Mule's '09 Rebuilding - Pics

[Mule]

Reposting here from the TT thread.

1133.3mi last year, who says 900s aren't reliable (sorta)?

Biggest problems were with motor mounts and torque stop/engine brace.

[Mule]

First destroyed torque stop.... this is the original one:


Took it to the welder, had him patch it up... drilled out the 3/8-16 and replaced it with an M12x25.


Played hooky from work for an EPIC powder day. This was a wedensday, the next day Denver was hit with a massive snowstorm that shut down schools, so HR sent everyone home around noon.


That friday HR said the office was closed all day, non-critical personnel need not attend. I'm not critical, so I was once again gone. Did my usual pre-ride inspection and saw some ... bad .. things.

This is the bumper, was held on with one of the lower A-arm bolts:


Fortunately all the tabs were still present and accounted for...


And the infamous engine brace... once again, broken:


There's supposed to be threads in there.


Back to the welder's, got 'er all patched back together again.... TIME FOR MORE WRECKIN!!!


...And that's what I did. Engine brace, again.


Little more than just some thread damage this time around.

[Mule]

Thus the teardown begins. Load 'er up and off to XC's place.

First step, engine out.


Two seasons of crap under an engine... way to go Polaris engineers.... couldn't figure out a better way to route the EV solenoid hose? :nah


Off to the carwash, and a few cans of brake cleaner later:


Shiny new motor mounts. These little puppies should keep the torque stop from destroying itself again. Kudos to CompFusion for gettin these made and out to me.


And the real ****ter... wasn't planning on a $200 cylinder replacement or $150 worth of new pistons/rings/clips/etc....


Pistons were ordered late october... SPI factory gets hit with a typhoon, parts are backordered for weeks. It's now mid-december and I still haven't received my pistons yet. Getting a little pistoff. Good news is I have a tracking number and should see them by this friday.

[Mule]

WOOHOOOOO!!!!

After nearly a month and a half of waiting... THERE"S TWO PISTONS ON MY COFFEE TABLE RIGHT NOW!!!!

[Mule]

Other project is an air intake. The hunk-o-junk stock airbox (HUUUUUGE) needs to go. Like to get something that filters out the pine needles better, as well as pulling *cold* air instead of pulling it through an underhood maze.

Solution: 2" ABS Pipe, a pint of THF-based solvent, a hole saw, and some Jegs silicone fittings.

Cut and welded an "H" out of ABS. The short legs attach to the throttle bodies, long legs will be cut to length once the engine's back in and have silicone 45°'s on 'em. The pod filters sit in the little space above where the fenders were cut for the bumper.


Might need to get creative where the pipe comes around, not sure if there'll be enough clearance between the blockoff plate for the bumper kit and the pipe to pull the ABS/silicone connector between. Have to cross that bridge when I come to it.

Vents in the fender will replace the small ABS plates that came with the bumper kit, and a new vent is installed in the frontside of that fender plastic.


New hood hinge too, broke that off mid-february. Bumper kit didn't have a real convienent place for hte hood cables, so I went without for a while and just used a tie-down between hood and handlebars to keep it from flopping over. Buddy pulled hood open not knowing there weren't cables there, *snap*. Parachute cord hood hinge worked well the rest of the season

[Mule]

Engine's in!

Pics from this weekend.

Pistons in, cylinders installed. Everything lined up well and slid in nicely. Recalibrated the throttle position sensor while it was out.


In goes the power plant. Rerouted some of the cables, hood now comes around the PTO side instead of behind the mag side above the stator. I'll be flipping the exhaust valve solenoid around and routing that to a puke port out the bottom of the sled.


Engine in and secured, engine braces mashed on. Think the bulkhead bent a bit since the sled was sitting out for a month without the braces in there, then hoisted up from the bumper at a 30° angle to bleed the coolant probably didn't help. It was tight but they finally popped in.

[Mule]

Next project, air intake.

Don't have a lot of pics of building the intake assembly, but it's not terribly complicated.

Stuck the sensor along PTO side, kinda at a 45° under the bulkhead brace. Keeps it protected.


2" ABS from Home Depot, pod filters/socks, Jegs 2-1/4 silicone connectors (two straight to go to the throttle bodies, two 45°'s visible below), and a handful of hose clamps.


Close-up where the intake filters sit; one on each side of the hood.


XC just *had* to get that PITA bolt in...


Heat shield around the intake by the pipe. Also installed hood cables, should keep from busting the hood hinge again


Fits well, good cold-air intake on the mag side


Gas can rack/tunnel pack. Spec'd this identical Serpac enclosure for a test system at work. Built the system in it and really liked the case. A fraction of the cost of a Pelican case. Waterproof/dustproof/airtight when shut, rugged, come in a variety of sizes/shapes/colors. Thought about building the taillight into the enclosure but might hold off on that till later. The existing (still custom) taillight will fit around the case.


Ready to hit the snow now. Still needs some finishing touches before it's "done", but it runs!

[Mule]

Next set of parts... exhaust valve/coolant overflow puke port.

EV's used to dump right into the bellypan, coolant overflow would spray all over the stator/can.

Picked up 4ft of fuel line and some brass fittings at Ace tonight. (~$25 in parts, those brass fittings are $$$! )

Black hose is from the EV solenoid, clear is from the coolant overflow. Bottom will poke out the bulkhead somewhere near the exhaust.

[Mule]

Last of the garage pics; she's runnin!

One of the things I've needed for a while is a new tether. ProDesigns has one that's pretty nice, but they're about $50 and mount on the bar risers. There's a hole in the cowl where the key used to go, the Polaris tether fit in that same hole. Problem with the Polaris tether, is it's a little rubber cap that slips over a barb with a chunk of rubber in the middle that presses in a button. When that button or the rubber tether part gets packed full of snow and ice, it stops working.

Stopped by Cool Toys Marine by my place, they happened to have a watercraft tether that's threaded and normally closed. Switch was $5, tether/lanyard/snap/floaty-wrist-strap was $19. A $5 stop at Ace to pick up some shiny hardware and i've got a real waterproof tether. This is the way to go; don't bother with the rubber cap junk.

Red part pulls out, clip snaps inbetween and holds the switch out and open. Clip comes out, spring-loaded button is pulled back in and closes the circuit, sled shuts off. Stupid simple.



As I was pulling out, I noticed a propane vessel and the sign on the fence made me LOL. "Non-Stupid Area".

[Mule]

Onto the puke port I mentioned earlier.

Since one of the rivets by the exhaust was already knocked loose and out, I opened up the hole it was in and smashed the fitting through that. The metal exhaust snow shield is stainless, hard as hell to drill through.

Black line comes from exhaust valve solenoid (Turned that around on the housing it sat in too), clear Tygon is from the coolant overflow.



....And it pukes right out the bottom of the sled. Little bit of loctite to keep that nut on there and she's good to go.