huunz

I used generic parts house CV boots, the kind that you don't have to remove the axle to replace. Works great on my 650 Sand Spider.

Bummer, they e-mailed me and said they didn't have it. Back to square one.

The coil was bad. Had a spare on the shelf, easy fix. Ordered the valve cover from JMC...

Just checked JMC, they show everything in stock, but I'll call first.... I need to find out if my distributor went south, or if it is something else. If so, i don't want to pay shipping twice. Thanks for the lead!

No, it sucked the oil out into the header, where it burned/smoked, and made it look like an old 2 stroke. I stopped testing before I lost oil pressure, although I burned out about a quart over the weekend. I'd let it go down a half quart, then refill. If I hadn't stopped, it would have probably sucked it all out. It also didn't let the oil in the upper end fall into the pan, so I lost oil pressure on and off after hard runs. On the plus side, the new suspension is awesome, evening out the whoops and soaking up bumps, so the ride is very safe feeling. I was ripping the dunes pretty well. The mess on the lens is oil that spewed out and I didn't catch until I watched the videos.

JMC? Contact info? To add insult to injury, it wouldn't start this morning, we had to tow it with the RZR to the back o the trailer and winch it in, then when i got home, I had to jack it up and push it into the garage for troubleshooting.....

I've been messing with my 650 Sand Spider for a couple of years now, and have gotten a lot more power out of it. I added a Fast Freddie Weber 45 DCOE kit, modified the header, tried a remote filter setup (didn't work), put long travel Fox Airshox on it, lightened the frame, jusat generally did a lot of old time hotrod tricks. One trick i did was a crankcase evacuation setup. I'm out at Dumont now, and it sucks all the oil out of the engine through the exhaust pipe - it works too good! Now I need a new valve cover for a 650 Sand Spider (2 cylinder). Anyone? One trick that did work - I port matched the entire intake. I put rags in the head to keep the debris from falling in, and gently ground out the bores until it was all smooth and clean. Big change! The intake ports were very "dirty", with a lot of random casting slag in the port itself. Anyway, looking for a valve cover.....

Yea, I've got one sitting in my garage unused. I even tried it in the desert hooked to the RV, which will spool up under load, but it didn't work very well like that, either.

The duty cycle is the thing. A 110 welder tends to drag down the whole house, so it can't get full power to really burn it in consistently. If you can keep your wife from using the iron and dryer, and the kids off the TV, maybe.

True, except that sometimes it is broken off way inside (I learned the trick working on Jeep Dana 30 front ends, and we had to stick two welding rods together to even get to the end). It isn't an optimal thing to do to your gears, but we've never had an issue in all the years I've done it. I think it is because the "stick" process is so short, not like welding a bead.

The cracks i found were on my control arms. They had a single push gusset under the shock mount, about the classis location to cause failure. I first straightened the control arms, then gusseted underneath in a pull configuration. I also gusseted the shock mounts on the frame, after i built new shock mounts. Mine is a 650 Sand Spider with Fox Airshox and limiting straps. I cut the entire frame mounted end of the shocks off and built a new system using triangulation and lightweight gussets. It rides higher, has better travel and smoother ride. My last inspection revealed no new damage, so i just painted them back up and will reinstall when i get home from Mexico. I understand Lenny, about your gussets, my welding "instructor" was an ag welding guy, more metal is better. When you have about 19.3 BHP it is not always good to add a bunch of weight I try to analyze the best place to add a gusset, no larger than 3/16 since the tubing is smaller than that and no point in the gusset being bigger than its surrounding metal. Again, you guys have more HP, mine won't make it to the top of the sand dunes even without a passenger.

Another thing on the gussets, don't put them in the center of the tube. Put them on the edge. I use my welding magnets across the tube edges, and then stick the gusset against the magnet, then slide it into place next to the tubing. This ensures the gusset is welded to the tangent line of the tubing, not the center. Gussets in the center can actually cut the tubing in case of an accident. O-O = bad; O_O = good. Also, gussets should be set to "pull" the joint. A "push" gusset will bend on impact, so it you have a choice of gusset location, make it "pull". If you are worried about your welding, the important thing is penetration. The best way to ensure good penetration is prep. Make sure your metal is clean, clean, clean. Get every bit of dirt, paint, and rust off it, then spray it with brake cleaner and wipe it down. Wait for the brake cleaner to dry before you strike a spark. Your welds will look better, and more importantly, get better penetration for more strength. I sandblast, if the part is small enough, or use a flapper wheel, wire brush, or angle grinder. Even a Dremel tool for small areas. Just get it clean.

Just one example, other companies make them too. For the price, you can't hardly make them yourself. http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/Synergy-Suspension-3-x-3-3-Hole-Gusset-p-438.html I've chased so many cracks, when i take mine apart, I sandblast critical areas to find any cracks, then grind, weld, and gusset the offending area. I also seriusly gusseted all suspension attachment points.

I heard all the same stuff about overheating, right after I put my Airshox on. I've run Fox Airshox on my rock crawler for five years now, though, and never had a problem. If you are building a Wide Open Baja car, or a Trophy Truck, I think you should be concerned, but for a recreational buggy, no problem. I put the Airshox on my Joyner a couple of years ago, and never looked back. Yes, you do need limiting straps, and tuning is required, but after that, you are golden. The Shox I put in the Joyner were used, lay in the rain, and had some surface rust, but haven't even thought about leaking. I'm not sure what you do to make them fail, but crashing, rolling over, and jumping are not failure points - ask me how I know

OI didn't see anyone comeing up with a way to get the broken stub out yet. I've done it several times with multple rigs; take your arc welder and "stick" a peice of rod to the center of the broken bit you want to remove. Pull on the rod you stuck on it, it should come out.

So, I've been collecting bits and pieces on eBay for my buggy nitrous system. Kinda fun putting little bits together to see if you can make it work. Crankcase evac really woke it up, by the way.

I found a digital tach on ebay that weighs 2 oz and is not cylinder number specific. http://www.ebay.com/itm/320792296969?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 If it doesn't work, it was only $22.

I am thinking of eliminating the stock car dash in my Sand Spider, and just putting in a tach with a few indicator lights. Here's the rub: where do I get an inexpensive lightweight tach for a two cylinder gas engine? I'm eliminating the turn signals, and putting little LED warning lights for each of the indicators, like reverse, temp, etc., but want to monitor engine speed. Ideas?

Good luck with the new venture! Do you still have the 650 upgrade kit? I never got answers on the requirement to do machine work, and if it includes all the gaskets.....

Are these similar to the pistons for the 650? Will you be lightening the motor as you work on it? I've found a ton of excess casting bungs and holes for the engine to go into the original car application.

A little research showed that the N2O kits with a pair of fogger nozzles and all the parts are more expensive than the Silver Bullet engine kit. And, I'd be adding N2O to an engine with cast pistons.... Maybe Silver Bullet first, then N2O..... In the meantime, I put the evac system partially in place. If I didn't want everything nicely painted, it would probably be easier

Oh, and my crankcase evacuation kit came while I was on vacation, that should add a tiny bit of power ;-)

I was actually thinking, as I noodled it a bit, of two Fogger nozzles, one in each manifold runner, which would provide both the fuel and the N2O. The issue I can see is the size nozzle required may be much smaller than normally used. Here's the math: 650 cc in two cylinders is roughly equal to 1300 cc in four cylinders, or 2600 cc in a V8. That's a very small displacement, and many nozzle setups are for 5700 cc or larger V8 models. The EFi kit, I don't think would work, because the car is a carb setup. Maybe some Joyners are EFI, it would work on that, where you just add the N2O in a nozzle, and have the computer add extra fuel when the N2O is activated. I really don't need the extra power all the time, just at the tops of dunes, so this could be the hot setup until the motor goes completely and I get the Silver Bullet kit. Hmmm....

I have the take-off coil-over shocks from the 650 Sand Spider, as well as the take-off winch, and the take-off air cleaner, carb, and intake. I also got a screaming deal on Dorman universal CV boots, but I had to buy 12, so 8 are extra.