Front shock issue - no sway bar

goforbroke · Mar 13, 2012

So in hard snow, I like to ride with my sway bar disconnected. I notice that at times the spring will come out of the retainer near the ski, resulting in scrathes on spring and shock body. Well today I completly lost the spring retainer. Any ideas of what to do so it doesn't happen again? It hasn't been a problem with sway bar connected. Any one sell a longer spring with similar rate? I like to ride them fairly soft with 12 threads above the top retainer.

Missing side

Side with retainer.

goforbroke · Mar 13, 2012

Just spoke to the dealer and they want $34 for a new retainer. Any one with a toasted shock that will ship on to me cheap? Any one else with this issue?

Reg2view · Mar 13, 2012

Drill a hole in the retainer and wire or ziptie to the spring at a minimum.

Kobane · Mar 13, 2012

Had this problem with my sled before, lost the retainer completely a few times at $17 a piece. Have retainer slot facing the back of the sled. I also drilled a hole on each side of the slotand then wired it up with awesomewire. Havent had a prob yet!!

Coleniuk · Mar 13, 2012

Same problem...

I had this EXACT SAME thing happen to me!, my dealer said that polais put to short of sping on the shocks so you have to have them tighened to a certain ammount or the spring will fall out

On the other hand my shocks were warranted and there giving me new springs that are longer to go with them? i would question your dealer a bit on that.

wi.switchback · Mar 13, 2012

you are not running enough spring tension,jack the front of sled up till the skis are off the ground,then tighten spring till you feel it just start to snug up then measure from the top to the nut/collar go make other side the same,this just barely loading the spring ,you won't notice any differ in the ride from where you had it before.

skidworth · Mar 15, 2012

I lost the spring retainer and the springs chewed up the shock body pretty good the other side shock will no longer turn to adjust it does not look like its cross threaded but you never know i guess

Leaf27 · Mar 15, 2012

goforbroke said:
So in hard snow, I like to ride with my sway bar disconnected. I notice that at times the spring will come out of the retainer near the ski, resulting in scrathes on spring and shock body. Well today I completly lost the spring retainer. Any ideas of what to do so it doesn't happen again? It hasn't been a problem with sway bar connected. Any one sell a longer spring with similar rate? I like to ride them fairly soft with 12 threads above the top retainer.

Missing side

Side with retainer.

Had same thing happen to me on 2nd ride. Will do the zip tie fix and order Raptor springs.

alt · Mar 15, 2012

Goforbroke, noticed your jam nut on the lower rod end (heim) is not tight. Also not sure about the thread on the shock body of those shocks, but the Raptors now have a cool locking collar that may illiminate the issue if its because of running so little preload that the adjuster nut loosens up, and the retainer falls off. RPS may not have the same thread though to interchange to your. Just a thought. Thanks.

Dan

goforbroke · Mar 15, 2012

Thanks for noticing the jam nut, I'll tighten up. I've liked your a-arms. adjuster nut is not loosening, I just run it loose enough that my sled is upside down (it happens) or front end in the air, there is no spring pressure on retainer. Had to order one for $34:face-icon-small-fro

alt said:
Goforbroke, noticed your jam nut on the lower rod end (heim) is not tight. Also not sure about the thread on the shock body of those shocks, but the Raptors now have a cool locking collar that may illiminate the issue if its because of running so little preload that the adjuster nut loosens up, and the retainer falls off. RPS may not have the same thread though to interchange to your. Just a thought. Thanks.

Dan

RPS · Mar 16, 2012

How we do it.

Due to the fact Polaris (like us) run a very small amount of preload on our springs and from time to time we can have issues with adjuster nuts backing off causing the spring retainers to become loose. Couple of the most common issues at Polaris is one they were set wrong at the factory and simply didn’t have enough preload to keep them in place two the spring tolerance was out of spec on the extended length causing and inadequate amount of preload on the spring. This is why it’s imperative to measure the spring itself NOT the body to the adjuster etc. etc. during install.

Step one: The correct way to set spring preload is to measure the extended length of the springs and subtract the desired preload that you are looking for in this case for a Pro Rmk that would be ¼ inch.

Step two: Measure your stock 100 lb. per inch springs they will have an extended length of 10.625 to 10.75 after you record the value from each spring subtract .250 from that and this is your installed length. Note: There is a good chance that your springs will be at least a 1/8 different in length but again don’t be alarmed this is common tolerance for (high volume)spring manufacturers. Now with the entire load OFF the skis set your installed length to the desired setting. What we do in the field if for some freakish reason none of us has a tape measure we flip the sled on its side so there is NO weight on the skis and we back the adjuster off until there is very little pressure on the retainer and we give the adjuster four complete revolutions (tighter). Walkers thread pitch equates out to 1/16 of an inch per revolution of the adjuster. If you do not want your spring adjusters backing off we have developed an aluminum lock collar that goes behind the adjuster to keep it from backing off. The nice thing about these collars is there two piece so there seamless to install the other nice thing is you can still adjust your springs without having to remove or loosen the collars. See pics for details. Hope this helps. RPS

Matte Murder · Mar 16, 2012

Those Raptors are sweet, they look like jewelry for the Pro the machining and anodizing are so nice. I am getting the triple rate springs for my Walker shocks with remote reservoirs(with I would have just got the Raptors now) and then will upgrade to the full Raptor set up for the new 2013. The full Holz set up cost me about $1000 and the springs will add a few hundred more which puts me over half way to getting Raptors. Also, going to get the full set up for my 2012 X 163 this year. I am actually really impressed with the X shocks on the ETEC even though the rear skid shock is not coil over but I have been impressed with all the positive feedback that the guys who bought Raptors are posting on here. I am also a fiddler who likes to fiddle with stuff on my sled and those knobs were made for fiddlin'. Stoked!

alt · Mar 16, 2012

Matte Murder said:
Those Raptors are sweet, they look like jewelry for the Pro the machining and anodizing are so nice. I am getting the triple rate springs for my Walker shocks with remote reservoirs(with I would have just got the Raptors now) and then will upgrade to the full Raptor set up for the new 2013. The full Holz set up cost me about $1000 and the springs will add a few hundred more which puts me over half way to getting Raptors. Also, going to get the full set up for my 2012 X 163 this year. I am actually really impressed with the X shocks on the ETEC even though the rear skid shock is not coil over but I have been impressed with all the positive feedback that the guys who bought Raptors are posting on here. I am also a fiddler who likes to fiddle with stuff on my sled and those knobs were made for fiddlin'. Stoked!

SUPER sweet shocks, but as far as fiddlin, i have bad news. You may fiddle with them for the first ride, but once you find the two or three settings for various riding conditions, the fiddlin is over. All i do now is assess the situation, know where my current settings are, and change them for the terrain at hand. Takes about ten seconds per shock. Total fiddlin time.....less than a minute front and back. Sorry, the fiddlin time belongs to the air shock guys with the silly pump thingy. Oh....and the difference between the air, and coil....not even worth taking a full minute to compare them. Thanks!
Dan

Matte Murder · Mar 17, 2012

I have been doing the same with the Walkers. I have 2 basic settings that I use a lot and adjust a little around those just to see what happens. BTW, for guys that aren't happy with the way their sled performs shock and spring adjustments make a world of difference. I can make my sled nearly un rideable very quickly so don't be afraid of changing your setup. Use the recommended set ups in the manual as baselines that you can always return to if you get "lost" and go from there.

mountainhorse · Mar 17, 2012

Dan,

I agree with you on many things... for me though... the Floats have given me rock solid performance... So have the coil spring shocks that I've used (many of them)...I like having an variable spring force on my shocks... And the progressive secondary rate that the EVOL offers... The new bleed shim/piston technology that is in use by Tom's and Timbersled on the Floats is a very big advance in shock design.

Jake has a super promising design that I believe will become one of the big players in the shock world....IMO.. keep your eyes peeled for new shock designs from some unexpected players this year.

To the original question... look for some of the billet deep spring retainer cups that are out there (grip n rip racing etc) or drill your stock cup and safety wire it to the spring .

.

GF2 · Mar 17, 2012

use arctic cat retainer cups for replacement they are 6 dollars next to 38 for polaris ones,

goforbroke · Mar 17, 2012

GF2 said:
use arctic cat retainer cups for replacement they are 6 dollars next to 38 for polaris ones,

Wish I had known this before yesterday:face-icon-small-fro

Search

Front shock issue - no sway bar

goforbroke

Well-known member

goforbroke

Well-known member

Reg2view

Well-known member

Kobane

Free Member

Coleniuk

Free Member

wi.switchback

Free Member

skidworth

Member

Leaf27

Well-known member

alt

Well-known member

goforbroke

Well-known member

RPS

Well-known member

Matte Murder

Well-known member

alt

Well-known member

Matte Murder

Well-known member

mountainhorse

Well-known member

GF2

Member

goforbroke

Well-known member

Similar threads