Yesaaah! Mission accomplished! I used the wrench from the tool kit to start the loosening of the bolts... worked well . Now that I’m this far any recommendations... I am going to research about the tensioner mod ? I’m not ready for a belt drive yet but gears? I’m at sea level up to 3000’ ... already have clutching set up( backcountry from black diamond xterm )
I also am going to try the bdx back country kit. That and trying 21tooth top and 49tooth bottom. From my understanding the 12 and 13 m8000’s came with the 21-49 and cat change it to 19-50 to reduce belt/clutch heat. The bdx kit claims to reduce heat so I’ll take the extra track speed back. There’s a post somewhere on snowest with the part numbers for the 21-49 gears and they should work with the stock chain.
Complete hyvo kit is around $180, so u could go that route and manual tensioner adds another $110 (or whatever it is). For now I’m just going the part number route as I plan on mutliple multiple upgrades this summer like the 16 front end kit so I’ll be choicey in this case as the stock chain seems solid. (Although I’m sure someone will chime in and say otherwise) I’ll be in there once in a while to make sure all looks good anyway, and the new gears will be upgraded part number which are steel not aluminum like what’s in there now.
Oh and when I put mine back together I’m not sure if I added to much chaincase oil (think it’s the whole jug u buy from cat) and it leaked some through the drive shaft bearing. Or somethings not quit right with the gasket but ever since I’ve had small drops on the garage floor. So next time I’ll prolly add silicon at least to the bottom. I know on all my polaris experience silicon was a must. Just something to look out for