Greetings and welcome!
The trip to Lakewood, Townsend, and Carter found pretty nice conditions on the railroad grade along 32, and conditions that ranged from good to dirt along the roads.
The forecast hasn’t changed much, except the GFS has swapped the big warm spell a couple of weeks out for much colder weather, and a shot at some snow from a series of weak systems coming from the north. IF the weekend storms surprise us and bring meaningful snow, it will probably stick around for a while. That is a big IF.
The warm weather for late week is still on track, though the NWS forecast of mid and upper 30s seems a little conservative.
As shown the first storm would have a rain/snow line in far NW MN, and to the north about halfway between Lake Superior and Hudson Bay. The only good part about it is the storm is shown weakening as it gets here, so we aren’t talking about 1″+ rains.
The second storm still has the low tracking about 200 miles too far north. If it did shift tracks favorably, it would be a 2-4 or 3-6 storm according to current guidance.
It was a very full day Monday so by the time that I got to look at a snowmobile the sun was at the treeline. I was pretty irate about it. The best that I could do was a couple of victory laps around the driveway on the Indy Trail when I moved it from in front of the work shed, a few more on the RXL as I pulled it in, and a couple later to test it.
The RXL runs and starts really good, but still has a little bit of a flat spot in the acceleration. After dinner I serviced the secondary clutch, checked the primary over pretty closely and lubed it, cleaned both fuel filters, replaced a couple of lines, and dialed in the throttle position sensor a little closer.
It had an aftermarket belt on it, so I went on a mission to see which Polaris belt that it should have. A search of the net yielded no belt reference, even on the Polaris parts lookup. I took things into my own hands and made one per the Version II 85-95 service manual and made it a page under the tech section and updated the RXL page.
I have another interface board coming to hook up the EFI computer to the laptop, and that will dial in the TPS exactly and tell me what the sensors are telling the computer.
I ordered some LEDs that I will try to use to build a 3 across noid light that will tell me when the injectors are firing. My other tool purchase is a high pressure fuel pressure gauge that will tell me fuel rail pressure and pump condition. All told it ends up being about $40 in parts and an hour or so of fabrication. That isn’t bad for what will end up being a pretty thorough set of diagnostic tools for the RXL and Indy 500 EFI.
If the EFI checks out I can start testing stuff by substitution. I have known good replacements on the shelf for just about every part on the sled.
My RXL adventures are a hobby. I get some guff about it, but I am one that wants to know all about stuff. The sled actually runs great other than a little flat spot, and it is nice looking. I would be very surprised if it didn’t start on the second pull every time, and I wouldn’t hesitate to ride it 100+ miles tomorrow.
Once I get the injection really dialed in I have custom remapped chips for it, supposedly from a brand name racing team. There are also a couple of donor sleds sitting out back with Xtra-12 suspension stuff and updated chain cases that might happen some day. It is trail ready now, but I might be tinkering on this one for a while.
That’s today’s visit. I’ll be back tomorrow, hopefully with better news on the weather. Have a good Tuesday and thank you for visiting!
RJB
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