Cat TSL skid in my SRX...Complete!

[Viktory2k1]

Ok, its time for an upgrade in suspension, My back isn't the greatest so putting a 2000 ZL 700 skid in. I have the same skid in my wildcat but that ones a 2001. I got it from ebay a few days ago and ripped it down because it needs work. I ordered all needed parts and am going to polish the rails and use black wheels and paint the steel blue or black, haven't decided yet. I cant find anything blue for a cat skid for the life of me. The main problem is this being a 2000 skid, it didn't come with torque couplers(02 and newer did). My plan is to set it up as best I can and if I have a problem with wheelies, I can drill holes in the rails and install them. I don't want wheelies. My sled now(is broke) just gets very light in the front or maybe a tiny wheelie if any. I would have to have someone record a side view of holeshot. It doesn't feel like it does. I think wheelies are dangerous and very hard on a sled but neat to watch. Here is where I'm at with this(I started today). I took it apart and ordered needed parts. Not too many, $75 worth, I have enough wheels to last me a long time so didn't order any. I then sprayed the rails with my winning aluminum brightener(Hydro-Foam)diluted 3:1 and rinsed. If it turns out ok, this thing should ride like a dream but may loose some mph(I was told)? The holes on rails that the front and rear pivots mount are egged out pretty bad. I am going to drill them to 3/4" and bush the holes. They are the ones about 18" from the front on top, you can see them on the last pic. Next, on to polishing...

 

[yammitrip1]

I have done a lot of suspension swaps in snowmobiles, they are super fun and great when you get them set up correctly. Good luck with this, is this skid coupled? it doesn't appear so but you are definitely going to get more traction if it isn't lol

 

[Viktory2k1]

It isn't coupled, There are coupler blocks on 2002 and up. They look like just rubber blocks bolted to rails just in front of tensioners. I could drill and install if its a problem but we'll see for now. I think I can set it up the way it is. Of all the choices, why a cat skid? There cheap.

 

[Viktory2k1]

Did some polishing on rails today. The more shiny they got, the more "fake" they looked so I used coarse steel wool and scotch brite pad to give them the brushed look. I only got 1 side done today. Not perfect but much better. You could spend all day on one side. I will clear coat them when done. Looks like someone forgot to check the slides. The one by the creeper isn't polished yet.

 

[Viktory2k1]

Got both rails done for now and bushed the egged out holes. Not much was done today as I was at Doctors most of the day. Not good news.

 

[Viktory2k1]

No pics today. Too cold to sandblast(I do it outside) so I wire wheeled the painted parts and painted them black. The new parts that I needed for this arrived today. Now its -2 out in garage, I bet that new paint is really drying nice.lol

 

[Viktory2k1]

Haven't got much progress except $60 in stainless nuts/bolts. Had to order a few more parts for it. I hope to install it this coming weekend. I just hope my bushing the egged out holes will be strong. I think a fender washer on each side should do the trick. Starting to assemble as much as I can until the few more parts arrive. Should ride great. Same 13.5" of travel as the 01 skid I hope. I haven't looked.

 

[Viktory2k1]

I had it pretty much together and something looked out of wack. Of the 8 smaller wheels, there were 3 different sizes. There suppose to be 5 5/8" and 1 was 5 1/2 and 1 was 5 7/8". No wonder why those holes were so egged out. So it came back apart. Then 1 1/2 hour later I finally found my stash of wheels, a bunch of boxes fell on them. I gotta clean this place up.

 

[drew24]

Then 1 1/2 hour later I finally found my stash of wheels, a bunch of boxes fell on them. I gotta clean this place up.

LOL. That sounds just like my shop when I was changing my skid out. It is still like that but every time I went to look for a tool it took 15 min to find the wrench I just had 5 min before that. Hard to find time to clean when you have to try to beat the weather.

 

[Viktory2k1]

Yeah, now weather is supposed to be in the upper 40's next week. I hope the few parts I need show up tomorrow so I can finish this thing but still waiting on my driveshaft bearing which hasn't even shipped yet. I can't measure anything until that is fixed or now that I think of it, I could just measure the right side and find some stationary reference point to measure from and do the same on other side. I will probably have the skid in before the bearing stuff gets here. Skid is pretty much together except 2 idlers and rear axle.

 

[Viktory2k1]

OK, skid is ready and the drive shaft bearing and related parts finally shipped. Just in time for the snow to melt. Yeah, trying to beat the weather is not fun but too late now to rush. Saturday is when the warm weather arrives, 40 and warmer everyday as far as the forecast goes but I think we got 1 good snowfall before it's done. I just hope the lake doesn't open up. I was going to do the skid tonight but took a "little" nap and didn't wake up until 9pm. I'll do it tomorrow if it does get as warm as they say. Haven't rode the srx in almost 2 weeks because of that bearing, actually it was the speedo link that I was waiting on. I'll post a before and after pic of skid and do the same with sled once its done. I would have got some fancy wheels but I could only find rears in silver and out of stock. Blue or silver are my choices and hard to find blue anything for an Arctic Cat skid. Someones gotta make some fancy wheels for this. This skid is probably 20 pounds lighter then the proaction. Their after and before pics.

 

[Danger Dog]

Haven't got much progress except $60 in stainless nuts/bolts. Had to order a few more parts for it. I hope to install it this coming weekend. I just hope my bushing the egged out holes will be strong. I think a fender washer on each side should do the trick. Starting to assemble as much as I can until the few more parts arrive. Should ride great. Same 13.5" of travel as the 01 skid I hope. I haven't looked.

They have 10" of travel if memory serves me correctly. The 13.5 came from the bent up rear tunnel supposedly LOL. Good skid though. To couple it all you need is a shaft behind the rear scissor like the one in front on the slide rails. Believe me you will want it coupled or the skis will be off the ground all the time.

 

[Viktory2k1]

I can buy coupler blocks if needed but not so sure I'll need them. Are you refering to the tipped tunnel? all cats have them and this is 13.5". This is copied and pasted from a spec sheet(the front of a zl700 is 10").
"FasTrack, Long-travel slide-rail, adjustable torsion springs, Ryde FX shocks, Torque sensing link rear arm, 13.5" of travel." Its in and getting ready for my update.... 02 and newer skids had coupling blocks that bolted pretty much said. The spring will move 8" until it touches lower rail block but the tsl link will rotate from the 1 oclock position to the 6 oclock position. Thats where you get the extra 5.5" from. Realisticly though, that would probably never happen in real riding so its possible to get 13.5 but doubt it would ever get that far. Probably 10 usable inches. I like these skids because they work good and cheap and not bad to install except 1 minor problem I had(my fault).

 

[Viktory2k1]

OK, skid is installed. I had a little trouble with the measurements. The guy I got it from was off in a few areas. It went rather smooth except still due to lack of strength, I had trouble getting old one out over the drive lugs and same thing putting new one in place. That and hitting myself in the eye with the end of a prybar.
Thanks to Sno-Xr for the tips.
It is installed but still a few things to do. Put rivets in where I drilled them out, get more 3/8" hole plugs for the original mounting holes, and cleaning skid and rebuffing tunnel. I did not properly set tension or alignment due to no bearing on left side of driveshaft.
The big mishap I had was I couldn't get the front skid mounting bar up to the holes. I messed with this for an hour before I found the problem. Right below the new mounting holes was a rivet I did not see and I somehow got skid front mounting bar threaded holes stuck over the rivets! I have no idea how that happened as the bar is exactly as wide as inside of tunnel and the rivets stick out 1/4". All I had to do was drill them out and it popped right in place. I removed the front mounts and bolted them up front about 3" with 4 bolts on each side. I think there are enough rivets on that sled!
I do think it sits too high for my taste but levels out when I sit on it and to lower it all I have to do is move the rear scissor mount back a few holes but I will lose some travel doing that. Sitting on it, the back end is slightly higher then level so perfect while on it. Its the unloaded position I don't like, just like my wildcat. I do have a problem with the rear shock. It looks brand new no name but it responds very slow. If I get off sled, it takes like 15 seconds for back end to raise up fully. I do have a RydeFX shock on my old wildcat skid thats a little looser. I will swap those tomorrow. I really couldn't test it because of my shot bearing on driveshaft but the few laps around the yard were great! Night and day ride and gave it once for a second and skis did seem like they wanted to come up but didn't(thats only 1 second at the most). It did squat though so happy with that. The bad part is it was 45F Saturday and already lost half the snow and its supposed to be warm for the whole week but I think we'll get 1 more good storm before its over. So far, very happy but very limited test. Grand total for skid and rebuild is about $260-$275 area. I did have a lot of wheels and bearings laying around. I will get some better looking wheels if I can find them. Nothing blue for a cat but did find silver spoked rear wheels but out of stock and couldn't find smaller ones for the skidframe and carrier. Their new for Dennis kirk so they'll probably make them soon. Unless anyone knows of a better choice of wheels in different colors. Kimpex and PPD is all I really checked but as soon as you click arctic cat, you just see the green and orange colors and purple. I want to just view the sizes and then pick a color. Still needs set up. I'll put up some pics...Opinions?

 

[Danger Dog]

Looks good. Does sit a little high. How come so many studs?

 

[staggs65]

For getting the skids in and out get yourself one of those plastic roll-up sleds. Stick it between the skid and the track and it will slide in or out with ease

 

[03viperguy]

looks good. and staggs, I'm going to use that idea, thats a great trick!

 

[bluewho]

Pretty shure you can bolt any wheels on it Yamaha/polairis has a blue.

 

[Viktory2k1]

The studs are way too many because I accidently ordered the wrong ones(too short)and I didn't notice until I put the last 1 in. So I ordered more of the same to make up for the legnth. This will be taken care of in summer or soon. I am going to swap tracks with the wildcat. Same part number and I got the right studs in that one 144. That roll up sled trick is great! Thanks.
I can't find the right diameter wheels in any color but cat colors. All but rear wheels are 5 5/8 and rears are 6.38. I didn't like the polaris ones I did find. Today I repolished the tunnel and put rivets in the empty holes, put plactic plugs in old skid holes and checked into the travel problem. Its not the shock, I drilled the front holes a hair too high so totally unloaded, the front of skid is up about 1/2". I push down an inch and it sits flush. I think is ok but if it isnt, I can move the rear mount back a hole or 2 to raise rear of skid to match front. I might do that anyway because of the way it sits. If I sit on it and hop off, the back isn't up as high as pic. The pic is with me lifting it until its totally unloaded. Its fine when I sit on it. My bearing parts should be here Monday and I'll throw that on and set tension and align. I will test if there is enough snow. I made it to the lake today with the wildcat but it wasn't easy and a lot of sleds on lake which had about an inch of water on top in spots. Its still below freezing at night so lake is still safe... for now. It's 29 now at 2:16am. I didnt take any pics today yet but need a smoke anyway.........OK, took some pics and measurements. Fully unloaded, the bottom of rear bar is 23", bounce on it and get off it sits at 21 1/2", while sitting on it the height is 18 1/4". 1 pic is tunnel, another pic is after I sit on it and the other 2 are the mess I have to clean up this spring. Looks like I gotta wipe tunnel down better. Looks much better after I sit on it(the dark sideview). Oh yeah, add $60 to total price, I forgot about the stainless hardware.