. and I still don't know if the first time I have it out, if it's going to even last. Like I said,,the previous owner did Everything Wrong,,, for all I know, there is zip ties holding the wrist pins in this damn thing..

Sorry, I'm having a rough day. Cranky, haven't eaten, and It just seems like every thing on this sled is Fighting me the whole way. I do Not want to give up it, but this is becoming an Expensive Nightmare Sled!!
 
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Pulled the skid back out,,Again,, now its time to reinforce the W arm. I wish that I would've paid better attention to it the first time I had it out. But with the skid out, I was looking downward at it and didn't notice these cracks until I was underneath the sled putting the skid back In last night...

I am reluctant to even return this suspension back into the sled. I am looking for a nice skid to swap out with like an SC-iii or a polaris skid. But in the meantime, I'm going to reinforce the w arm and call it good. It looks like its already been re welded before which doesn't surprise me. Any good links to skid swaps?

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yamaha suspension.pngthe W are controls the front side of things. while you have the suspension out check your rear shock and see how weak it is. You could have a wooped shock. Not sure but I think in the back of the suspension the arm can fold the wrong way causing the suspension not to work correctly. I had this happen to a older sled I had and caused the same thing with the soft suspension. Hope this helps.
 
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post back here when you get a chance after you ride it, im interested to know how it rides. i am thinking of doing this to my sxr but dont want to lose the low slung cornering ability and feel of it.
 
roudyroy1 said:
post back here when you get a chance after you ride it, im interested to know how it rides. i am thinking of doing this to my sxr but dont want to lose the low slung cornering ability and feel of it.
Click to expand...

Will do.. Im quite anxious to know how different it will be myself. Based on the initial sitting down and the stand on bounce test, it feels great. I set all of the preloads to the minimum setting and it was very very soft,, so i bumped them up to about halfway on the center shock and setting 3 of 4 available adjustments on the rear torsion springs and it feels like im sitting on my buddies REV.

I also plan on lifting the front end slightly for more ground clearance, so when i did my install,, i took that into consideration and adjusted my limiter strap to about the mid point,, that way when I lift the front, i can drop the limiter strap to even out the change in ski pressure. The install itself was very simple and just a matter of accurately drilling 4 new holes and reinforcing the tunnel where the front arm of the SC4 mounts. I used 1/8 stainless plate steel and made my tunnel reinforcements. For the rear mounting point, all you have to do is drill about 1" behind the stock mounting hole and the new hole will share the stock tunnel reinforcement. I plan on drilling the front arm mounting points and installing grease fittings because for some reason, skidoo does not have them on the front arm,,at least not on my SC4, so installing grease fittings seems like a good thing to do.

The hardest part of this install for me was gathering the proper measurements for my particular suspension, and then gathering the courage to bore 4 holes in the side of my sled.. stainless rivets are a pain also,, but it turned out really well so far and I cant wait to try it out. :sled1:
 
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Tonight I pulled the skid out, took the front arm off of it. Drilled and tapped holes and installed zerk fittings to the pivot points, bucked the rivets in my front arm tunnel reinforcements that I had to make, and got it all back together. If it wasn't so late, i would've fired it up and gave it a spin. The next step is getting that front to sit up a tad higher.
 
Well, it's been two years.. I've put a few hundred miles on it and I am extremely pleased with the results of my sc4 skid swap. It rides like a brand new sled and rides a far cry better than my buddies stock vmax700.
 
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