Last Monday I thought I broke the chain on my 2003 Arctic cat mountain cat 900. Turns out the lower nut retaining the lower gear had let loose and caused the bottom gear to slide off the splines. There was also no washer on the lower gear behind the nut.
Case is good. When I opened it up I discovered the previous owner did the 15w top gear and 13w lower gear (didn't know about this mod until I researched it on this forum).
The sled is kinda a mut. Has a 162" skid and track. Lower gear had a 43 tooth 13w. I'm heading out to West yellow stone in a couple weeks and need to get this thing in good running order. 15w lower gears are expensive and had to come by used. Should I just put it back together with the correct washer and new nut on the lower 13w gear? Any special tricks I need to make sure it doesn't come apart again?
I should of snapped a photo of the lower gear but I forgot. Sled is over at a buddies place now.
Just space it so it is lined up in the middle of the top gear and put a good chain on it. We have had six of those sleds and that is the set up we ran with no issues.
I actually took a closer look at the 15w chain. The teeth are kinda gacked (my term for no good). I found a whole new 13w chain and gear set locally for cheap. I see the 800 mountain cat run a 20 tooth 38 tooth gear set. Which is what this new gear set is. Should work in my sled I think. Spline count seems to be the same.
There were lots of breakage issues running the 13 wide and higher gearing. West Yellowstone is not very high elevation so you maybe could do alright with those higher gears but the lower elevation also gives you more HP to stress the chain. If you are not too big a guy you may do fine but it is not the best set up for that sled. A 13 wide bottom gear works fine with the 15 top. I guess I have never seen one come off before.