Silver Talon
01-24-2010, 06:26 PM
Well, its a little bit of a long story, but worth the read, I promise!
So I get to dads last night to go for a ride, and start my sled up. Its being the usual cold bear that it has been so far this year. Dad is in the garage with his sled, about to start it (mine is outside), but it wont start. I shut my sled back off after just getting it warm to go and see whats going on.
Earlier, his girlfriend was riding it, and broke the throttle lever off from it (it was allready kinda broken anyway). He pulled the throttle off from our 95 vmax 600, and hooked it up, along with splicing in the thumb warmer. So Im thinking that he might have something crossed, and is shorting out the ignition. We open up the handle bars, and unhook both wires, and still no fire. I pull out a sparkplug to check for fire, and low and behold, there is fire. SO we're both kinda scratching our heads as to whats going on. All he did today was pull the sled in the garage, and swap the throttle over, nothing that should make the sled not run. I start looking at the throttle cable hooked to the carbs, and notice something funny. The 600 cable is appearently quite a bit shorter than the v4's, as its holding the throttle open about 1/4 way!! Good thing he didnt try and start the sled in the garage when it was warm still, would have shot it through the garage door, and into the several vehicles parked in the yard, which wouldnt have been good. We adjust the throttle, so it will idle where it should but only have about 80% throttle use, no option for WOT, which you dont need on a v4 anyway :-P. Sled starts right up, so we're golden to go ride.
We start our sleds, and head out across the field, or attempt to atleast, as I can barely turn the skis. Even in powder, I cant seem to steer at all! I have to stop my dad infront of me, and tell him we have to go back, cause now my sled isint rideable! lol. We go back, and wd40 the tierods and whatever we can spray, and it free's it right up. We head out again, but not before I tell dad that we seem to be heading out for an adventure, not a ride, lol!
About 3 miles from the house, my sled still dosent seem to be right, worse than the previous night that we rode. Its down on power again, and just seems to be running on 3.5 cyclinders, not 4. We cross a small road, into a field, an I attempt to keep up with dad that is cooking down across it. I cant, as its like riding a 600 twin around, it will go, but not happy about it. At the end of the field, there is a right, to follow the back of the field where it turns into the woods at the far right of the field. By the time I take the left turn into the woods, and start to decend the hill to the stream at the bottom, dad is almost out of sight. I get about 100 yards into the woods, and something is not right, I can tell, its really starting to sputter. I goose it a few times to try and clear its throat, and the sputter turns into a 3 cyclinder sputter with a windowed 4th cyclinder, I can hear air escaping in a hurry, and from not where its supposed to. I reach down to hit the kill switch, and BANG!!!, i feel the pressure wave hit my chest, and the loud bang that rattles my helmet. :cussing: This thing Hand grenaded hard!!!! I coast to a stop, take off my helmet and gloves, and put on my hat. Im telling myself Im all done for the season, and trying to think about how to get the sled out of the trail, and the quickest way to tow it home. I hear my dad stop at the bottom of the hill, waiting for me to catch up. After a minuet he turns off his sled, and yells back up the hill to see if I'm around or ok. I yell back "I BLEW MY MOTOR UP!!", and there is a long pause, he finnaly starts his sled, and comes back up the hill. While he starts back up the hill, I get out my flashlight, and open the hood. Laying on the far right cyclinder, with wires still attached, is my spark plug. I quickly realized what happend, my connecting rod let go at almost TDC, and it punched the sparkplug right out of the head!!! I can see the piston is still at TDC, but is still sitting in the right position. Dad pulls up and askes if he heard me right, I shine the light on the engine, and tell him I didnt take the sparkplug out, it was that way when I opened the hood. Were both bumming hard. He grabs the sparkplug, and looks at the treads, and there all perfect. He says thats kinda weird, you would assume that they would be fuubar'ed. We check the head, and thouse look good too. He tells me to pull the sled over, but not start it. So after pulling it over a few times, nothing looks our sounds weired. We both look at eachother, and decide to see if mabye the rod bolts stetched, and its just still attached to the crank somehow. We screw the sparkplug back in (amazingly at that, the damn thing threaded in like nothing happend!) and pull the motor over a few more times. No contact with anything (metal on metal) and it all sounds good. We say WTH and put the sparkplug wire back on the spark plug, and cross our fingers, to see if it starts. The damn thing started!!!!! We both just about sh!t a brick right there on the spot!! It starts idling better than it has in the last 3-4 days, with no bad noises or anything!!!! Were both absolulty floored at what just happened!!! We changed the plugs last weekend, and was on the 3rd ride of the week!! Dad did the plugs for me, and must have just finger tightend it. And all week, it was unscrewing the plug with the compression of the motor! We put on 40 more miles after that, and it didnt miss a beat!!
Needless to say, check your spark plugs 3 times, not twice! We both cant belive what happend still! I was trying to think about what to post on here about finding a new motor! lol. Thank god its just this story!!!
So I get to dads last night to go for a ride, and start my sled up. Its being the usual cold bear that it has been so far this year. Dad is in the garage with his sled, about to start it (mine is outside), but it wont start. I shut my sled back off after just getting it warm to go and see whats going on.
Earlier, his girlfriend was riding it, and broke the throttle lever off from it (it was allready kinda broken anyway). He pulled the throttle off from our 95 vmax 600, and hooked it up, along with splicing in the thumb warmer. So Im thinking that he might have something crossed, and is shorting out the ignition. We open up the handle bars, and unhook both wires, and still no fire. I pull out a sparkplug to check for fire, and low and behold, there is fire. SO we're both kinda scratching our heads as to whats going on. All he did today was pull the sled in the garage, and swap the throttle over, nothing that should make the sled not run. I start looking at the throttle cable hooked to the carbs, and notice something funny. The 600 cable is appearently quite a bit shorter than the v4's, as its holding the throttle open about 1/4 way!! Good thing he didnt try and start the sled in the garage when it was warm still, would have shot it through the garage door, and into the several vehicles parked in the yard, which wouldnt have been good. We adjust the throttle, so it will idle where it should but only have about 80% throttle use, no option for WOT, which you dont need on a v4 anyway :-P. Sled starts right up, so we're golden to go ride.
We start our sleds, and head out across the field, or attempt to atleast, as I can barely turn the skis. Even in powder, I cant seem to steer at all! I have to stop my dad infront of me, and tell him we have to go back, cause now my sled isint rideable! lol. We go back, and wd40 the tierods and whatever we can spray, and it free's it right up. We head out again, but not before I tell dad that we seem to be heading out for an adventure, not a ride, lol!
About 3 miles from the house, my sled still dosent seem to be right, worse than the previous night that we rode. Its down on power again, and just seems to be running on 3.5 cyclinders, not 4. We cross a small road, into a field, an I attempt to keep up with dad that is cooking down across it. I cant, as its like riding a 600 twin around, it will go, but not happy about it. At the end of the field, there is a right, to follow the back of the field where it turns into the woods at the far right of the field. By the time I take the left turn into the woods, and start to decend the hill to the stream at the bottom, dad is almost out of sight. I get about 100 yards into the woods, and something is not right, I can tell, its really starting to sputter. I goose it a few times to try and clear its throat, and the sputter turns into a 3 cyclinder sputter with a windowed 4th cyclinder, I can hear air escaping in a hurry, and from not where its supposed to. I reach down to hit the kill switch, and BANG!!!, i feel the pressure wave hit my chest, and the loud bang that rattles my helmet. :cussing: This thing Hand grenaded hard!!!! I coast to a stop, take off my helmet and gloves, and put on my hat. Im telling myself Im all done for the season, and trying to think about how to get the sled out of the trail, and the quickest way to tow it home. I hear my dad stop at the bottom of the hill, waiting for me to catch up. After a minuet he turns off his sled, and yells back up the hill to see if I'm around or ok. I yell back "I BLEW MY MOTOR UP!!", and there is a long pause, he finnaly starts his sled, and comes back up the hill. While he starts back up the hill, I get out my flashlight, and open the hood. Laying on the far right cyclinder, with wires still attached, is my spark plug. I quickly realized what happend, my connecting rod let go at almost TDC, and it punched the sparkplug right out of the head!!! I can see the piston is still at TDC, but is still sitting in the right position. Dad pulls up and askes if he heard me right, I shine the light on the engine, and tell him I didnt take the sparkplug out, it was that way when I opened the hood. Were both bumming hard. He grabs the sparkplug, and looks at the treads, and there all perfect. He says thats kinda weird, you would assume that they would be fuubar'ed. We check the head, and thouse look good too. He tells me to pull the sled over, but not start it. So after pulling it over a few times, nothing looks our sounds weired. We both look at eachother, and decide to see if mabye the rod bolts stetched, and its just still attached to the crank somehow. We screw the sparkplug back in (amazingly at that, the damn thing threaded in like nothing happend!) and pull the motor over a few more times. No contact with anything (metal on metal) and it all sounds good. We say WTH and put the sparkplug wire back on the spark plug, and cross our fingers, to see if it starts. The damn thing started!!!!! We both just about sh!t a brick right there on the spot!! It starts idling better than it has in the last 3-4 days, with no bad noises or anything!!!! Were both absolulty floored at what just happened!!! We changed the plugs last weekend, and was on the 3rd ride of the week!! Dad did the plugs for me, and must have just finger tightend it. And all week, it was unscrewing the plug with the compression of the motor! We put on 40 more miles after that, and it didnt miss a beat!!
Needless to say, check your spark plugs 3 times, not twice! We both cant belive what happend still! I was trying to think about what to post on here about finding a new motor! lol. Thank god its just this story!!!