Ever seen a drive shaft break like this?

[Walleyehooker]

Was coming across lake of the woods yesterday and the snowmobile broke down. Didn't take long to figure out what was wrong but was surprised at where this broke. I had to replace this shaft a couple years ago do to bearing failure but this one broke in half. Worst part is you couldn't tow it on the track so we had to improvise a bit. Go ahead with the Cat jokes as I am ordering a new Ski Doo.

[ncesi]

Yep did the same thing to a Jag long track way back in the bush up in Canada about 1995. I must have hit a solid piece of ice on the lake and snapped it in the middle. It was -25 that day so I am sure that contributed to the damage.

[CaptainMusky]

My jackshaft snapped just like that on a 2002 zr800. What I believe happened was the front arm shock would make contact when the suspension fully bottomed out in the front.

It completely ruined a trip in the UP for me. The first day riding and it broke.

Other things to look at are track tension. If its too tight that can cause issues.

Nice improvisation though!

[MN Mike]

Never personally had it happen to me but I have seen those jackshafts break like that back in the younger days when we use to ride hard and bounce off of rocks, dirt lumps and ice chunks, it didn't take much to put a very slight bend on the shaft and eventually break it.

Mike

[leech~~]

Oh great, I get a Cat after all these years and about 10 sleds and now this may happen!

Glad you guys got off the lake ok. Any fish?

[Walleyehooker]

Fishing was just OK. Had a fish fry and brought home a limit so that was good. Also having nice weather and not freezing was a bonus.

As for the Cat being a 1998 has been pretty bullet proof other than these driveshafts. But it only has a little over 3000 miles on it. Still be a good sled for the kids to run but it wont be going to Lake of the woods anymore at least not with me on it. Im getting a nice comfy grandpa sled with reverse and the rest of the comforts.

[fishersofmen]

Weird. My neighbor has the same sled (99 zl600), he went up to two harbors a week ago and 5 minutes into the trail his crankshaft broke in half between the engine and primary clutch. The clutch just fell off. He was rather disappointed.

[MN Mike]

Weird. My neighbor has the same sled (99 zl600), he went up to two harbors a week ago and 5 minutes into the trail his crankshaft broke in half between the engine and primary clutch. The clutch just fell off. He was rather disappointed.

The most common cause for that is a burnt belt ( grabbing a bunch of throttle with the brake locked or the sled is froze down ), it can cause pins to shift on the crankshaft or the PTO end to break.

Back in the day, we had many ZL, ZR and Powder Specials equipped with 500 or 600 cc engines and none of us ever had an engine failure, I took my ZL 500 to over 5000 miles before I sold it, rock solid sled.

Mike

[leech~~]

When ever I have seen a shift with a line like this. The shaft had cracked at one point part of the way and then cracked the rest of the way later. It doesn't really make a lot of difference as it still broke. But it may not have all happened on one day?

Here's an example.

[Walleyehooker]

I looked at that right away and it almost looked like a flaw in the shaft/metal. But like that pic shows it probably started as a crack on one side and sheared off from the other side. Funny thing is the day before I heard a strange sort of grinding noise but seemed to go away as I warmed up the machine and ran the machine on a stand to run out the track. After looking over the clutches and belt and suspension I figured it was just ice built up in the tunnel which is not uncommon. I havnt tore it apart yet but I hope none of that grinding was going on in the gear/chain case.