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I've been reflecting on an experience I had a few years ago on a snowmobile forum. I had joined and was lurking and reading through old threads because I had just gotten an old sled that was still in excellent condition, and I was trying to sweeten my good fortunes by doing a complete motor-out of the frame teardown on that old sled, to replace any worn parts and replace old grease & lubes in every single moving part on it. This was a unique place in that there were two Admins there, one who seemed to be intelligent but didn't share with others in the forums at all... he would post industry news articles and such and he seemed to be focused on providing interesting things for folks to read and he managed the upper levels of the site, keeping the place orderly and insuring stray threads got moved into proper categories. He had good command of his skills, was a professional and reasonable fellah. The other Admin was very outspoken and was posting everywhere. He liked to talk about politics and guns in as many threads as he could and he came across as a demanding personality, who used language that was very raw and taunting, often provoking. Everyone seemed to be afraid of him and his Admin powers. He was the kind of person that expected everyone to bow down and agree with him, else he'd belittle them & attack them personally. I saw that happen a couple times to members, as I lurked & read through the site looking for information about my old sled. I noticed that there were two very knowledgeable members in that forum that seemed to provide the majority of the help & advice to thread posters & new members asking questions. One of the members posted often, while the other member rarely did, but it was obvious that they both knew their stuff. Despite there being thousands of other members on that site, most of the active chatter's stayed out of threads where a person was asking for assistance. The outspoken Admin pretty much ignored folks asking for help in new threads too, until a thread became hot, then he would show up and dominate it, he'd derail it all.... so he could brag about scaring the poor guy he just pulled his pistol out on that day and threatened to shoot. Or he'd bash Hillary or Obama some more... rant & rave about what so & so lapdog just said on CNN... or he might attack a thread starter by accusing him to be too stupid to be there. That Admin appeared to be a psycho mess... and I learned that he lived in the main city of the county that I had once lived in, which cemented my perceptions of him... I hated that county and it's peoples, they were snooty, arrogant jerks with holier than thou' attitudes. I had escaped to the UP to become free, now many of those disgusting old memories began flooding back in... polluting my pristine new to me paradise mindset. So anyway, I stopped reading the overbearing paternalistic psycho Admin's rants and raves and continued on with my sled refresh project. I ignored him, but since so many threads in that forum were also being ignored, and so many folks were arriving daily needing help... well, I began to respond to empty threads and new threads wherever I felt that I might be able to answer a question, or provide the person with some direct assistance. Soon every new thread in the forum was receiving a welcome and a few replies. I kept quiet most of the time in threads where the two expert members showed up, they were both knowledgeable & experienced, I wasn't nearly as much... but I posted in almost all of the other needy threads daily. The psycho Admin fellah was being good to me in threads and hadn't attacked or threatened me. He was punching the Like button often and he even sent me a thoughtful PM, thanking me for helping out with this 'n that. He asked about my past experience with sleds in PMs, what did I do for work and where was I from. I answered him truthfully but did not share that I was from the same area he lived in. I simply omitted that part of our conversation. 🙂 The best thing that happened to me during those first couple weeks of posting in the forums though, was the fact that many other members seemed to loosen up and many of them began to contribute inside new threads, which really added a lot of value to those threads, I felt. You see, I know two stroke motors very well, but I am no expert on all things snowmobile... I was grateful to see other long-time members begin to chime in to help. Some members even began to respond to new threads as soon as they posted, often arriving first to welcome & beating me to them. 🙂 We were having fun in there and the forums were zipping along. My project bargain sled refresh was almost complete too, with still two months left to go before first snow would land in paradise, da UP....! Life was looking really, really good! Then one day out of the blue the psycho Admin attacked me in a thread, accusing me of being a democrat! I have no idea where he came up with that idea cause I never talked about my views on the world, or mentioned politics or shared anything about guns or anything else that he was interested in. I had kept my head down and stuck to business, I hadn't ever shared anything unrelated to sleds or motors. But he came after me firing questions so I told him the truth, bluntly, that my views are apolitical. I told him that I do not vote. I told him that I don't pay any attention to any politician, I distrust AND dislike them all. Honest truth! My views are apolitical! He went off on one of his rants and called me a liar and a Killary supporter right there in the forum thread. So I logged out and left the forum. Never said another word to him, just bailed out. The next day I logged in and began to post in assistance threads, as usual. The psycho stayed away from new threads all that day, but I saw him ranting and raving about politics in another section of the forum in the afternoon, and read him bragging about shooting at someone in his back yard that one time way back then... about an hour later in another thread. So I decided to bail out early. Hoping to avoid the psycho, I logged out before supper time. That night he sent me a nasty PM demanding that I explain how I felt about the republican party. He asked me if I owned any guns. Do I shoot them. He demanded that I show him pics of my guns if I have any, to prove to him that I am "not a stinkin' commie killary lover" in his words. He cussed me up pretty good in that PM.... and it !!!! me off big time! I saw his PM notification from the forums land in my email inbox, so I logged in to respond to his PM, telling him that it was none of his business what I might own. I stated bluntly that I pity ignorant fools such as he. Leave me alone. I didn't cuss at him either... I just dismissed him. By the time I woke up the next morning and logged into the forums, psycho-macho had gone through every post in every thread where he had ever supported me or praised me in the past and had deleted all of his thoughtful comments. 🙂 He also had worked all night to toggle all of the "Like" button presses that he had ever awarded me during those recent couple of months, and he had toogled all of the "Like" button presses that I had ever awarded to him too! He also had deleted all my posts in every thread in the forums where I had quoted his words, and deleted every post in every thread where he had quoted my words too. Psycho-fool had scrubbed and scrubbed hard all night long to remove all references within the forums between himself and myself! Hahah... I am dead serious folks! He really did work very long and very hard at it! I had a couple gazillion posts scattered around in there! All prior love was now burning hate! 🙂 A couple hours later that morning I received another nasty PM from him. I saw the notification hit my inbox, but before I could open my PMs to read it.... psycho Admin BANNED me. I read his final passage from my inbox: "I am going to shoot your !!!" I went back to that forum about a year later to look around and see if my old psycho buddy might still be banging around there or not? But I couldn't find him anywhere. The only posts that I could find by his username were very old posts. I saw no posts that mentioned him either. So I assume that someone might have pulled the plug on him and set him free? Either that or some person shot the gun-waving psycho dead in self defense before he could shoot another innocent victim? Either outcome is fine with me. ------------------------------------------------- Nothing folks, And I mean NOTHING! -- Is ever worth fighting a fellow human over. Whenever I hear someone speak those words, (politicians, all of them do it)!!!! -- I instantly am aware that another disgusting psychopath believes that I am STUPID! Don't ever fight with anyone again, you're both being incredibly stupid! Psycho-macho ain't adult dadgummit!

This is a situation where commentators on forums can (and often do!) become very hazardous to your financial health. 🙂 To be honest, I cannot be 100% sure that your rod is bad. I can't see it and feel it firsthand like you can, so you've got to judge the value of my replies and toss out anything I say that runs counter to what you can see and feel yourself. I want to believe that your rod is fine. So do me a favor and answer two questions for me, please? Look inside the bore of the top of the rod using a light... clean the bore out first and look it over really good. Can you see any galling in there? Can you see the factory cross-hatch honing marks in the metal, is there any place inside that bore where the cross-hatch pattern is worn through, to leave the bore smooth & shiny? Thanks.

My herd.

Can you upload to drive.google.com and send me the link, I can add to our huge stash of manuals, pm me if you need help on doing that!

Dude', @SlammedRanger is the sprocket guru , I just tagged him , he should be along !!

2014 TRX420FM 2004 TRX350TE 2000 TRX450S 1985 ACT250SX 250SX has been sitting in the lower level of my barn for about 8 years now with lots of dust and grime on it!

No problem bud! Always glad to help!

As an awareness... You seem hesitant to tear the engine down further w/o being sure it's bad. You can split cases w/minimal effort if you have it stripped down and inspect everything inside. From bearings to gears to anything else. Slap a new gasket on it and put it back together w/o messing with the crank. Give you a chacne to check your pickup screen and be sure everything inside looks good. I can think of one seal you'd likely have to replace(Front output seal for front driveshaft) as it'll likely get chewed up a bit. YOu just need to lay the case on its rear(I made a stand out of some scrap lumber I had. Still use it for this and that...lol. Its in the garage getting kicked around undder the bench)

Yea we are getting a warmer day & sunny after a messy evening/night. Right around 40F, good day for a drive to the ocean 🌊

Uploaded the manual and sent you a PM with a link to google drive

Your response seems a bit vague & unsure but if you are confident then you may as well run with that crank & rod. In your video you were checking that rod wrong anyway.... wobbling the wrist pin inside the bore of the rod determines nothing... ya gotta push & pull vertically to determine if there is any slop in it. So I'm gonna support your opinion of it. Lets move on.... replace the cam chain, the head and get the jug rebored with a new piston kit in hand so you can ride it!

i had lots. The afr would never dial in, never start proper, ect...once I went to. Carb & no electronics.. no issues...

@Wheeler truck sounded healthy on the dyno! What kind of problems did the efi give you?

Thanks to all for welcoming me here!

Here is a pic I found , the 450 head is on the right , 400 on the left , you can see the difference in the combustion dome

I'll bet you have, just not in boots. 😬

I also have a 2020 Rancher. As far as I know 2014-2021 is the same. I have a manual for 2014-2019 that is 229 MB which is too large for me to post. I would be happy to share it if someone gives me some direction on how to do it.

The big long return spring should be sitting on a seat at the bottom that holds the needle down in place. Should look like this. 2 parts the plate and the smaller spring.

If they are stock. 14/39. A 13/39 will be good for your 22 tires. Or you can go 14/41 but if your doing the 22s for ground clearance that would be counter productive. So i would just drop the front to 13. You wont have to modify anything. Case saver can stay the same.

i take it, these were tresspass hunters on your land ? if so, I've been there many times, now the friends / family members that pay to hunt on our land do the checking for me, they even let me get firewood off there home places (if need be) so it's a good deal for everyone.

no no, these guys are close friends, and family members, but yes some have attitude, lol.

still have deep snow around my place the old 300 just didn't have enough to make it threw. Had to get the foreman and the winch and rescue the 300

Mine were $1450 and I only live on 1.75 acres.

You know of a video that shows a good rod? Because I honestly do not think I will find a USED Rod with less play than that. And I’m at a point where I just don’t know if I can swallow the price of a new rod. The play I show is nothing compared to his when I tried it. His wrist pin also you could feel and see the gallow. In my old wrist pin it is not seen or felt. Using my digital caliper when I measure my old wrist pin to the new they are on par for measurements off by .001” if that. The valve cover was still on it so couldn’t see the guides, seats etc.

Come on guys , I just listen to two songs and had to delete both them with in seconds , we are trying hard to keep it clean , no cuss words in the music , if you hear it , let me know so I can delete it , I'll slip myself , so many versions of the same songs ---- I know it is hard , so much cursing in the music today @Wheeler @_Wilson_™

THH , if you ever want to rid your self of that ATC250SX that has been sitting for years and taking up valuable garage space , let me know first , LOL

Another bicycle project has found me --- this time going dirt bike , using a jack shaft set up , the engine will drive the OEM 7 gear rear sprocket and make it a shiftable 7 speed This big tire bike is so easy to pedal thru grass and rocks , I kind of hate to modify it Put 8 miles on the last project bike yesterday , which I need to come up with a name for to distinguish the two , beautiful weather

that's a slick old classic dodge.

Amanda Shaw Is awesome!

https://youtu.be/uMMIdOGxBTU

Wow, Crazy timing. My work frequently takes me past Wounded Knee.. and I literally just stopped 5 miles from there when I saw your Redbone post. Of course for anyone reading this that doesn't know, Redbone had a song titled "We Were All Wounded At Wounded Knee".

Yeah! Mongolian Metal!

They have several of their song with English singers "adding to it" but I prefer the originals

Uriah Heep Live is a great album.......especially the opening song "Sunrise"