Work on Ski-doo Safari

[hydro]

Great info from all!

I'll add one little thing that has saved my rear on many occasions. Acquire a 9 X 13 baking pan and do all of the work over the pan. If you drop anything it falls into the pan and is easy to find!

I pick up pans at the swap meet in the summer and keep a few around the shop for just this purpose.

[Surface Tension]

Good tip on being neat and organized. Adding good lighting and in my case cheater eye glassed.

With carb cleaner that could spay out a hole your not expecting it to, protect your eyes.

[leech~~]

I use a pair of the Magnified cheap head set ones from time to time to see if any of the holes are pluged or the needle is scarred or pitted. You can by them at just about any of the cheap tool outlets. Maybe we should all just get together and rebuild this darn carb! Oh I think we are!

[hydro]

Good call Leech!

[leech~~]

Great info from all!

I'll add one little thing that has saved my rear on many occasions. Acquire a 9 X 13 baking pan and do all of the work over the pan. If you drop anything it falls into the pan and is easy to find!

I pick up pans at the swap meet in the summer and keep a few around the shop for just this purpose.

Which Swap meet do you go to? The one in Monty at the old apple orchard? I swing by there a few times a summer myself!

[hydro]

Leech, I hit both Osowski's in Monticello and the Wright County meet west of Annandale a few times each year. I'm kind of a swap meet junkie and I find all sorts of good stuff at them!

There is also a good one at the Medina center on Sundays.

[Pinusbanksiana]

That model of ski-doo is notorious for wearing out the carb needle and seat. This makes starting very difficult, if you don't get it started on the first prime it is not forgiving and will flood. This will require you to hold the throttle wide open and pull and pull and pull until it starts. Get a replacement needle and seat, only prime it a couple of times and they will run forever. I have a ski-doo similar to this one, if I do this it starts on one pull, even after sitting all summer.

[leech~~]

Leech, I hit both Osowski's in Monticello and the Wright County meet west of Annandale a few times each year. I'm kind of a swap meet junkie and I find all sorts of good stuff at them!

There is also a good one at the Medina center on Sundays.

Yep, mom has a cabin on little Indian lake so I hit them both as well during the year, may have to check out the Medina one. Sorry for getting off subject!

[fivebucks]

Another question. I replaced the primer and she started right up and would stay idling for a few minutes before killing. I pulled the carb out and will clean that up. My question is the end of the carb that comes from the air intake has a small tear in the rubber housing between the carb and the air box. There are no rips or damage on the rubber boot that leads to the engine. Will this hurt the engine or the performance? My initial reaction is that it would not but I figure it's best to ask. Also how do I tell what type of Mikuni carb this is? I cannot find a model or part number anywhere on the outside of it.

[Surface Tension]

The air box is there for a few reasons. Silence the carb, keep the snow out of the carb by the location of the air intake and foam filter. The air restriction the airbox has is taken into account with the carb jetting. If you run the engine without the carb hooked to the air box it will run lean and damage your engine. The air leak between the carb and air box should be fixed but it is not as bad as an air leak between the carb and engine. I'm not positive but I think VM34 and don't know what size jet.

How did it run after the cleaning?

[fivebucks]

I haven't cleaned the carb yet. I figured I would get a new needle and seat as long as I have it torn apart so that was the reason for asking about the model number of the carb. I will also add the airbox rubber boot to the parts list and then I should be good to go. Thanks again for the help.

[fivebucks]

Thanks for all the help, especially your "book" on carb cleaning Frank. I finally got the parts in and had the time today to finish this job. The machine ran great around the yard and idled fine. I will have to wait until next weekend to open it up.

[Surface Tension]

Good to hear you got it running.

[fivebucks]

One last question. My sister and bro-in-law have used this sled over the years and say that it overheats and shuts down after a while in mid 20 degree temps. It is a fan cooled machine and that seemed odd to me. They were riding with one and sometimes 2 people on it. Is that normal on fan cooled sleds? Thanks!

[swamptiger]

Some of those old SkiDoos had a separate belt for the cooling fan - there is a shroud on the side of the engine that covers the belt. Don't know if yours has it or not. Otherwise, it could be plugged with a mouse nest or something. I would pull the shroud and take a look. Those old SkiDoos never die with a little TLC...good luck.

[Surface Tension]

You have the fan with belt. You'll see the fan up on the side of the heads. As said make sure its spinning and check for mouse nests.

If your carb was dirty and running lean it can overheat.

Wrong plug. I believe that would be a NGK BR9ES. 9 being the heat range and on a Japanese plug The higher the number the cooler the plug.

Cracked carb boots will suck in air and make your engine run lean.

Start adding a combination of those and you will have problems.

Haven't heard of problems with the oil injection but just keep an eye on oil use and and exhaust.

If you riding two on a groomed trail that sled can handle that.

Ride two in deep snow working the heck out it and you might overheat.

[fivebucks]

Thanks again. The plugs I pulled out of it were NGK BR8ES and I put in the 9's as the manual says. The fan is spinning so I will see what happens in March on LOW.

[leech~~]

Thanks again. The plugs I pulled out of it were NGK BR8ES and I put in the 9's as the manual says. The fan is spinning so I will see what happens in March on LOW.

As stated earlier I had two "Safari's and the only way they would shut down when over heating is because a piston seized up! This happened two me on both of them and after a while you just have to rebuild the heads. Sometimes a piston that over heats to a point will stop the motor but if you let it cool down you can restart it and limp home. I have a friend with one of them and it happened to him about three years ago and he never rebuilt the head. He didn't want to tell his wife about it because of the cost to rebuild it and now he lets her drive it because she never goes fast enough to build any heat. I know this happen because he was trying to follow my in deep snow on a lake with my long track and his just stopped. We got it going again and he has never rebuilt it yet! So they will run but I would keep the speed on a lake down or it will happened again and each time it only makes it worst!

[Surface Tension]

"March on LOW."

There are snow conditions that should should avoid.

When that snow becomes so saturated with water and there is no binding structure in that it offers no flotation and you end up plowing through it.

It'll also look like grains and not snow flakes. I'm talking snow depth of 8" or more and under perfect conditions it can happen.

Sometimes it will be firm in the morning and then the bottom falls out later in the day after it melts.

This will cook a fan cooled engine.

[fivebucks]

I'm taking her up fishing this weekend to LOW so we'll see how she runs. I don't think I'll be working her too hard. I will watch the bad snow later in the year (ATV time then) and hopefully she doesn't overheat on me. They haven't ever had it overheat below 20 degrees so I will be safe this weekend.

[fivebucks]

Time to revisit this post. The sled wasn't running good - it had no power the last time I used it at the end of last season. I pulled the carb today to clean it again and noticed the airbox is partially broken where the carb boot attaches to it. There is a hole about the size of a quarter and it also is cracked on the top of the boot. Now the worse news. This part is no longer available so I will have to try to fix it with resin or something. Anyhow I cannot figure out how to get the airbox out of the engine compartment. It looks like I will need to remove the seat and gas tank to allow enough space to get it out. That leads to my question: How do you remove the seat and gas tank? I will in the mean time try some snomo salvage places to see if I can get lucky. Thanks in advance for any help.

[Meat-Run]

Fish bucks where do you live? There is a chuck guy up in Pequot lakes/Nisswa area that used to have a bunch of older sled parts I might be able to dig up a number if interested??

MR

[Meat-Run]

Sorry.... Fivebucks

[fivebucks]

I am in metro area. No need to be sorry Meat Run. This has probably turned into a summer project now as I will not have sled ready for LOW for next weekend. I think finding an old Safari for parts might be a long shot but the internet is a good tool anyhow.