My "Yamamutt" Project
by PerformanceX
objective: take an ordinary old P.O.S. Yamaha Phazer and improve it (so it becomes slightly less of a P.O.S.)
***I am now parting out this sled. Email performancex@usa.com for anything you need.
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THE SKID---
I bought this skid from a '98 Arctic Cat ZR:
I
tore it down, cleaned it up, and replaced what needed replacing. This was
the largest part of my project, because I wanted to get it right. It
wasn't going to be a bolt-in procedure because this sled had a stock 116"
track/skid on it. I was going to go to the standard 121", so I knew I was
going to need new mounting holes. The best method I have available to me
is to model everything in AutoCAD and put it together like it needs to be.
As I disassembled the Cat skid, I took parts inside to measure and draw them.
Here's what I ended up with:
This pretty much took all summer. I was slowed further by lightening
that struck shortly after the 4th of July while I was gone on vacation.
Fried my answering machine and computer. Obviously came in thru the phone
line. Set me back 6 weeks.
I had to model the tunnel, front suspension, skis, and track to make sure I didn't mess this up:
If anyone needs dimensions for anything, I can pull that off my model.
No problem!
Here's what I decided on for mounting hole locations:
The stock skid was trashed:
The green parts were just not going to work, so I prepped them for red
paint:
Meanwhile, I had some new rear brackets made:
And I
put them on:
They are 3/8" aluminum angle, 6061-T6.
The 1/4" bolts
coming thru the upper surface of the running boards make for some awesome grip when I
stand on the rear.
The front arm holes in the tunnel were ovalled out, so I figured the tunnel could use some extra support for the new skid. I made some plates from 3/16" aluminum:
Installed, left:
And right:
Here's the skid
painted and reassembled. I flip-flopped the rails because each had wear on
the inside from the shafts. Now each shaft has fresh, flat material to
wear against.
When I
got the skid I noticed that it looked as if the limiter straps had a tendency to
slide to the side on their lower shaft, causing an angle that essentially
shortens the strap length. My solution was to put some aluminum collars on
this shaft to keep the straps in line.
I measured the Phazer tunnel at 15 7/8" inches wide. I had the front arm of the Cat skid pegged at 16 11/16". Obviously I had to cut a bit off each side of the upper arm so it would fit up in the Phazer tunnel. (The rear I didn't worry about--I simply mounted the new rear brackets a little wider):
I happened to weigh the old and new skid frames:
52 lbs.
60 lbs.
I picked up a new track, a takeoff .91 Yokohama with zero miles:
The old track will someday probably be used to protect a trailer from
studs. Look how worn it is:
So I got the skid installed with the new track.
I thought the approach angle was going to be really steep, but it turned
out O.K.:
Quite the ride height difference:
contact: performancex@usa.com