Changing the track

[hj1515]

1980 340 Invader

Is changing the track a real nightmare? Any tricks to the trade?

[F500-92]

Kind of a PITA if you've never done it before.  Looking back, its not horrible. 

Drain chaincase
Remove speedo driver
Pop the chaincase cover and remove the sprockets. 
Remove the left side bearing retainer.
Lift the rear really high
Remove the 4 bolts holding the skid in place and pull the skid.
Then it takes some shimmying to move the driver shaft towards the left side and then drop the right side down.  The portion of track that was on the ground I pushed forward and it opened it up the track giving more room to work.

Now if you area replacing the old track with another invader track, great.  Its pretty straight forward.

if your putting in a newer track with outside drivers, this is where some extra work must be done.  The invader only has 2 driver wheels and 2 idlers on the shaft.  The idlers have to be spaced outboard to clear the outer drivers on the track.     I had some thin wall aluminum tube on hand that fit perfectly over the driver shaft.  I cut 2 spacers 3/4" long (if I remember correctly).  The right side you can slide the idler off and slide the new spacer in.   The left side, I split the spacer and opened it up to slip over the driver shaft, then secured it in place with a hose clamp.

same goes for the idlers on the skid but I didn't mess around with those. I swapped in a Polaris Indy skid because the Invader skid was pretty well tweaked, a cross shaft was rusted in and I didn't want to try to figure out how to space out the rear idlers.    Indy skid was the easy solution for me.

For the Indy skid, I used the stock invader cross shafts since the indy ones were too short.  And then I used the spacer tubes from the rear skid idlers to make spacers for the cross shafts to keep the skid centered.

[hj1515]

Thanks

Great info

Interesting on the Indy swap ..

[gixxer6]

This is normally a relativity easy job.  But it can go horribly wrong quickly.  I have had the 4 bolts that hold the skid in twist off.  I have found all of the shafts seized in the skid.  I have found cracked brackets.  All of these things can make for a bad day...but all should be fixed regardless.   

[jimvw57]

Also the stock track can be put in place backwards allowing it to slip on takeoff, but stop real well.