Removing electric start?

Backwoods M Max

Backwoods M Max

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I'm wondering what the process is to remove the electric start from my mountain max? I liked having it at first, I had a bad experience with my first sled hard starting (87 indy 600) so it was a nice crutch to have. I find myself not wanting to deal with the hassle of having to deal with the battery, and wouldn't mind the weight reduction either.

Besides removing the starter, battery, and ring gear from the primary what else needs to come out? My sled had electric start and reverse added by the delivery dealer. Is the key switch different? Do I need to change it out? My sled doesn't have the accessory fuse panel on the left side cowl, it was never added. Do I need to just unplug the smoothing condenser and I can run it without the battery?

I feel confident enough in the sled now that I would be ok without having the starter on it.
 
OK. I just found the updated pdf with the install. There wasn't anything in there about adding a smoothing condenser. My 02 has the 300 watt ignition. It looks like you just pull the starter out then pull the relay harness out of the main harness. Am I missing anything or is that pretty much it?
 
Where did the rationale come from that you can't run the electric start sled without the battery? It seemed to be going around like gospel a few years ago.
 
I cant speak to the mtn max as it uses the old style guages but a viper, if it was a electric start sled it would not have the smoothing condensors because the battery becomes the smoothing condenser, and when you remove the electric start it will flash the guage on and off and act all weird because the signal is dirty basicly so you do indeed need to add those to a viper but thats a digital guage... you might just be fine on a mtn max with the old analog guages, try it.. and report back. i will look at the wiring harness diagrams and see if anything is shown on the redhead sleds.
 
I didn't see anything in the electric start kit instructions listing a smoothing condencer anywhere for any models. The only thing that gets plugged in is the harness for the relay. There is a big capacitor looking thing on the right side cowl which I assume means the smoothing condencer. That makes sense for the viper for the digital gauges. I recall there being a warning about something being fried by running without a battery which seems un-true now. I will let you know how it goes. I may pull the harness part of it first just to try it then get the starter out and pull the clutch to remove the ring gear.
 
Backwoods M Max said:
... Do I need to just unplug the smoothing condenser and I can run it without the battery? ...
Click to expand...

2002 Mountain Max came with 2 smoothing condensers from the factory, leave them plugged in when removing the battery.

If you have the instructions for the e.s. kit, can't you just reverse them step by step to remove the kit? Do the instructions mention removing/discarding any of the factory parts when installing the e.s. kit? If so, you may want to find/reinstall those parts.
 
you need the condensers, 180w system has one 300w has 2. just unplug the relay and charging circuit and you should be good.
 
srx700c said:
2002 Mountain Max came with 2 smoothing condensers from the factory, leave them plugged in when removing the battery.

If you have the instructions for the e.s. kit, can't you just reverse them step by step to remove the kit? Do the instructions mention removing/discarding any of the factory parts when installing the e.s. kit? If so, you may want to find/reinstall those parts.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Just what I was trying to confirm. The updated install instructions from 2006 don't list anything more than a harness plug for the 300 watt sleds. All it shows was finding the harness plug for the starter relay and plugging it in. The uninstall looks just as straight forward as the install would have been. It really looks like the hardest part is removing the starter out of the belly.
 
It truly was unplug and go. If anyone has any questions about any issues when you unplug the starter harness it's all good to go. I was even able to wiggle the starter out through the bulkhead so I didn't remove the front motor mounts or pipe. I have yet to weigh it but it's a good 10 lbs and a few pound or so of rotating mass off the primary clutch with the ring gear removed. As a precautionary measure I changed out the starter rope with 3/16" amsteel from west marine. 3800lbs breaking strength should be just fine for the rest of my life. The stuff is very abrasion resistant so I don't have any worries about it being in there. If anybody wants some it's 1.08 a foot, far cheaper than buying the pre packaged stuff at $35 for 8 feet of it.

IMG_1116.jpgIMG_1118.jpgIMG_1125.jpg
 
On some of the newer 700's you had to add the small fuse box on the left side when putting on electric start. If you have it on there, you can remove that also.
 
edunn69 said:
On some of the newer 700's you had to add the small fuse box on the left side when putting on electric start. If you have it on there, you can remove that also.
Click to expand...

Mine didn't get the fuse box. I looked high and low trying to find it, only to find it wasn't there.
 
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