VooDoo Max

Post by **tyler440** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 9:11 am

that looks nice!.... too bad there isnt an easy way to make the "furtherest rear" corners rounded, but looks damn nice in any case... is that aluminium?

Bob Vehring · Post by **Bob Vehring** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 10:59 am

Yes its alum. I agree on the corners, looks to big. I thought about it, I could trim the ends off on the actual bumper then roll the corners, but that takes welding, not something I'm good at. If you look at the pictures of the drag sled both the clutch cover and the fuel tank we made out of flat stock. We rolled the edges then welded the pieces together. Ground and polished the welds so you can't even see them. Right now I just don't have time to do that, maybe later. If this new cyl. project doesn't happen sooner, I'm thinking about just honing the old ones and putting in, if it blow, it blows. We have snow

Bob Vehring · Post by **Bob Vehring** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 11:44 pm

Here,s photos of the engine in and the new seat on. yes the haze in the air is two stroke smoke

yamaharis · Post by **yamaharis** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 9:01 pm

you have that sled done yet? nice looking job so far.

Bob Vehring · Post by **Bob Vehring** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 10:08 pm

It was close, now elec problems, Its posted in the garage

Bob Vehring · Post by **Bob Vehring** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 1:50 am

+++++++++FIRST RIDE+++++++++++

Not bad, no major problems, well except for tipping it over and braking off the mirror.. Need to work on jetting but I knew that was coming. dangerously lean in midrange cruise..
I knew the pilots were to small, takes quite a few pulls with full choke even in the warm shop to start and has 700-800 EGT when idling. I set the warning lights on the gauge for the low limit to go off at 1000 and the high warning to come on at 1200. Half throttle or more took it right over the limits 1250 - 1300. Would fatten up some at WOT so I hope just a bigger main should do it. It is cold here now 2 or 3 deg.
My friend kept telling me these have to much port timing stock and porting it would only make it worse, he was right. Its a pig from a dead stop, nothing I can do untill I get the new cyl's done. I think I will shim the primary spring to get the engagement up some and just live with it for now. My SRV has this problem too but not as bad. Power wasn't bad once it got wound up but the SRV did walk away pretty good above 60.
I think I was right on the water temp gauge problem, the after market gauge never moved, not even a little, the small hose never got hot, and I know that gauge works, and my stock one went up when I put a lighter to the probe. I don't think enough water flows through that little hose..
Here's the only other issue I found. The only headlight bulb I had was a Halogen, but the high was burnt out, only worked on low beam. The hand warmers really dimmed the lights, didn't mater if they were on hi or low. Most of my sleds have the same standard hand warmers as the VM, They all get warm, but not really hot. I read that at some point the VM got a separate coil for the warmers, mine doesn't have it. Altho the VM is worse, they all dim the light some. So, heres the strange part. My SRV has the old style warmers, don't know who made them but they have a slug that goes inside of the steel bar. It only has on and off, it takes awhile to warm up through the bars but they get so hot that they will burn your hand if you don't have gloves on. Even on very cold nights, you can't keep them on all the time. My SRV is an '81, don't know much about the light coil but the warmers are just tied into the headlight wires. This sled has a 60/100 Halogen lite and it also has neon lights on it. The lights never even flicker when I turn the warmers on or off. So s the issue the coil doesn't put out enough juice, or is the problem the newer style warmers suck more juice? Hard to imagine because these barely got warm, the others way to hot. Has anyone tried running warmers without that resister block in line, the old style doesn't have one, maybe thats bleeding off the power. My concern is I want to put a 100 watt light on it but don't know if it has enough juice.
Now the good news. I wasn't really happy with the Pol. Xtra 10 in the SRV, put to much ski pressure on it. We changed how we mounted it when we put it in the VM, Rides much better, very neutral handling and felt great, not bad on very rough trails. I would like to find one step lighter torsion springs, even on the lightest setting, a little hard for me at 170 lbs. I'll re mount the skid in the SRV to see if I can get it to improve.
All things considered, I was pretty happy, no leaks, nothing fell off, nothing broke change some jets and take it back out.

Post by **Vmax540** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 10:02 am

Cool... you provide loads of good testing and ideas ! You didn't say but, the old Vmax does not want to come out of the hole with any less than 4200 and better closer to 4500 Rpm's. Finally..... someone had the insite to figure the non working temp gauge problem now all we need is a solution to retro-fitting the old girls. The handwarmers on the Vmax even the with the seperate hand warmer coil do not get really hot unless you are riding at a steady speed and distance. The resistor is only for Hotgrips low setting and yes, it can be eliminated. Do you self a favor and get a can of expanding weather sealing foam then, drill holes in the end of the hand warmer grips big enough to insert the cans nozzle then fill your handlebars. This will help retain the heat of the warmers and help deaden any handle bar vibrations ! Using a red LED tailight will help by saving wattage for the handwarmers. Ps. where did you get that awesome red seat top ?

Bob Vehring · Post by **Bob Vehring** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 11:11 am

The clutch comes in at 4000, just sort of creeps in, doesn't engage hard, I'll probably just shim the spring for now. I don't really care about the hand warmers that much, but I do want a killer headlight, I seldom go out during the day and like a good light.. Not sure f it has enought power for the big bulb.
IDK on the brake lite, mine didn't work, thought it was working in the shop but only tail light last night. I want to find that article on LED lights. I have an old Honda 70 pit bike I use at races, doesn't have a batt in it anymore, when you hit the brakes at night the head lite goes down to a candle. That gets scary at times.
I'm pretty happy for right now, power is ok, handling is no different then the SRV meaning its tippy, but fun. For now, just going to sort out the jetting and use it. I need to get one more sled running. Wendy wants her '81 Eltigre 6000, which has been pissing me off for two years, I want to put here on a '73 Columbia, she's afraid she'll be to slow, but its cool. I put a Prowler 440 in the El Tigre but didn't have the prowler pipe, its a slug. I need a Prowler pipe, but am afraid to go out and buy one for much money because I don't think it will fit in the chassis. Just can't seam to find one laying around to try..
Wendy made the seat, it has the same flames as on the side stitched into the top. She's good at that stuff, just hard to get here to do it. She has a normal job

Post by **tyler440** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 11:32 am

here is the link to the led test we did....

http://www.vintagevmax.com/ledbulbtest.html

watch it, it might give you a seizure!

Bob Vehring · Post by **Bob Vehring** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 1:15 am

Well, were back to things not making any sence, but thats becoming the norm. I think I did set a new, all time low. One completely full tank of gas, gone in 32 miles, flat out empty.

The first time out it was very lean in the midrange cruise. Admit tingly not having a handle on these power jets yet, I increased the main from 330's. Wanted to go to just 340's but was out.of them, in went the 350's. With in a mile, I saw the midrange hadn't changed at all, which tells me the limitation is in the needle jet and needle. I raised the needle two notches on each side. This brought temps down but one side was still hotter then the other. I raised the PTO one more notch and things evened out. Temps were now 950 to 1150 while cruising.
Now the odd part, it is very poor on low and midrange power. I really have to have my thumb in it just to cruise at 35, I'm sure thats the reason for the extremely poor gas mileage. I would like to blame this on over porting, but my SRV is also very over ported for trail use and because I didn't move the needles on it, was also a bit richer for the temps that day, it had been running around 800 deg all day and is still pretty snappy in the mid range.. Any how, I put on about 40 miles like this and had no problems.

I needed to get back to the city for my show and left the sleds in the lot for Regan and his girl friend.. He was busy with customers, his 120 engines did outstanding in both Snow X and ovals. They didn't get out on the trails until after the races were over. Regan took the SRV and put Dee, who is really not a snowmobiler, on the VM. Not far into the ride, the Max started backfiring on the PTO side Backfired enough out the carb to catch the back wash gas on the floor on fire. Regan got the fire out with snow, no real damage. Sled fired right back up but continued to backfire so the towed it back. I was at the show all day today and haven't looked at it. Regan did do a comp. test and both sides pulled 125. I guess I'll tear into it tomorrow

agfirecat · Post by **agfirecat** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 9:45 pm

be careful with those big main jets i think i red a post on here some one who had parted a lot of vmaxes that were blown up they found that the carbs had anywhere from 320-360 mains in them.

Bob Vehring · Post by **Bob Vehring** » Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:33 pm

I'm ok with jetting. Found tonight my problem is elec. Spark comes and goes, well mostly goes right now. Not the ext. coil so my guess is the problem is again in the stator, possibly my solder joint broke again. I had nothing better to do then pull the engine again tomorrow anyhow

Bob Vehring · Post by **Bob Vehring** » Sat Jan 16, 2010 9:07 pm

Heres some pictures of soom of the family at a vintage show today;

Ok, what idiot put Nitrous on a go kart?;

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Wed Jan 20, 2010 2:12 am

Did I missunderstand you?
Why are you pulling the engine to get at the stator?

I have pulled my stator several times but only pulled the engine once. That was to lubricate the steering and clean the pan when the oil line broke.

I drilled holes in the frame next to the starter to get a 1/4 inch socket and extension on the starter bolts. Once the starter is out, I drilled a hole to use a 1/2 inch extension on a socket to get the crank nut off with a air impact wrench. I used a short puller to pull the flywheel. I could reach the phillips head screws holding the stator through the drilled holes. It is a pain to take the right side cover, the oil tank and all of the exhaust pipes off to get at the starter.

Bob Vehring · Post by **Bob Vehring** » Wed Jan 20, 2010 10:05 am

Thanks Joe. I have been in there once already. I pulled the clutch and pipes, then took out the bolts for the motor mount. I then could lift the right side up enough to get everything clear and work on it with no problems. I didn't have to drain the water and deal with that mess. I ordered a stator from Chuck so will start on it in a few days