Big Pussy

It seems to work in Hamilton. A buddy here at work, his wife goes out with the police to do just that. Not too many getting shot there.

I think Cat would hold the patent with Hibbert's name as the inventer. Probably sold for a dollar like is done here. I looked for the patent but could not find it. It would have been around 1996-97. The link starts on 1997 ZR series sleds on the parts fische and is still used to this day. I bet the patent ran out by now.

BRP and Polaris both stole the Torque Sensing Link that was invented and patented by Kirk Hibbert. You can see an example of this dastardly theft on the top rear tunnel pivot of every R-motion suspension. BRP is quite a hipocrit.

Global warming just makes the snow not stay long enough to make trails. We still get lots.

Would the Harley fall through the floor ?

Your not missing much. Get yourself a subscription to Snowtech Magazine.

I would have liked to see the crankcase split in half.

The main bearings are lubed by the oil pump oil directly. I don't think that is the problem. Due to the two piece forged crank assy. pressed together in the center, there is no way to assemble the rods on the crank pins. So the rods have a bolt on cap like a 4-stroke BUT with needle bearings in there. That is what exploded in the early engines cutting the crankcase in half. Maybe Motorhead can elaborate on his engine failure instead of "my engine blew up". Like you said, inquiring minds want to know. Doo problems seem to hushed up. Lay it bare !

Hey, don't shoot the messenger. I am only pointing out what is wrong AND how to fix it. I own one of these chain cases as does my son. Therefore I fix them both. It is definitely a weak part of the sled, but if serviced yearly with a $3 bushing, a tension adjustment, and an oil change, it will stay together. Not sure if it will at sustained 200Km/hr like some want to do, but for this old guy it does. I have had my share of 2-stroke engines cold seize, piston melt, loose rod, broken stator, cracked flywheel, etc, etc, etc. I know how to fix them.

Make sure you get a backward running 2-stroke. That way there is only a chain a two fixed mounted sprockets. What could go wrong ? Then you will only have to keep the engine together.

If you look close on the top picture in my last post, the right side case is off the engine. This was to see how things work inside and understand how and why the starter idler gear and the starter shaft teeth have been breaking. I figured that out too. Note that the design of the magneto is backwards to old 2-stroke engines. The flywheel is mounted backwards and the stator is mounted to the case. I never had a starter gear failure to this day because I always held the key until running. I also got the ECM re-flashed twice on my 15 7000 until they got it right and now it runs like a Cat-ilac. If I have a problem or hear of a problem, I investigate instead of just bitching and complaining. This investigation cost me $16 for an engine case gasket.

There will be no changes made until the next chassis is made, if that ever happens. I can only assume that it will be worse based on the kids designing with Solid Dick using FEA to test things out. They obviously have never fixed a sled, and maybe never rode one either. The old boys have been forced to retire so there are no wise ones watching anymore. So I have taken on the task to re-engineer the thing to make it reliable. 1700Km this year and it drove out of Quebec on it's own power. Currently apart in the garage waiting on bushings from McMaster-Carr. May be waiting a long time.

The top chain sprocket has the bushing inside it and it rides on the inside of the top jackshaft. The right side of this gear has small pointed teeth on it just like in a manual transmission. To the right of this is the sliding shift collar and reverse gear, splined to the jackshaft. The shift fork on this sliding gear holds the collar against the top sprocket driving it forward. So the top sprocket and the jackshaft are now turning together, so there is no relative movement of shaft to sprocket. So the bushing does not wear by turning, but by the harmonics of the chain and sprocket. The gear change shifting motor is a 2005 Saturn passenger side power window motor. It turns a pinion which moves a rack that shifts the fork. The worm wheel in the motor is plastic and strips just like the garage door opener does. This is also a problem because it is too hard today for anyone to run a shift lever. When the top sprocket bushing is worn, as mine is right now, the sprocket is running at an angle which pushes the shift collar away and damages the shift fork. Then it is stuck in reverse. Mine has not gotten to this point because I did a yearly inspection and found it in time before the shift fork got damaged. So the whole design is a POS. The 199x to 2004 design was bullet proof and had the three spring loaded pins to engage the bottom drive gear. That would not work now since riders right hands are not up to the task of pulling out the shift lever and pushing it back in. The magnets on the bottom shaft are the speedo signal. The pickup is in the outer case. The bottom picture shows the shift collar/reverse gear and fork removed. You can see the engagement teeth on the outside of the top sprocket. You can also see the flat head screws on the tensioner bracket. TIG weld the screw head to the bracket on each side so the screws cannot come loose. Both bottom sprockets are splined to the output shaft and rotate together. In reverse, the top sprocket turns backwards on the jackshaft, and that is why there is a bushing in there. It is not hard enough.

The biggest problem is the two flat head screws holding the axle for the chain tensioner wheel come loose and the the axle spins and the screws fall out. The wheel then falls to the bottom of the case where the bottom gear blows the tensioner wheel through the case and breaks both halves. The case does not magically break from the immense hp going through it. The permanent fix is to TIG weld the screw heads to the tensioner bracket so they cannot come loose. Problem two is the teflon coated oilite bushing in the top sprocket. The pounding of the chain going over the sprocket flattens out the inside half of the bushing making a taper, and the sprocket wobbles. This makes the chain loose as well as forcing the shift collar to jump out of gear, wrecking the pads on the shift fork. The sled is now locked in reverse. The solution here is to press out the bushing in the sprocket and replace with a leaded bronze SAE 660 bushing or better yet an aluminum/bronze bushing. The bushing is 1" ID, 1.125" OD x 1" long. Once pressed in the gear, cut to length flush with the gear and de-burr. I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions with the chain case. Anyone that opens it up once a year to change the fluid can easily address this and ride with piece of mind.

GMRS is limited to 2 watts in Canada. Power does not make that much difference with the UHF frequencies used when in hilly terrain. It's line of sight communication.

Gps is receive only. So somehow the coordinates of each sled must be transmitted to each other sled. This would not be far without cell towers. The Garmin Rhino did this by Gmrs. I doubt the signal would be reliable more than a km based on how my so called 65 km range Gmrs radios worked.

I don't think the radio range would be very far in hilly terrain. Unless each sled in the 5 mile chain is a repeater.

Canada produces enough milk for the country. We produce enough beef and pork to export where ever possible. Lots of corn, wheat, canola, oats, barley. Fruit and vegetables are a problem in the winter. Manufactured goods are a big problem since we have been forced to buy everything form abroad. However, that could/would change if the need was there. Price would be more expensive though.

Frosty, our guide, told us that he was on vacation from repairing heavy equipment in Rankin Inlet. He flew to Ottawa and bought the Crossfire from a buddy, then drove to Cochrane and on to the Base Camp where his truck and trailer sat there idling. Yes idling for days. Go figure. Since he was on vacation, he said he wanted to have fun too, so he told us that up ahead there was a large long hill. He told us that we should not follow him, but stay to the right. He was going over the top. Well there was no track on the ground for somewhere from 50 to 100 ft as he fly that Crossfire. He also warned us to stay away from the rail line because there was lots of buried rail, ties and crap. Also to stay away from the power line due to the guy wires going down to the ground. He said that if one of us hooked a ski on one, we would fly end over end all the way to Moosonee. The packed trail was rather rough by groomed trail standards. The best way to ride it was with one ski on the trail and the other in the looser snow. This lessened the rough ride. It was pretty hard to pass a buddy because once out in the loose snow, your speed would get scrubbed off real quick. The best way was to chance it and follow an existing track that went out into no mans land. Since it was already packed somewhat, you didn't sink but sure hope the hell it came back to the main trail. That Panther with the 136" track did this real well. The rest of us had useless 121" tracks. The only Wildlife we encountered was the strange noise heard while sitting in the outhouse at Tozer's camp. No idea what animals were out there.

I think I know the owner of that Arctic Cat.3rd from right?  The Cat is a Panther 440 fan rode by Grant Biesel third from right in the picture. That is XTC500 on the right. I had the dream of this trip since 2002 when I found a poster from Extream Tours. I floated an E-mail around and in about 2 weeks had 8 guys and at that point, it was too late for me to back out. The year we did this trip, there was no riding in D5 or 9. Most of us did not have a shake down run on the sleds. I rode my 2001 Thundercat and did a complete overhaul of clutches and driveline for piece of mind. We trailered to New Liskeard and met up at the Hotel. The first day was a ride on A all the way to the North Adventure Inn in Cochrane. It was still a happening place back then. I remember having very sore arms and shoulders upon arrival, so I took a few Advil and a ounce or two of whiskey and had an hour sleep. All good after that. Someone called Bill Fraud and his phone rang at the table behind us. Next day we had 1" fresh snow and rode the east side to the Base Camp. Got fuel, added oil, and had a $10 bowl of soup and hot dog. Our guide finally showed up with a gang he brought back from Onakwana. I think his name was Mike Frost (Frosty or Snowflake). He worked in Rankin Inlet at the time and was very knowledgeable of the area and was well equipped with a Crossfire. We crossed the dam and got on a road that seemed to go around in circles. This bypassed the canyon and it's hills. I believe it was the road to Otter Rapids. It was not far that we got on the power line beside the rail line to Mooseonee. We rode the trail there and stopped at Otter Rapids by the rail tracks beside the power station. After a rest and some instruction, we continued along the trail between the power line and the rail tracks. Snow was waist deep off the trail. Eventually we crossed the tracks got down on the Onakwana river and into William Tozers Camp. We met the train going south around 6pm which stopped to unload two barrels of gasoline, and our beer and chips. We had a good supper and got into the bunks for a nights sleep. Next morning was -18C. It was a long slog but I finally got the T-Cat loosened up and started. That was the year the revelation came that Cat 50:1 oil pulls a lot easier than Shell Advance. We rode back to the power line and then north for many miles. The power line makes a sharp left and crosses the Moose river. We turned left and followed the line and got on the river riding the right hand side. After a bit we got off and crossed the tracks then got back on the river. This move was to avoid going under the long rail bridge over the river. I think this is at Radisson. There was lots of ice jam under the bridge. Many more miles riding both sides of the river and going through some small tributary forks, we got to Moosonee. There were areas on the river were you could run 90 mph if you wanted to burn down, and areas were we had to pick our way through some big ice heaves. We rode past the post out on James Bay and took some picture and had a wiz in the bay. Then over to Moose Factory, across the ice road to Moosonee, to the gas station, and then the hotel for lunch. We then rode to Tozer's house, met his wife, and paid the bill. Got back on the river and rode back to the camp for supper and another nights sleep. Next day we had a lot of new snow. It was slower going and used a lot of gas. We crossed the dam at Otter Rapids and rode the road back to Fraserdale to save gas. Got gas and rode the west side down to SRF for food and fuel. Then rode back to the NAI for supper and sleep. The trip was very much like you read in the magazines. There were lots of things we seen and experienced that make good stories to tell. I think there are lots of people riding this trip without guides and I think it is possible to make it from Base Camp to Moosonee with an Ace and a fuel can. I believe there is even an annual ice road from Fraserdale to Moosonee so you can ride your FWD pickup with full heater and stereo. I here it is a 4 hr drive and there is NOTHING in bewtween. Maybe XTC500 can chime in with some stories or info that I forgot.

Been there, done that in 2009. That's me second from left.

I know that trail.

Those sleds can be driven for 10+ years and not replaced every year or two.

Here is link of things to do to that chassis before the sled gets destroyed. Especially the chain tensioner idler and the lower right bearing. Not as solid as an Apex.

We ate at the Paquin at the end of the street. Lady there remembered me from about 8 years ago. They also have rooms above we stayed at previously,