03 Mountain cat 900 163"rear suspension questions

teddybear26x

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I recently purchased my first sled. I am learning as I go so please bare with me.
I finally got tired of been beat up on the trails because of what seemed like a phantom rear suspension problem. I would start the day with a nice stiff rear end. After about 5km on the trail I would notice that the back end would start to sag. Than it would feel like I was riding on the track. I would get off bang it around, thinking ice build up, and nothing. I started to go home, it would pop back up and be all good again. Next time I went out, nothing would work well all day. Next time, back to the phantom problem. After doing this a few times I finally decided, after to talk to a few of you, it was time that the shocks be rebuilt. A quick talk with the previous owner confirmed this. So I got my shocks redone.

While taking the skid out I noticed that I must have broken 1 of the limiter straps last time out. So I order a set of those according to the OEM number.
I pick them up and and go to put them on my sled. they are about 1.5 inches shorter than the ones that were currently on the sled. Another call to he previous owner, he has never changed the original straps.
Why are the new straps so much shorter??? They don't stretch, do they??

So with some help of a buddy I got these limiter straps on and everything back together. I push down on the rear. WOW, and can almost bottom it out with 1 hand. REALLY soft, but I know the shocks are good cause the rebound is smooth and fast.

So the question is, Are my limiter straps to short now and causing to much preload that there is no down motion resistance from the shocks OR are my rear springs just shot? is there a test you can do to tell if the springs are good or not? If the limiter straps are too short, what problems will I have or damage will I cause if I leave them the way they are?

Sorry for the long one, just figured a back story was needed for proper answers.
 

teamgreen

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If I remember correct the skid shock has a spring, try tightening that up a bit. Also on the side of the skid there is an adjuster for the torsion springs, spin the adjuster to the next tighter setting and try that.
 

teddybear26x

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I have the front rear shock spring tightened up a little more than Half and the torsion spring cams are set on 3 already
 

teddybear26x

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Thats what I was thinking.
One more question. Looking at the Brown's Leisure's Online OEM parts list.
Why would the right torsion spring(OEM#2604-044) be more expensive than the left one(OEM#2604-045)????
 

Modman

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post some pics of your rear susp setup. Either the rear mount is too far forward or the springs are not tensioned correctly or the coupler arm (if there is one) is in the wrong spot. Something is wrong - You should not be able to fully compress the rear suspension by just pushing on the tunnel.
 

teddybear26x

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ok after yelling and screaming for a few days I went out to the shed again today. I moved the front spring arm mount up a hole. There were 2 holes 1 inch apart vertical on the skid. Re tightened everything down. Same thing super soft. I said screw and went to work on some small things under the hood. Ihad to pull my sled backwards to get to the front ( small shed/shop) and when I yarded it backwards about 2 ft I felt some tighten, I pushed down on it and it was stiff again. Not as tight as I want it, but it was tight again. 2 arms with 3/4 body weight and it went down about 85%. I already order some new springs that will be in next week so I'll put those on and hopefully she will be good to go. I can't wait to get out. Been almost a month. Thankfully they are calling for about 35cm over the weekend. So please leave some for me when my weekend rolls around on Tuesday.
Thanx for all the help guys.
I'll try to post some pictures anyways just to make sure this isn't some sort of temporary fix that just happened.
 
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