Bulkhead/tunnel damage

[RIDEFST263]

Hey guys,
Looking for some opinions on what to do. The sleds a 16 axys rmk 800. Not sure how it happened but here it is.. The cracks around the bearing cup area are not all the way threw, just on the outer casing. It’s also bent out some as you can see from the second picture. I’m thinking I’ll have to get a whole new tunnel/bulkhead but, I wasn’t sure if it could be welded or maybe someone makes a plate I don’t know about. Thanks

 

[mtncat1]

i think that could be welded ,but im no expert at welding . i think most of the load is carried around the opening

 

[Clarke673]

id suspect that your sleds bent more all over its just not very obvious or much. Not much to weld there, and if you touched it with enough heat to do anything the lords "glue" will probably need replaced. Time to look all over and make sure nothing else is out of place/square

 

[b-litt]

Kurts Polaris makes a plate for that. I’ve done the same thing you have pictured. I now run the reinforcement plates on al my sleds. The downside is that you have to remove rivets to change the driveshaft. The plate is secured with the driveshaft bolts and additional rivets.

 

[b-litt]

One sled I did this to had a bent bulkhead too. It caused the driveshaft to be out of alignment. I didn’t realize it until it was put back together. The quick drive belt wouldn’t stay centered on the sprockets and would wear the side of the belt. So that one ended up needing a new bulkhead.

 

[Murph]

Hey guys,
Looking for some opinions on what to do. The sleds a 16 axys rmk 800. Not sure how it happened but here it is.... I’m thinking I’ll have to get a whole new tunnel/bulkhead View attachment 361733View attachment 361735

Hard to tell from the photo if the damage was from below (smashing, landing on, riding over a rock) or if it was caused by a massive frontal impact.

It can be fixed. I had a thin plate of stainless plasma cut and bolted to the inside of the tunnel— to avoid the need to remove rivers to take out driveshaft like Brent (b-litt)was talking about with Kurts kit.

If it took a big frontal impact, check the bulkhead casting for stress/ straightness before straightening the tunnel. At this point, there are plenty of tunnel/ bulkhead assemblies floating around that you could just swap everything over.

No matter which way you do it, it’s a big job. Not particularly difficult, just time consuming and labor intensive.

 

[Clarke673]

its also not the end of the world! I was hopeing someone who knows more about axys products would reply as im stuck on the "old iron" chassis's lol. You could look into an IQR drive shaft bearing cup. its a larger unit...

One sled I did this to had a bent bulkhead too. It caused the driveshaft to be out of alignment. I didn’t realize it until it was put back together. The quick drive belt wouldn’t stay centered on the sprockets and would wear the side of the belt. So that one ended up needing a new bulkhead.

B Litt your spot on! I built some adjustable rods to align my PTO side side jackshaft and drive shafts as i glued my Ice age c case into my pro/axys project. I then built adjustable rods that slide over 3/8" allen head bolt heads to check, adjust zero to .00 . So for my next build i can just walk up to a bent chassis. hit it with a blow torch, hammer, and adjust both sides out to 0. Or if its mid season and i wad the sled up... this way i don't have to strip the whole damn sled down -in theory. (LOL We will see)