Spending winter with your friends and family, and planning to have a fun ride along with them on your snowmobile is a great idea. To ensure you spend your time as per your plan and everything goes smooth you need to follow a few maintenance checks.
When your odometer indicates that you have traveled 3,000 miles, it is time to get your snowmobile inspected. Maintenance of your snowmobile is necessary to make sure it works as good as it did when you first bought it.
Here are a few maintenance checks you must perform before you take your next ride:
- Check electronic components:Check if all the lights are working fine viz. tail-lights, brake lights, etc. so that the other riders can identify you especially in the low-light conditions. Inspecting if your snowmobile’s electric bulbs are working fine is the easiest thing you can do. If these lights aren’t working, it could lead to some serious unfortunate situation. Replacing these lights is the easiest maintenance tip that you can follow. Make sure to inspect these every time whenever possible:
- Inspect brake pads
- Check the clutch
- Inspect your snowmobile bearings
- Inspect wheel conditions
- Inspect suspension rails, torque arms, and hardware
- Align skis and adjust track
- Change the oil:The lubrication in the chaincase goes through extreme heating and cooling cycles which cause it to breakdown. The lube also gets contaminated with water and other contaminants. Most snowmobiles built after the 1990s have a drain plug. This drain plug allows you to get rid of the contaminated oil easily. After removing the oil, you can fill the new oil.
- Set chain tension:As you change the chain oil, you must set the chain tension too. If the chain is loose, it might start to skip or worse, it might grind on the sprocket and cause a complete failure. A loose chain can also be problematic in reverse systems since it can make the engagement and disengagement with the forward or reverse gear difficult.
- Grease it:Greasing is one simple step you can do to ensure your snowmobile run smooth. You should take a few minutes to inject the fresh grease in the chassis. Grease the rear suspension, front suspension, steering components and the drivetrain.
- Inspecting the hyfax:Hyfax is the slippery component of your snowmobile that is at the bottom of the suspension rails. If this part gets worn-out, the track and the rails will suffer huge damage. You should look at the wear limit on the outer edge of the hyfax. If only 1/8 inch of hyfax material is left, it is time for you to replace the hyfax.
- Inspect wear bars:This is another important maintenance check that you should regularly perform. See to it if the wear bars in the skis are good enough to withstand the low-snow conditions that are common in the early season rides. The cutting carbide should be there on each of the bars. Consider replacing the bar if the carbide is gone.
It is recommended that you go through the user manual. It will help you fix the problem that you might find during these inspections. User manual can make these repairs really easy and headache-free.
You can find parts of snowmobile very easily over the internet. If you hear some sound from your wheels while it rotates, it is very likely that the bearing has worn off. In such cases, you should consider replacing them which too is not a difficult task. You can find these bearings at JSB Great Bearings.
Maintenance of your snowmobile is very important and you must never procrastinate this. A well-maintained snowmobile will not only have lower chances of facing a breakdown but also will have a good fuel economy.
