Replacing Tunnel

Yes, you should take the primary off, it will make the job easier.

Please feel free to give me a call with questions and pointers. If you are doing the whole tunnel you wont have as many rivets as on would think. Do yourself a favor and go and buy a couple good 3/16 drill bits.


KJP

If your replacing tunnel with a new one from Arctic Cat, make sure your dealer helps you get a VIN stamped in the new one. Have changed a couple tunnels.. not bad at all.

There are bolts that hold the cooler into the chassis that are behind the TCL so that has to come off which means primary has to come off.

I had to do a cooler last winter. The next step after the cooler would be the tunnel pieces so i don't think it would be that much harder. Get yourself a pneumatic rivet gun. It will save your sanity and i think there are hardened rivets that you just can't do with a manual one.

The chaincase comes right out once you remove the eaton clips. If you take off the jackshaft bearing from the TCL you can remove the chaincase and jackshaft as one peice and not have to mess with the j-shaft nut.

You'll need a tube of good silicone caulk too to seal the HE to the new tunnel. An make sure that your main harness routing is documented well before you disassemble anything. Take a TON of pictures before starting and along the way of disassembly so you can remember where things go. The harness is the biggest one that can get confusing. Finally make sure that the harness is well secured during reassembly and away from the jackshaft as i almost burned through mine because it was touching. Luckily i noticed it before i shorted any thing out.

oh and make sure you put each group of nuts and bolts in baggies and label them as you go. Easy to screw that up too.

Good luck.

I left the cooler attached to the sled when I replaced my tunnel. One thing I fought when going back together and didn't notice right away was that there's a piece of the tunnel that tucks between the bulkhead and the aluminum bellypan piece. Couldn't figure out what was stopping it from sliding forward. A air riveter is necessary. Those Huck rivets are tough to pop with a hand rivet tool. I still have a few pics from my swap but can't post from my phone