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Area51 Project - Mike's 2006 Powertek REV:
Machine Specs:
Well it finally happened, after 9 years and over 6000 kilometres, I finally retired Project Renegade and upgraded power, technology, and comfort. In February 2012 I purchased a 2006 REV 800 HO short track for a great price as it needed a bunch of work. As I've stated before project Renegade didn't start out as a project at all, well this time project Powertek is definitely starting out as a project! Prior to purchase I inspected the sled and seen that the frame was straight and had not been bent or broken, but had seen some neglect in the parts replacement department. As a bonus, the original owner had upgraded to X-package handle bars & windshield, installed a Skidoo skid plate, hand guards, tunnel strengtheners, riser block and included a factory skidoo deluxe cover. The sled also featured electric start, an upgraded 1.5" Camoplast Intense track, and had no missing panels, parts or grills.
Beauty is often in the eye of the beholder. I had been looking for a sled to replace my 1997 500 long track and wanted something newer, affordable, a project without getting into major structural repairs. I came across this sled on nlclassifides and checked it out with Mark French. We looked it over and seen that although it was dirty and plastered with stickers, there was no frame damage, it had a lot of accessories, a new upgraded 1.5" track, and the plastics were not cracked. It did need some work as the motor was weak and it needed some suspension parts replaced. With this in mind I made a reasonable offer, struck a deal, and brought the sled home.
February 19, 2012, so it begins!
This sled needed a good cleaning and a load of monster energy decals removed. These were removed slowly by heating them with a heat gun and then removing any remaining glue with 99% pure rubbing alcohol. I think the sled breathed a sigh of relief when returned to its original clean lines!
The sled was washed, dried and polished up with SC-1 Cleaner/Protector. It was looking great!
Real repairs began with replacing upper and lower ball joints on both sides, and replacing all 16 A-arm bushings to tighten up the very sloppy front end. With the new parts installed the suspension is tight & just like new but needs new skis and shocks. For now I reused the worn out skis, but installed a new centre carbide on each one (taken from my used parts bin). Next on the list was installing two new lower side panel rubber latches This was done by drilling out the old rivet, and installing the new latches with a new 3/16x1/2" long rivet. I also noticed one of the front hood hinges was missing, so a new hinge was purchased at the dealer and installed with new hardware and red lock-tite.
Next I removed the RAVE Valves, cleaned off the heavy carbon deposits with brake cleaner and a 3M Scotchbrite pad, and reinstalled them with new o-rings and gaskets.
The chain case was serviced by removing the cover to inspect the chain and to see what gear set was inside. The stock 23/43 gearing was still in place and the fluid wasn't too neglected. I did find a cracked off cover bolt which was causing a small leak. This was easily removed with Vise Grips and a new bolt installed. This is why its very important to thoroughly check literally every bolt on a used sled when performing your first round of service work.
Next on the list was fixing a hole in the muffler, the metal on the rear of the muffler was very thin and rusted through. I cut a patch panel to cover the area, secured it with steel pop rivets and coated the area with hi-heat muffler cement. This should hold until I can find a good used muffler, or replace it with some sort of trail can.
When I reinstalled the freshly painted exhaust, I also installed new donut gaskets as the original gaskets were completely shot.
The last item I installed was a Bombardier Gas Caddy which I already had in stock from my old sled, Project Renegade. Since this can was actually designed for the REV chassis, I only needed to install 2 metal brackets in the locations already marked on the rear tunnel cover. As of today, the last of February 2012, I only need a centre shock and some snow to get out for a test ride. Over the summer I plan to have the engine freshened with new Crank bearings, seals, new pistons, rings and necessary gaskets. This should ensure a trouble free ride for a good few years to come!
On March 9th we headed to the Sooley cabin near Whitbourne for a late and albeit short annual cabin trip where I could do a shakedown run on Project REV to check out my repairs and squeak out any other issues which I could address over the summer.
A 20cm snowfall before the trip was decimated by rain by the time we got to the cabin. Riding conditions were dreadful but with a few flurries we had enough to put around a little, and skim a lot or water! This 800 is a wheelie machine on water!
Not surprisingly the motor did pop on this trip. It was making a weird noise but held in for the day Saturday before letting go riding open water! We towed it back and started making plans for repair.
With summer drawing to a close and winter around the corner, the first major issue to deal with was the blown motor.
In October, Maffer and I got to work removing the engine. It was pretty straight forward, you need to remove the exhaust and Y-Pipe which was made much easier by using a metric Allen key socket with a ball end about 4" long. I picked up a set at princess auto that work on a 3/8" drive ratchet and they were extremely handy for this whole project.
We removed the electric starter and unbolted the recoil starter. We also removed the carbs, rave valves & reeds, although the motor will come out with these last two items attached.
Molten aluminum in the exhaust is usually a bad sign.
With the carbs out of the way we disconnected the last few wires & lines, drained the coolant and the motor was ready to come out. I took a lot of pictures of the wire harness, vacuum lines for the DPM, and the cables which came in handy during reassembly.
The engine compartment was extremely dirty, I couldn't wait to start cleaning it up!
With the motor out of the sled I found a major problem, the lower case was split open. This meant I would need a replacement motor instead of a rebuild. The piston skirt on the mag side broke, some went out the exhaust, more down in the base. This jammed the crank which split the case. I sourced a donor motor in Carbonear and took a trip out over the highway to pick it up. The seller also threw in a good used stock muffler to replace the one I patched together last year.
The donor motor was a year or two older so I had to swap the cylinder head, as my Powertek has a knock sensor that the replacement motor did not. This was easily done, I cleaned the mating surface, washed it thoroughly and installed it according to my factory repair manual. While on the bench, I installed the motor mounting plate, RAVE valves, reeds and a pair of spark plugs.
While the electric starter was off I replaced the bendix with an OEM kit from the dealer. The gear on my old bendix was chewed up. This was due to a weak return spring which allowed the gear to wander out and contact the ring gear on the primary clutch while riding, it was a common problem on these machines.
Of course while the motor was out, I took the opportunity to completely clean the engine compartment of oil, exhaust crud (from the old leaky donut gaskets) and belt dust.
The motor installation was put on hold while I waited for bulkhead braces to arrive, so I moved on to the rear suspension. I wanted to pull the SC-4 skid for an inspection and replacement of worn parts. I replaced every bearing in the skid, as well as the bearing on the driveshaft. The chain case bearings were in great shape so they were retained.
New left old right. These bushings hold the end of the torsion springs and were well worn!
While everything was apart I striped and cleaned & sanded the suspension rails as I wanted to black them out. I decided to try some POR15 paint which is supposed to chemically bond on bare metal, plus I already had some left over from my trailer rebuild project. If this doesn't hold up I'll have them powder coated, but they sure look fantastic! With the rails painted I also replaced the worn out hyfax.
The last item on the rear skid was to replace the worn out leaking stock shocks. Mary Murray, my local shock rebuilder, had a pair of freshly rebuilt Fox shocks for sale, so I picked them up and bolted them in place.
While the skid was out I tackled my next appearance mod. I wanted to coat my tunnel black without the expense or the hassle of completely disassembling the frame to have it powder coated. I decided to try Duplicolor aerosol truck bed liner (blue can from NAPA, not the black water based crap from Canadian Tire). This product worked well on the racks of my Honda Foreman ATV, which has held up great over the last 3 years. I prepped the tunnel by cleaning with brake parts cleaner, thoroughly sanding with 120 grit sand paper, and wiping down with 99% pure rubbing alcohol. The more time you put into prep, better are the results.
I taped off the areas I did not want coated and applied the product in one generous coat. I did not paint the top of the rear heat exchanger in part to aid performance of the cooler, and because this area is covered with a plastic panel. With the bumper and plastics reinstalled the sled looks fantastic!
When I bought the rear shocks from Mark Murray I picked up a set of front ones as well. He had a bunch of brand new Ryde FX 9200 series rebuildable shocks in stock for a great price. The old shocks were easy to remove, just one bolt top & bottom and they were out. To swap springs we mounted the shock in a bench vice, turned the tensioners as low as they would go, then Maffer pulled down on the spring while I removed the keeper plates. The springs were easily installed on the new shocks as there is a lot more adjustment. They fit in place perfectly, we made a rough estimate to the spring adjustment making sure each side was adjusted equally. I bought a pair of brand new black/yellow marble Pilot 5.7 skis for the sled identical to the existing worn out skis on the sled already. I installed four carbides I had in stock from my last sled (they only had a couple hundred kilometres on them) but I replaced the rusty nuts with stainless lock nuts & washers.
Next I swapped out the stock x-package bar pad for one from a 2009 REV-XP Summit (thanks Steve Long). This piece is a bar pad and riser cover all in one, and looks much cleaner as it covers all of the wires on the riser block. I let the brake line and throttle cable hang free outside the cover so they wouldn't bind during sharp turns.
Finally after nearly a month my bulkhead braces arrived from fellow dootalk.com member "wwracer" in Alaska. He designs, fabricates, and sells these braces which bolt/rivet to the stock bulkhead under the engine to make it much stronger. This way if you strike something and bend an A-Arm or even the Nun, the bulkhead under the engine has a better chance of not being damaged. A minor bend here means pulling the motor to fix, a major bend means replacing the entire tunnel.
The new braces almost triple the thickness of the frame in this vulnerable area. Now if I strike something I can replace the Nun section of frame as it bolts in place. The frame under the engine is one piece all the way to the rear of the sled.
Since it's a lot easier to install these with the motor out, delaying installation of my new motor was definitely worth the wait.
Side Note (February 2016):
This is what can happen to these sleds without a bulkhead brace. At the annual Sooley Cabin winter trip in February 2016 Maffer struck a culvert with the right ski on his 2006 REV 500ss. This drove the ski back about 3" and put a good kink in the tunnel right in the area I spoke about above.
We managed to carefully straighten the area using steel angle iron and C-clamps then bolted a piece of steel flat bar in place to sturdy up the weakened tunnel. It's not perfect but much better than it was before the repair.
Back to my build:
With the bulkhead braces installed, I was ready to reinstall the motor. As mentioned previously, the engine will fit in with the RAVE valves and reed cages installed, so I left them on, but took out the spark plugs. When I had the engine half way in, I connected the Oil Pump Cable, main oil feed line, impulse line for the fuel pump and bolted on the starting motor. The engine slid in the rest of the way with a little wiggling and negotiation but it really wasn't too bad. The rest of the job involved reinstalling the Y-Pipe & bolts with red lock-tite, connecting all the electrical & vacuum lines, installing the carburetors, and bolting up the recoil starter. Once ready I turned the sled over a bunch of times (holding the oiler wide open to remove air) to pump gas to the carbs. The sled started up with a small amount of mixed gas dropped into the cylinders and ran great. I bled the cooling system with the front of the sled raised higher then the rear to remove air from the heat exchanger.
With the belt installed, I hung the rear of the sled to adjust the track alignment/tension and to perform the torque procedure for the primary clutch as outlined in the shop manual. Knock on wood everything seems to be working great, I have the sled cleaned up and ready for snow. Lastly I removed the factory 2000's style decals, carefully trimming and leaving "Skidoo MXZ" on the side panels, but removing the rest. This really gives the sled a sleek uncluttered appearance. A new set of black/grey hand guards from a current XP chassis sled are on the way from eBay to replace the cheap floppy Acerbis ones on the sled.
January 19, 2013 Goulds Solo shakedown run. With no one else available to go for a rip, I really wanted to take advantage of our first major snowfall and test rode project REV after the major repairs this past fall.
The sled ran great! The motor is very strong and never caused a moments grief. Suspension of this machine is so far ahead of my 1997 it's truly a pleasure to ride in every way!
January 20, 2013 Goulds to Witless Bay with Todd, Bill & Long. The following day the crew was ready to head out for a crew rip grabbing a bite to eat in Witless Bay. Again the machine is running great!
January 26, 2013 Goulds to Witless Bay with Maffer, Danny and Brian. Same ride, different crew!
January 27, 2013 Goulds rip with the Crew! Another day with snow so yup another ride exploring new trails from Northern Pond, Goulds to Witless Bay line.
February 16, 2013 Whitbourne Ice Fishing. We may have missed an annual cabin trip this year but we never missed a trip to Goulds Pond as Maffer, Gavin and I headed up for a day ice fishing!
With all of the work completed last year on project Powertek I'm pleased to say that the sled ran great all season! The new/used motor is holding up well, although not the most reliable engine Bombardier ever designed, it certainly pulls like a train! The new shocks greatly improved the ride and handling of this sled, and the coating on the tunnel and paint on the slide rails is also holding up perfectly.
Late last season I installed an Equus water temperature gauge so that I can easily monitor engine temperature and not rely on the "it's too late" warning light to come on. This installation has been detailed in my How To's article on the Projects in the Shed page.
In 2013 French sold his 2010 Yamaha Nytro so I purchased his still new Sledstart HID headlight kit to install in project REV. The bulbs are an exact replacement item, but I had to make a small modification for them fit properly. In stock form the wiring for the bulb will rub on the front pyramidal frame and eventually chafe through causing a short circuit. This was easily fixed by removing 2 small Phillips screws and turning the bulb base 180 degrees so that the wires exit the on top of the housing instead of below. The ballasts were ty-wrapped to the frame to keep them secure. This is a great plug and play kit that retains hi & low beam function and does not bring up any error lights in the dash.
On a day trip at Sooley's cabin January 11, 2014, I managed to break the center out of my front bumper when I ran over a small tree. (I guess it wasn't so small or just froze up pretty good!) I ordered a new replacement piece and installed it with relative ease. You really miss not having that front handle for moving the sled around!
It's held in place with 4 10mm bolts, and two bolts for the hood hinge also have to be removed and swapped to the new bumper.
While finishing the bumper installation I noticed there was no resistance in the Right Front shock. I found the oil/gas had leaked out, likely due to a bad seal. After quick call to my local shock rebuilder Mark Murray and I had the shock out, rebuilt and reinstalled the same day. I purchased these shocks from him last year and once again I was impressed with his outstanding service and no hassle warranty repair.
The thumb warmer had not worked on this sled since I bought it. With such a short "to do list" this year, I decided it was time to replace it. To fix this problem you have to replace the whole throttle lever as the heater is glued directly to it. I purchased a new part from the dealer, disassembled the throttle block to access the wiring and installed the new lever with ease. I chose to cut, splice, solder and heat shrink the connections for a reliable installation. While everything was apart I took the time to disassemble and service my kill switch which started acting up after summer storage. A little corrosion on the terminals is easily cleaned and the switch works like new. Check out my fixing REV Kill Switch HOW TO for more information on this relatively easy repair.
Snow conditions were pretty sparse at the 2014 Annual Cabin trip in February. Both Project Foreman and Project REV got some seat time due to the poor snow conditions, but I did manage to burn a tank of gas in the sled!
I'm very happy with the performance and look of the sled so I doubt that will change in the near future. The REV chassis provides a great ride, predictable handling and is pretty sturdy without being too heavy. This sled is a huge leap forward in technology and design over my old 1997 S-2000 chassis machine, the new XP chassis machines are really only an incremental improvement over my trusty '06. I believe my REV with the extra bulkhead braces will stand up better in a ski impact than the new machines so I'm happy to keep riding this beast and enjoying a great sled with no monthly payment!
February 21, 2015 Whitbourne Ice fishing with Dad & Lloyd.
March 21, 2015 Whitbourne rip with French & Bill. Just a quick rip leaving from the town of Whitbourne heading in the pole line towards the Sooley family cabin.
Some of the crew dropped a few lines, while Bill & I tore up the back country taking advantage of great snow conditions.
Annual Cabin Trip February 12-15, 2016. This was one of the first annual trips in a long time where I actually didn't need Project Foreman on hand due to lack of snow!
In fact, during the trip we received another 30cm snow which made for truly epic riding conditions the following day!
Snowdrifts were plentiful, definitely the trip Project REV had been waiting for since it was rebuilt in 2012-2013, and it handled the trip perfectly with no major issues at all.
February 7, 2017 Annual cabin trip started out well with at least some snow on which to ride. This was also Mark French's first winter with his Argo 8x8 which is fitted out with tracks and full convertible top for comfy cruising.
In traditional East Coast fashion, this trip got rained out like so many annual trips that came before it.
Water on the ponds isn't a major issue, it keeps the sled quite cool. The problem lies when temperatures drop and all you're left with is glare ice which will cause liquid cooled sleds to overheat and all sleds to melt Hyfax.
February 18, 2017 Day rip with Sooley, Alison & their kids. With a fresh dump of 70cm snow on the ground, some of us were eager to get out for a rip on sleds.
We headed to the Sooley cabin near Whitbourne for a day of ice fishing mixed with backcountry riding. Sooley took Maffer's REV and joined me looking for hills, jumps and drifts to lay tracks across all over highwaters.
This fresh dump of snow is in stark contrast to snow conditions at the end of this years annual cabin trip just a couple weeks ago!
By April 2017 snow was long since melted. I performed a quick service on Project REV by greasing the suspension & driveshaft bearing and adding Seafoam to the fuel, before dropping it off at my storage locker until next season.
In January 2018 it was time to go through the sled for a thorough maintenance an address a few minor issues that came up in the rattles department. One item that came on the sled but didn't really fit me was the very tall 8" handle bar riser (plus a 1.5" pivot adaptor). I always found it too high standing and way too high sitting.
I got a great deal on a brand new 6" PowerMadd riser at Honda One and installed it retaining the existing pivot adaptor.
Now the bars are much more comfortable and will give me better control especially while side hilling.
I last had the rear skid out of the sled 5 years ago so I figured it was time for an inspection. I suspected the shocks needed to be freshened as the rear was sagging more than it should.
I pulled out all four shocks and sent them to my awesome shock rebuilder Mark Murray to have them inspected and freshened up with seals, fresh oil and gas.
Next up was cleaning the power valves. Again, its been a few years of running off the shelf Formula One 2-stroke oil from Canadian Tire, but overall they were in great shape. A quick scrub with brake cleaner and a Scotchbrite pad and they were as good as new.
The gaskets and o-rings were still in great shape so they were reused.
With the skid installed in the machine, the black painted slide rails still looked OK. Upon closer inspection the POR15 paint which was supposed to chemically bond to metal didn't adhere well at all. I scraped off what remained and thoroughly sanded both slide rails.
I repainted the rails this time using ordinary oil based Tremclad paint. Powder coating would be ideal, but would require 100% disassembly including drilling out rivets etc. A lot of extra work for the same look. Besides, overall it's a small detail that's covered in snow & ice most of the time, but I appreciate the slick blacked out appearance!
I suspected the pipe may need a little work, the aluminum covers were loose and rattling so I took them apart and found the pipe extremely rusty. I spent some time scraping off the flaky rust, cleaning with a coarse wire wheel and a flap disk (outdoors) before painting with multiple coats of brush on high heat stove paint.
While cleaning and prepping for paint I found a couple of pinhole leaks on the underside of the pipe.
With no brazing gear or even a 110v Mig welder in stock, I decided to try a quick backyard repair with high heat JB Weld 2 part putty as it received decent reviews online. If this doesn't work out I'll probably have to replace the pipe entirely.
I painted the entire pipe and exposed parts of the muffler with brush on high heat Tremclad paint, using two coats to achieve a nice thick layer of protection that should bond well to the rusty surface.
The aluminum pipe cover was looking quite tired, I didn't want to polish the entire thing so I concentrated on polishing the Ski-doo logo while prepping the rest of the surface for paint.
I painted the two top covers with a light coat of etching primer followed by two coats of high heat brake calliper paint which should work well on this surface. I didn't paint the bottom pieces as you can't see them plus the paint would only get rubbed off by the rubber pipe braces anyway.
Since everything else looked so nice and new, I polished up the stainless bands that hold the aluminum covers to the pipe.
While the front shocks were out for rebuild I inspected the front suspension for unwanted movement. The only parts I found even slightly worn were the upper control arm bushings which take a pretty good beating. The stock skidoo plastic bushings are quite cheap so I picked up a fresh set for each upper control arm and replaced them. The lower control arm bushings were in great shape as were the ball joints and tie rod ends.
The only other looseness found was in the lower steering bushing under the exhaust pipe. With the pipe removed for cleaning & paint it was an easy fix installing two new bushing halves purchased from our local Skidoo dealer.
The main reason the aluminum pipe covers were loose and rattling was because the pipe padding/insulation was worn out and collapsed. Some people remove this to prevent the pipe from rusting out, others say they help keep heat in the pipe making the machine run better and definitely quieter. I decided to replace them with brand new pieces purchased at the dealer for a very reasonable cost.
I'm very happy with the finished appearance, it's a nice custom touch that works with the blacked out/yellow highlight theme of the sled and much cleaner than it was before I started! Most important, no more rattles & vibrations coming from under the hood!
While working on the rear skid I replaced a lot of the small rusty bolts with new Stainless hardware I had on hand in the garage.
Surprisingly all of the rear suspension bearings & bushings replaced in 2013 were still perfect, as was the Hyfax. The skid was reassembled with my freshly rebuilt shocks and it was ready for re-installation in the sled.
With the skid installed I ran the machine to adjust track tension & alignment then tightened the rear axle bolts. Always use a proper stand when performing this job to prevent serious injury should the track let go.
With a fresh polish using SC1 and greasing of the rear suspension project REV is all ready to hit the snow! That is provided we actually get back to cold winter temps this year here on the East Coast. All in all I'm still very pleased with this sled. Even the Duplicolor truck bed lining on the tunnel is holding up perfect! It was a lot of work over the years, but this machine is as tight as a new sled at a fraction of the cost. The initial purchase price and initial parts list for the rebuild/restoration was paid for 5 years ago giving me equity in the machine even back then! This is the first money in repair parts I've spent since, totalling only $300 which is a really good value as it's as good as brand new in looks and performance.
The annual winter cabin trip in February 2018 started off Thursday and started off rough. This year we were celebrating our 20th anniversary of the annual winter trip. Unfortunately there was barely enough ice on the pond to take a machine out on at just 6-7", and of course absolutely no snow.
In fact we chose to mark off a couple unsuspecting very thin ice spots for some of the crew less familiar with the pond to ensure they didn't go through especially on bike.
We received about 10cm snow Friday night which made Saturday a lot of fun on the bikes. However with a storm forecast for Monday I decided to run back to town and pick up Project REV. I was stoked that it would not miss an annual cabin trip due to weather, especially after the work put into it last month!
By Tuesday we had another 15cm on top of Friday's 10, so riding conditions were not ideal. No jumping or bashing drifts this year, but we could certainly pick our way along the pole line, and run the lakes with ease.
Just one week later and the ice on Sooley's pond and all others on the Avalon was gone, along with snow on any trails. 2018 was a brutally short riding season, Project REV stayed stored at Sooley's cabin for summer 2018.
Annual winter trip February 6, 2019 shaped up to be not much better than 2018 snow level wise, but thankfully it had been cold so the pond was well frozen. Project REV was already at the cabin, I also brought Project Foreman with fleshly studded tires for the icy conditions. I managed a couple runs up the pond Tuesday with AJ on his new Vmax700, but off pond riding was out of the question this year.
Thursday we revived another dusting of snow so we managed a few high speed rips up and down the pond to scratch the Skidoo itch, but this trip mostly utilized the bikes.
In May 2019 I gave Ronnie a hand to bring AJ's snowmobile to Sooley's cabin for summer storage and I decided to bring mine home to do a few repairs (and place it in more secure storage). First up was an inspection and full grease of the suspension and driveshaft bearing.
The kill switch had been acting up recently so I took it apart for a look as they often corrode and need to be cleaned. This time the black plastic on bottom of the switch was all cracked up and no longer holding the switch properly in place. I will have to replace it later.
Ready for storage!
Surprising even to me, although winter of 2020 was epic beyond measure for snowfall, Project REV remained parked. French and I logged a ton of seat time in our tracked Argos hauling lots of Ice Fishing gear across the country all over the Avalon Peninsula. Week after week found us in the woods, especially as a change in annual cabin trip attendance in February 2020 reset plans for Mark and I.
Fast forward to Winter 2021 which saw a slow start but by February was finally taking shape with an extended period of sub zero temperatures and snow. With Bill back from the West Coast, and both AJ & Ronnie with working sleds I decided to pick up project REV from storage and get it ready to ride. I did an inspection of the sled to check for any nests or damage, as well as cracked carburetor to engine boots and oil level. All seemed great so I kicked over the electric start and the sled roared to life with ease a testament to the benefit of using Seafoam engine treatment.
First I needed a new way to transport it as I sold my rusted out open deck utility trailer. This bed-slide is for accessing my work tools with the tonneau cover closed. I didn't want the ski carbides digging into the plywood surface so I installed sections of EZ-Glide to protect the bed and made loading/unloading much easier. I will soon build a set of 7' wooden ramps also covered in EZ-Glide for loading the sled when snowbanks aren't available.
My Gates Extreme drive belt is 8 years old is still in great shape, albeit doesn't have a lot mileage but will be swapped out for a fresh unit at some point to prevent a trailside failure due to age.
When I stored my machine in the Spring of 2019 I found the kill switch was acting finicky. The contacts were clean but I did find a crack in the bottom of the switch housing behind the mounting screws, hence pressing on the switch opened the crack and didn't allow the contacts to connect. With a gentle snap the defective part broke free. This winter I purchased a used kill switch/throttle assembly, harvested the piece I needed (right), then reused over my less faded red button and rubber gasket.
Installed and working great, all that remained was to reinstall the bar/riser cover. Next I did a thorough inspection of the sled, lubed the ball joints and performed a full grease of the rear suspension and drive axel bearing behind the secondary clutch with BRP purple low temp grease.
My original OEM battery which had been getting weaker in recent years finally kicked the bucket, so I replaced it with a new BS brand battery from Honda One. This line of batteries are cheaper than the OEM Yuasa, one has been working great in project Foreman for the last couple years.
Over Christmas Sandra and I purchased a vinyl cutting machine which has been great for making some preliminary Shed-Headz.com decals and heat transfer vinyl T-shirts. Having recently updated the Shed-Headz livery on Project Foreman and Project 6x6, I decided it was time to retire the old blocky, bright white logos on Project REV as well.
My new decals were made from a beautiful textured grey vinyl which has the look of dark brushed aluminum when you see it in person. I think it goes with the machine nicely, and of course matches the updated header logo from this website.
On the trunk I replaced the old Shed-Headz lettering with the new style logo, left my Area51 Logo and added new Area51 Project lettering to bring the livery up to date. Now all I need is some fresh powder and some time to get out for a rip!
In February 2021 Bill, Ronnie, AJ and I headed to the Goulds for a long overdue good old fashioned Goulds snowmobile rip.
Ronnie was riding his 1997 Yamaha V-MaxSX700 which was Bill's old sled many owners ago, I of course Project REV, Bill his Yamaha Nytro XTX, and AJ his Skidoo MXZ 500ss.
The weather was beautiful and the open country absolutely amazing to ride on as we travelled to Cranes North Atlantic on Witless Bay Line.
The trails in Northern Pond were their usual torturous un-groomed nature. Even with great suspension, they sucked. I don't know if the trails are getting worse or I'm just getting older. Yup, definitely the trails.
In early March we received another 20cm fresh powder, with the driveway cleared I left from the house and hit the trails in Torbay on snowmobile for the first time since moving here in 2014!
It was awesome to be back on sled, and great to enjoy winter this year with a perfect mix of Snowmobile, ATV & Argo adventures. With the Sooley family cabin sold, those annual trips are over, so the future will be different but still great.
2022 was an absolute write off weather wise. We've had poor winters with early ice break up, and/or no snow, but this year ponds on the Avalon never got safe enough to venture out on with a machine and snow was equally lacking. I managed just one short outing in the Argo so obviously Project REV remained safely in storage.
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 winter. The machine started with relative ease even with 2 year old gas! I stored the sled with less than 1/4 tank and topped it off with supreme 91 on the way home.
After a 50cm dump on Valentines Day, I gave the machine a thorough inspection and was pleased to find everything in good 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 and uneventful ride.
I had a trip planned with Dad coming up in March, the only item I was weary about was the belt. This is the same Gates Extreme belt 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, now their new Gates G-Force C12 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! First time back there since my first and only prior trip 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 handles great!
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 gave out crossing the pond, a fresh set were swapped in and I never had a hitch after. The old plugs were definitely a few years old.
We did a lot of ice fishing and a good spirited run to Travers Brook on the Groomed Trail, by the end of the 4 day adventure we logged 150km on the machines.
My Indian Bay snowmobile trip with Dad went very well. Project REV, my 17 year old beast ran very well, so when I returned I performed an "I actually got to use it" maintenance on the sled to keep it in top running 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 last serviced before it was stored in 2021, but greasing often keeps everything in great shape, and moisture pushed 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, 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, even exceptional winters in the future, as 2023 was certainly one for the books.
Cheers, MIKE
Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith
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