M7 clutch alignment tool

I bought the an alignment bar out of the hi-performance engineering catalog last year (part no. 800-303) aligned my clutches and then found out it was wrong. Talked to a local dealer and he said they found that if they used the same bar but placed a piece of an old belt in the primary, alignment seemed to be pretty close and they actually gained a couple mph in track speed. I noticed the spec in the Arctic Cat service manual was for .708" offset but my alignment bar (even though its incorrect) is nothing close to this offset. Where exactly is this .708" measured?

Use the bar for parallelism and primary stager. You can set stager with a straight edge. You want the primary to be ahead a bit than the mag side so under load they are straight. The play in the motor mounts will be taken out under power.

Take the belt off. Take the secondary off and all the shims out from behind it. You may need a magnet to get them all out. Put the rear of the sled in the air so the track can spin. Now put the secondary back on and the belt with out bolting it. Start the sled and set the deflection so the track will just creep ahead. Now spin the track up to speed and the secondary will pop in. As the track slows down the secondary will pop out. Let it free wheel till it stops and starts to creep again. Grab the brake and measure from a fixed point on the DDrive to the fixed sheave of the secondary. Spin the track again and few times see if you hit the same number measured. This is your off set number for that belt your running. Off with the belt again and the secondary shim the secondary till you come to that number when testing. Bolt on the secondary and try your best to hit the same deflection you had when testing.

Softer belt will want a different off set than a harder belt. More deflection you will need more off set and so on.

Don.



EDIT: spelling.

Don - is it really safe to run it with your secondary unbolted? Seems a little sketchy to me... Make us all feel better with an explaination!

Thanks.

I think that the secondary would kind of want to stay where its at, since the belt controls how much it will float. Am I wrong in thinking that the belt would help keep the secondary from coming completely off, at least just during testing?

High Life said:

I think that the secondary would kind of want to stay where its at, since the belt controls how much it will float. Am I wrong in thinking that the belt would help keep the secondary from coming completely off, at least just during testing?

Click to expand...

Ya it will stay put. Think about this in your head the side of the belt is what is running on the fixed sheave in the primary. The other end on the two sheaves in the secondary. Now for the belt to move by the primary the sheaves need to pinch it. At idle you have a space between the belt and sheave that lets it idle. IF at idle the secondary is in to far the belt will want to try to move the track and will wear out early. You will see that the secondary will want to be in farther than your eye thinks. This is because of your deflection. Loose belt will need to have the primary close more before the belt is pinched. Off set is to keep the belt flat. Softer belt may stretch more and need more off set. Harder belt will want less off set. This is a big deal with the fixed secondary now. NEVER LET THE DDRIVE SECONDARY FLOAT AT ALL. You will be getting another set of gears when the top gears bearing fails and hand grenades your DDrive.


I have done this for all my sleds and never had one pop off doing the test. Just don't tell your doo or poo friends or they may keep up to you.

Don.

I the secondary comes off while doing that, you have a big problem with you engine alighnment! It would have to be out of wack an inch. The secondary will pull straight in line with the primary.

Well Don, I goofed around today doing like you said and found that I was able to get rid of one of my shims it was pretty interesting and I think its a good idea. I noticed that it took alot of the gap out between my belt and the fixed sheave of the primary. I checked the gap on both sides with a feeler and the gap between the fixed sheave and the belt closed up quiet a bit. The gap between the moveable and the belt is still pretty big, I guess I need to machine the spider to get that closer, I think this may be why I'm having engagement issues.