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Introduction - New To me M7

Vern

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Jun 14, 2004
2,454
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113
hyrum utah
Lots of good m7 must do on here.

1. the relocation bracket is critical as is running a loose track as the cat skid has very poor track tension characteristics even with the brackets but they are way better.

2. make sure you have the later cat orange secondary spring, then adjust the white nut tension so its 10mm from face of nut to face of cap. Then ride and adjust, more tension less upshift more backshift, less tension lazy slow upshift ( can be great for trailriding ).

3. If you ride deep snow or in the west, gear that thing down and pickup top end. Took cat about 6 years to figure that out, Back in 05 and 06 CAT tuners had bought out the years supply of lower gearing by Nov. Other wise stock gearing always a lazy sled. Gearing on these will trump pipes,big bores, clutch kits, boonie boxes, lots of little nagging tuning issues will disappear when you modernize this sled with correct gear ratio.

4. Keep those clutch's pristine clean, and if the primary rattles a little, start shopping for a newer cat primary. Stock helix all you need to win drag races or top end if you have good clutch adjustments. I put this secondary setup on all M sleds until cat ditched the DD drive.
All the high $$ secondary clutch kits have been bad attempts to overcome the M tall gearing and lack of understanding of function and adjustment on your stock secondary. Just make sure you ditch the stock secondary spring and go to cat orange or aftermarket same spring tension.

5. if you fix the boards and they need it, go with new pipe type. back in the day we installed lots of the pressed and cut boards, they all fatigue out, just welded up two yesterday for customers on older m8s with cracks on each not so grippy cross cleats.

6. upside is no one is really making a better sled, different with other problems. Good maintanance and tuning is better than new out of the box.

I rode an m7 for 8 years and had her running like a top and would agree with just about everything here except #2. I hated the orange cat spring, up shift was horrible and the only time I blew a belt on that sled was when I was running that spring. I think it's just to stiff, my go to spring for the m7 is the speedwerx black/orange h5 spring. I've had awesome luck with the speedwerx spring. Agree gearing down is a must in the m7, also going to a powerclaw track of any height of paddles is probably the biggest noticeable gain you can make on that sled.
 
D
Mar 19, 2015
64
24
8
U.P. of MI
Can you guys help me figure out adjusting my secondary?
I know some of this is aftermarket, so the manual doesnt help.


I put on a new belt, but I cant figure out how to adjust the sheaves tighter.

It's got a 10.4" secondary. The adjuster is something aftermarket where theres an alan head bolt that holds on the secondary. When loosened, I can turn the aluminum insert thing. But that doesnt seem to do anything, so Im pretty lost.



On an unrelated not, for springs I've got the yellow on primary, and orange on secondary.

20160315_195358.jpg
 
Last edited:
D
Dec 17, 2015
6
1
3
You have a BDX deflection adjuster on there.

Loosen the main bolt in the middle (dont need to remove) and spin the aluminum cup that has the little holes around it.

Left turns makes the shelves go apart and right does the opposite.

Tighten the main bolt back up after adjusting to your liking.
 
D
Mar 19, 2015
64
24
8
U.P. of MI
You have a BDX deflection adjuster on there.

Loosen the main bolt in the middle (dont need to remove) and spin the aluminum cup that has the little holes around it.

Left turns makes the shelves go apart and right does the opposite.

Tighten the main bolt back up after adjusting to your liking.


Thanks for the info. I was wondering which direction was supposed to do what.

Do I need to run it between turns or something? Because the sheaves only seem to get wider and they're definitely not getting tighter, even when the adjuster is turned out so far there's a gap.
 
D
Dec 17, 2015
6
1
3
No you shouldn't for tightening. Sometimes when you loosen the sheaths they dont fully come apart until to run it.

You will need to get your belt out of the way though. Try and take up the slack so its loose around the secondary.
 

Vern

Well-known member
Lifetime Membership
Jun 14, 2004
2,454
1,285
113
hyrum utah
When you loosen the adjuster grab your belt at the top and push it towards the secondary with your left hand then while holding it there take your right hand and push the slack around the secondary opposite of the way the belt normally spins. Not sure if this makes sense, but it will walk the belt up to the top of the secondary if done correctly.
 
D
Mar 19, 2015
64
24
8
U.P. of MI
When you loosen the adjuster grab your belt at the top and push it towards the secondary with your left hand then while holding it there take your right hand and push the slack around the secondary opposite of the way the belt normally spins. Not sure if this makes sense, but it will walk the belt up to the top of the secondary if done correctly.

Yup, that makes sense.
I'll give that a shot. Thanks!
 
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