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Area51 Project - Mike's 2006 Powertek REV: 2023 Update |
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It's official, winter has finally returned to the East Coast. After a dismal season last winter, Project REV has been revived from storage and made ready for riding. The machine started with relative ease even with two year old gas! I stored the sled with less than 1/4 tank and topped it off with supreme 91 on the way home from storage.
After a 50cm dump on Valentines Day, I gave the machine a thorough inspection and was pleased to find everything in good working order. Carb boots intact, reeds great, nothing missing, no loose bolts, no weird noises, etc. A service was performed spring of 2021 prior to storage which included cleaning & a full grease of the suspension. In February I took the machine on a shakedown run in Torbay and had an awesome yet uneventful ride.
Dad and I have a snowmobile trip coming up in March, the only item I was weary about on Project REV was the belt. This is the same Gates Extreme belt I installed when I rebuilt the sled in 2013! It has a approximately 2500km on it, but it's 10 years old and showing cords. Replacing it now is cheap insurance against a backwoods failure and possible damage to the PTO side crank seal.
Since the last Gates belt worked so well, I went with another their new Gates G-Force C12. These are especially designed for high horsepower machines like my 800HO which develop a lot of heat and are equipped with forged clutches.
The new belt fit great and now the sled is ready for a great adventure in Indian Bay, NL! (Yes the belt came up just proud of the secondary as its supposed to once I ran the machine.)
March trip to the camp in Indian Bay! This was my first time back there since my first and only prior trip way back in May 1999!
The ride in on the NLSF Groomed Trail Network was amazing, and well worth the cost of a weekend permit. Project REV is still running very strong, was super comfortable and handled great on the trails!
I only had one small hiccup all weekend with the sled, I fouled a plug on the last stretch of the ride in. After turning off the groomed trail I helped get Dad's machine and slide over a large angled drift onto the pond and left my machine idling. The plug fouled out crossing the pond, a fresh set were swapped in and I never had a hitch after. The old plugs were many years old.
We did a lot of ice fishing and enjoyed a great spirited run to Travers Brook on the Groomed Trail, by the end of the four day adventure we logged over 150km on the machines.
Overall the Indian Bay snowmobile trip with Dad went very well. This 17 year old beast ran great, when I returned I performed an "I finally got to log some miles" maintenance on the machine to keep it in top form.
No one in town had low temp snowmobile grease in stock except for our local Yamaha dealer. It's a quality product so no worries there, I just hope my Skidoo don't get struck by lightning using Yamaha grease!
The machine was serviced before it was stored in 2021, but greasing regularly keeps everything in great shape and pushes moisture out of the bushings.
I also removed, cleaned and greased the brake slider pins with Permatex high temp ceramic calliper grease. No one wants a seized brake calliper on a snowmobile, that would be a very bad day as many sleds have burned this way.
Next up was changing the chain case oil, due to time not so much mileage. Again it's cheap insurance against having trouble, plus it's easier to check and set drive chain tension with the cover off.
Last up was removing and thoroughly cleaning the rave valves.
Brake parts cleaner, Tool and parts cleaner and a Scotchbrite pad did the job, they weren't overly dirty, which is great since I run a mid grade oil, not anything super fancy or expensive in this machine.
I even cleaned out the diaphragms to ensure the RAVE valves work properly. These springs can be a real bear to reinstall, the tie wrap trick worked great and made the job very easy without any risk of damage to the rubber as you slide it around setting the spring!
After a fantastic winter of outdoor activities, in April it was time to place Project Rev safely back into summer storage. Fingers crossed that we continue to have decent, maybe even exceptional winters in the future, as 2023 was certainly one for the books.
Cheers, MIKE Project Pages:
Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith |
