How To Change Your DD Track.

[silverram323]

Many have asked how to change there track. This is how i did it on my 09 XF8.

1. Take your belt off. Take your bolt out of the secondary, flip around the belt adjuster and tighten your bolt again, this will spread the secondary enough to take the belt off.

2. Take the belt guard off the foot well. This will allow the DD to slide out.

3. Take out the 1/2" /13mm lock nuts off the DD case. 8 of them

4. Now its time to loosen the track. take a 9/16 wrench and loosen the jam nut.

5. Loosen the long 9/16 bolt a ways back so the rear idler wheels can slide forward to make more room.

6. Take a small screw drive and pop off the little black cover to access the bolt that holds the rear idler wheels. take 2 9/16 sockets and loosen the bolts.

7. I used a come along to lift the rear end of the sled.

8. Now take the spring slide off and reposition the spring so it is off the triangle. this will relax the rear suspension so its easy to take out the skid bolts. (CAUTION: SPRING WILL HAVE TENTION, CARE MUST BE TAKEN)

9. Now take out the rear suspension bolts. 9/16"

10. now take out the front bolts, there is lock nuts on the inside. 9/16"

11. now slide the skid frame out of the track.

 

[silverram323]

12. Put the parking brake on, grab a 16mm and 16" of extensions and now take out the bolt in side the brake rotor. Use a magnet to put the bolt out.

13. Now its time to pull the DD case, grab the shaft for the secondary and give it a good wiggle, It can come out hard, so use caution if you pry on it.

14. Go to the back side of the brake rotor and take off the the 1/2" or 13mm lock nuts off. 5 nuts.

15. Now the drive clogs will fall and give you room to take the track off. It will give you a hard time and it wasn't easy but it can be done.

16. Grab the new track and slide it back in there. I did it by my self so i used a jack to hold up the driver clogs and then lined up the brake rotor studs, then put the DD case back in. Tighen all Nuts on the brake rotor then on the DD case.

17. While the skid was out i put new slides on and greased it up.

18. put the skid frame back in, rear first and then slide the front in.

 

[silverram323]

19. Time to put in the front skid frame bolts. I used a 55 gal bucket wheel thingy to lift the front up to line up the holes.

20. Put in the rear skid frame bolts in and tighten ALL 4.

21. put the belt guard back on the foot well.

22. Put the secondary clutch back on and put the belt on.

23. Tighten up the rear idler wheel bolt up a bit and follow cats track tightness directions, don't forget to tighten the jam nuts and idler wheel bolts. 9/16"

I did all this all by myself and only took 1 hr 10 minutes and I took Pics.

What did i miss?

 

[1rarel78]

Thanks for the pics. On the newer m-sled it looks like you don't have to take the brake assy off . Is that correct? On my m7 it was a ***** getting the trackshaft separated from the brake. I am about to put a dd light in my 07 m8 and that makes things a whole lot easier. Unfortunatly I already baught the socket to remove the brake caliper.

 

[1rarel78]

after reviewing the thread again I was mistaken,unfortunatly I will have to remove the brake assy.

 

[sierraclimber]

Awesome job! Very helpful, I had to remove the trackshaft on my 2010 and this write up was just the ticket.

A little hard to find when searching so heres a bump with some keywords.

Arctic Cat Diamond Drive removal, M series Trackshaft removal, how to change the track on M8. resent:

 

[Shelfrost]

Nice post up! Thanks for taking the time to take pics and post them.

 

[MAINJET]

:face-icon-small-ton

That was a great how to! You should offer your services to Boondocker and some of the other outfits that cant write:smash::smash: instructions...

 

[Frostbite]

Excellent!

I will be using your instructions shortly.

Thank you

 

[sksnopro]

Thank's for the post. This will be very helpful for changing out the buddy's track. Damn single ply cobra's.

 

[hatchers]

-the drive shaft cent bolt is not a 16mm, its a 5/8"
-its a bit hard to leave the drivers attached and remove a large lug camo X 2.5....im sure it easy on a trail track

 

[jaxondean]

Any hints on taking off the funny but on the brake side to drop the drivers?

 

[jaxondean]

Nut - not but. Lol.

 

[mr p-j]

it is possible to change even a 2.25" track the way that is described here whit removing the break caliper.
i have done it.
a neat tips to make things a lot easier is to put the sled on its right side after removing the diamond drive.
just lose the front right skidbolt before you tip it and your all good.
much easier to handle the track and driveshaft. much easier to handle the skid as well.

 

[F_ast]

it is possible to change even a 2.25" track the way that is described here whit removing the break caliper.
i have done it.
a neat tips to make things a lot easier is to put the sled on its right side after removing the diamond drive.
just lose the front right skidbolt before you tip it and your all good.
much easier to handle the track and driveshaft. much easier to handle the skid as well.

Yes. It is a little more of a bear to squeek the lug past the belly pans, but it is not that bad. I have done it a few times.

 

[jaxondean]

Just finished a track swap using these instructions. 2.25" out and 3" in. I thought I would need to take the drivers out to get that 3" in, but I found the key to the swap. Make sure that once you take the nuts from the inside of the tunnel, to release the brake from the bulkhead - thus dropping the drivers down, you lift the brake disk out of the indent in the belly pan and slide it to the outside of the right side of the sled a few inches. This allows the drivers to fall a few more inches then otherwise would be allowed. Warning though - I screwed up the wiring harness for the speed sensor by not getting it fully out of the way. It would of been simple to snip the zip tie that holds it and pull it fully out of the way.
This whole process sure is easier with a friend helping out.
Man am I stoked to give this thing a try. Just waiting on the KMOD suspension to make this track hook up.

 

[WyoBoy1000]

Good post, thanks. It should be a sticky

 

[Stack]

Good post, thanks. It should be a sticky

Great thread, it has also been posted under "Popular M-Series links" for over a year now.

John

 

[kidwoo]

I'm going to bump this up because I'm at a bit of an impasse. I'm trying to change a track and my brake rotor is NOT coming off. I borrowed a 7ton gear puller and ran out of strength and leverage to even thread the thing any more. I put so much force on it, I was getting scared I'd bend or break my rotor.

So I tried this method of just dropping the DD side down with the brake caliper unbolted. I got the 2.25 PC track off but there's no way in hell the 2.5 CE is fitting in there.

WTF is up with that brake rotor? After stressing over the peened nut for so long, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference because the rotor won't freakin budge.

 

[akstormin]

I just did this, swapped out a 2.25 for a 2.6 powerclaw. With the Diamond drive out and the brake rotor still attached, I was able to get the 2.25 out (which was a struggle to be sure) then I put the sled on its right side and was able to get the 2.6 in there in less than 10 min. The hardest part was getting everything lined back up to mate the DD and drive shaft back together. With 2 guys it would probably all be a lot easier as the weight and stiffness of the track is constantly working against you. So it can be done, and I did it without forcing anything or trying to bend the crap out of the lugs. Good Luck.