Chaincase Breakdown

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FLYBOY

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Attak 3000 kms

Applied the brake at about 70km/hr and whole drivetrain quit with alot of racheting noise from the chaincase.

All this on a trail in Quebec. Had to be towed by another Attak for about a mile to a place where I could leave the sled over night. $700 later after a car rental and a return trip back with a truck and trailer got the sled back home.

CHAIN TENSIONER in the chaincase fits over a tapered post. The post broke off and the chain tensioner fell off. The chain was racheting on the drive sprokets. Where the post broke off, a hole was left which allowed gear lube to leak out.. Appears that in attempt to lighten things up the chain case has been designed poorly. This post for the chain tensioner is only supported on one end-- alot of pressure on this little post. The chain tension had all been adjusted to spec and the lube changed at 800km. No evidence of a problem until the catastrophic failure that left us high and dry on the trail. Check under your chaincase-- if there is any evidence of gear lube leaking it could be from the cracked post-- a failure might be immenent.

Pretty Frustrating :o| :o| :o|
 
WOW!!!! That's the first I've heard of that. Thanks for the "heads up."
 
The tension was never checked between 800 and 3000km??? may not be the cause but seems like a long interval for a high powered sled. i tend to check mine frequently after my buddy blowing his in his SRX at about 100mi. hopefully your dealer will take care of it quickly for you!!!
 
Sorry for confusion
Lube changed at 800kms, the chain tension checked weekly--- in this case everything had a once over prior to this trip-- 2 days before the failure.
 
thank you for the clarification. I thought maybe there was a lack of preventative maintenance. Hope i didn't offend!!
 
Flyboy,
Now for the bad news. Start polishing your motorcycle for spring if you have one. I lost a seal then lost everything else in the chaincase of my GT. That was over a week ago and the parts are all on back order with no delivery date. Who knows if I will be able to ride my sled again this year???
 
rhoag said:
Flyboy,
Now for the bad news. Start polishing your motorcycle for spring if you have one. I lost a seal then lost everything else in the chaincase of my GT. That was over a week ago and the parts are all on back order with no delivery date. Who knows if I will be able to ride my sled again this year???
Click to expand...

That IS bad news....I fear the same thing has happened to me at 3,000 miles....symptoms sound exactly the same....heading to dealer tonight and will post findings tomorrow.

When the racket started, we checked the chaincase oil level and found none....hoping for the best (owner maintenance neglect), we added a tube of gear lube only to watch it ALL drain out as we tipped the sled partially on it's side to check to make sure the track wasn't locked up....

I would REALLY like to take one more trip this year....it will be interesting to see if the parts are on backorder and if my dealer offers to dismantle an available sled.....
 
Well, here it is another week later and still no Apex GT sitting in the garage getting ready for next weekend. I have had to call all my riding friends to let them know I still have no word on when my sled will be repaired. I called Yamaha lack customer of service and they located one of the two remaining parts I needed and supposedly shipped it. They were supposed to call me back Friday or today with word on the last part, still no call. Anyone want to buy a real nice GT with hand guards, shock covers, 05 wheels on the inside, Polaris wheels on the front, oil and filter changed at 41 miles and 760 miles, 100% synthetic 75 weight gear oil in new chain case (well soon), antifreeze reduced to 60/40 with water wetter, FI synchronized at 480 miles. Total of 1,000 miles on sled (not even broken in yet)!!!! for oh lets say 9600.00 i'll write a receipt for what I feel the apex GT's are really worth!!!! save you some tax dollars. Oh and I will throw in a new Yamaha cover only used 5 times!!! and some dollies! Such a deal.
 
I just recieved the call from Yamaha customer service. It appears that the last part I needed that had a release date of 15 March was located and shipped this afternoon. now why did I have to call Yamaha after my sled was in the shop for 12 days to get these parts. When they were first ordered they were back ordered with no release date, then slowly the dealer started getting dates until last Friday they got the last release date of 15 March on the last part. That's when I called customer service. So if your chaincase or any part in it goes and the dealer doesn't have a date for the part call ASAP and raise Heck!!!! Now I am really not to pumped about riding my sled. I was out in the garage most of Sunday cleaning, polishing and doing minor maintenance on the R1. Bring on spring the first NESBA track day at Road America is 4/20.
 
Just to add to the list. I met up with a guy last week in Amqui. His RTXhad blown a chain case. Last day of our trip my friend's Attak let go.
 
im headed to rimouski,matane,mont st pierre area on friday,hope my rtx holds together,.......question..do these sleds that are blowing chaincases have studded tracks,really aggressive clutch kits,hard landings with hi track sppeds,etc ? some good hard launches on the ice with a studded track will sure put a load on the chain tensioner,mine is not studded and im in no way saying that the weak point in the chaincase is caused by hard launches or even hard pounding ,im just wonder in the next 3 days b4 my 5 day trip to quebec if i should teardown and inspect or i should be ok,i didnt think they changed the chaincase design from last year to this year and i work part time at a yamaha dealer and have never seen this problem,maybe we just havent seen enough miles on the machines yet and they are just now showing the problems,i'll check my 05 and 06 update books to see if it says the chaincases are different and if they are i'll write back in.....keep us posted of any more chaincase disasters
 
just checked my update books for chaincase differences and found that the 05 went to a magnesium chaincase outer cover and a hollow chain tensioner to save weight,then in 06 they changed the solid pin that holds the chain tensioner to a drilled pin(save weight i guess) so depending on how deep they drilled the center out it would weaken the area where it actually attached to the inside of the chaincase,less material less strength,inner case is made out of magnesium also for 06
 
170plus said:
im headed to rimouski,matane,mont st pierre area on friday,hope my rtx holds together,.......question..do these sleds that are blowing chaincases have studded tracks,really aggressive clutch kits,hard landings with hi track sppeds,etc ? some good hard launches on the ice with a studded track will sure put a load on the chain tensioner,mine is not studded and im in no way saying that the weak point in the chaincase is caused by hard launches or even hard pounding ,im just wonder in the next 3 days b4 my 5 day trip to quebec if i should teardown and inspect or i should be ok,i didnt think they changed the chaincase design from last year to this year and i work part time at a yamaha dealer and have never seen this problem,maybe we just havent seen enough miles on the machines yet and they are just now showing the problems,i'll check my 05 and 06 update books to see if it says the chaincases are different and if they are i'll write back in.....keep us posted of any more chaincase disasters
Click to expand...

In my case, I am NOT studded and do very little "jumping". I do run the lakes fast and hard, but not really spinning the track type stuff. Mine "let go" with 3005 miles on the odometer. My guess is, and until tomorrow when the dealer let's me know for sure it is strictly a guess, that in Yamaha's quest to shave weight with every ounce they could find that something was changed inside the chaincase.....we'll see!
 
hey snomonut.........in the update manual from yamaha for 06 its shows a pic of the 05 inner case compare to the 06 innner case and the pin where the idler pivots has been drilled for 06 so like i put in my last post i think the effort to save weight maybe lost a little strenght in that particular area,your dealer should have the 2006 snowmobile technical update manual and you will see the pics on page 1-93 right at the top,hope this helps
 
Thanks 170plus! My dealer is pretty creative at making a "fix" without all the necessary OEM parts....I fear that parts availability is going to be an issue with this. I'll let everyone know his findings tomorrow!
 
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