"Indy Lite Mountain Conversion"

Merlin · Jan 12, 2016

My son & I got out for his first ride of the season last weekend and although the snow was pretty sparse we still had lots of fun.

The old Indy Lite with the "Mountain Mods." worked well & my son is starting to get the feel for the machine. With some more modifications / improvements / tinkering, it should serve him & his younger brother well until they move on to bigger & better machines.

Merlin · Mar 3, 2017

Maintenance & some mods...

Just an update on the maintenance & few small mods. on the Indy Lite this year:

- Top end overhaul(.010" O.S. pistons, transfer port clean up, shaved cylinder heads)
- Primary clutch overhaul with new spring & weights. New ramp buttons for secondary.
- Hood paint job
- Intake snow pre-filter mod.
- Carb. to air box vent mod.
- Exhaust snow deflector
- Exhaust seal for belly pan

Started the project with the plan of just cutting the heads down to improve bottom end but after the heads were off I found the PTWC clearance was excessive(.009"!) so it turned into a top end job.

Looking at the blunt edges of the cylinders & dividers in entrance to the transfer ports made me cringe so I broke out the Dremel & cleaned things up the best I could. Could've done much better with the proper burs & sanding rolls but at least it was better than factory. LOL

Regarding the squish on these engines, they are built so loose .125" solder wasn't thick enough to get a reading. So the machine shop cut .025" off the heads just so I could see where I was at. Even now the squish is still huge at .118" LOL In hindsight I could've just left the head gasket out for measuring purposes but that option eluded me at the time. Probably look at taking more off the heads for next season.

The primary clutch sheaves had significant grooving & the spider button to tower clearance was sloppy so I decided to rebuild. Put in lighter weights(10MB 47.5g) & heavier spring(Gold) along with Thunder Products glide washers at the same time.

The air intake pre-filter, carb. vents, exhaust snow deflector, & seal were mainly just throwbacks to the mods. of the edge / wedge days...........

Merlin · Mar 3, 2017

With all of the changes it's hard to say what made the biggest difference but the machine definitely pulls better on the top end.

On the second day we rode a trail with that had a handful of short steep sections(200 - 300 yards-ish) that had between 8" to 12" of fresh snow on top of a semi hard base. To my surprise the pilot made it to the top of each one although he was just crawling with the flipper pinned. So much for the break in! LOL

Spaarky · Mar 31, 2017

Need to keep track of this... Nice thread!!

Merlin · Apr 1, 2017

I'm grateful that members have taken the time to post their mods. / projects & appreciative towards those who've answered my many questions. The info. has helped me immensely with this little build.

This project has been fun & while I do take satisfaction in posting the progress I also think of it as paying it forward to the next guy who wants to mod. an Indy Lite for his kid.....

Spaarky said:
Need to keep track of this... Nice thread!!

Spaarky · Apr 3, 2017

What's the best rear skid? Would a old Holz coil over conversion on a Gen2 136 or 144 work?

Merlin · Apr 4, 2017

Anything other than stock..... LOL

I have a 136" skid from an '05 Edge that I'm going to try next season if I can find the time. I plan on ditching all of the idlers & converting the rear axle to a 2 wheel set up. It should end up saving a few lbs over the stock skid in addition to gaining footboard to snow clearance.

Or for the more daring, a person could modify / build a custom skid like Bushwacker1 is doing with his FCX project.

That said, the tricky part of the skid upgrade is going to be maintaining decent handling / steering characteristics. The front end of the machine will have to be raised to match the back end & the options there seem limited. Reading many forums & speaking with Fabcraft, simply installing way longer shocks will result in excessive bump steer. Apparently, any configuration with the radius rods running over 30 deg. angle will result in poor handling.

Some guys have installed the Xtra10 front suspension in the older Indy chassis but that results in a wider stance which I want to avoid with this machine.

I think installing longer spindles & possibly installing slightly longer shocks is about all that can be done without entirely revamping the entire front suspension.

Spaarky said:
What's the best rear skid? Would a old Holz coil over conversion on a Gen2 136 or 144 work?

Spaarky · Apr 5, 2017

That leads to my next question. What is out there for a decent shock. Looked at some Floats to save weight.

Merlin · Apr 5, 2017

I haven't looked into the shocks yet.

New Floats are out of my $$$ range but if a guy could find a used set with the right dimensions(& price) it would be an awesome upgrade!

Spaarky said:
That leads to my next question. What is out there for a decent shock. Looked at some Floats to save weight.

Spaarky · Apr 5, 2017

The ones I found for the IFS, that had the same center to center were like a FTS off a Cat. My concern would be valving. Again obviously it would be a big upgrade either way.

I have a bunch of ideas.

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"Indy Lite Mountain Conversion"

Merlin

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Merlin

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Merlin

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Spaarky

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Merlin

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Merlin

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Merlin

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