rails repair 101,......

there is ONE-BIG-STEP that i over looked in mentioning, and again im REEEEALY SORY ABOUT THE MISSING PICS. after i got my rails from the welding shop i took them to the mechine shop, they milled the surfaces of the plates&welds, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, as well as had the "slots" the axel go's through milled out to just SLIGHTLY larger than the diameter of the axel, That was only $40.00,

wow, those are great ideas, both my brother and i are seasonally getting our rails welded up do wear damage, i think this summer we will be going this route, looks like a good solid job that is going to last hopefully longer than a season! i guess thats the price for aggressive riding!lol...

Quality fix for a common problem. Good work Dave. I know my dad has been struggling with the same problem for sometime. Also he managed to crack one of his rails nearly in half.

Good job Dave! Lot cheaper, and stronger than a replacement skid.
What did you use for the bushings in pic 5? Is it something common?

This is my fix for that problem
Get a 1/2" steel angle iron that looks like an " L " cut it to the length of the opening where the axle goes. Drill and bolt it onto the inside of the rail make sure the bottom of the " L " contacts the axle shaft. The flat of the angle will help support the axle. Last thing remove ( 1/2" and a bit ) from the top side of the spacers nearest each rail. Make sure the steel angle rest on top of the axle not the spacer.

Might cost $8.00 and can be done with suspension in sled

Great fix if you skid is to this point already, but to keep this from happening, regularly check your bolts and re Loc-tite them and tighten. The red removable loc-tite works much better than the blue stuff.

Ace-xlt, what's up,?... ya definetly are right, P R E V E N T I V E, MATAINANCE IS THE KEY, i gotta add my 2 cents in, the blue loktite has a tendance to be more forgiving, the red (imo) and experance, is to strong,

Iv never seen the bushing trick befor,I have a rail with a reamed out hole.. Its just a matter of finding the perfect sized bushing.

I just recently bought a 95 XLT SP and found one of the front holes where the swing arm mounts was egged badly causing the entire skid to be off center and the track was rubbing on the tunnel protectors. Well, what I did was make a special bushing (wish I had pics) that was one piece that replaced the spring clip bushing, the washer, and the bushing for the egged hole. I then milled the hole to the proper size so the bushing is tight and re-assembled. works excellent.

Two VERY important things to remember:
1. The bushing must be slightly thinner than the rail so the entire assembly will tighten to the rail without the bushing becoming loose again.
2. Depending on the purpose of the hole, it MUST be drilled at the exact location of the original hole or the suspension may not run centered in the sled. This will be nearly impossible with a standard drill bit. I work in a machine shop, so I used a CNC milling machine to precisely repair the hole.

Just my $0.02.

For bushings everyone uses is a Ski leg bushing cut to width and installed as per snowmobile_dave. Check regularly and red loctite and no problems

You guys could of found new or used rails for around that price and not had to rig everything. Just did this on sons 01 sno-pro brand new rails on ebay for $100.00 for both. Not bashing but giving my 2 cents.