polkaudio

Great job. One thing I'd like to point out about bolts. Typical Stainless bolts are weaker in shear, which is the situation here, than grade 8 so they're not a very good choice of fastener. The only time I'd use stainless here is if they were ARP. But I'm not sure you really need stainless since this assembly is covered and coated with oil. And one question. Why did you use a ball mill on the backing plate to make the tapper for the bolts instead of a carbide countersink? Tool availablility perhaps? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to dump on your article, I thought it was very informative. I hope I never have to do it, but now that I've seen it done, looks to be not too bad of a job.

Those look great. How do they wear? Faster or slower than steel?

Remember to not use bulbs greater than 30 watt, otherwise you'll overload the stator. If you want more, then look into going HID or LED. This will require a battery, a rectifier regulator, and a stator with the ground floated. This isn't a hard job, quite a few people including myself on this board have done it.

It's standard type threads. Don't forget to look at the condition of the locking washer. If it's bad, replace it.

Just a thought. Have you checked your intakes to make sure they're tight? With it idling, spray carb cleaner all around the intake area. If the idle jumps, you have a vacuum leak.

Yep, that's where garbage flat is, behind the store. That area is huge and can get very dusty due to the amount of people that are there. It's basically a large mesa, hard pack for the most part so getting stuck isn't an issue. It's pretty much the closest camping place to Olds.

Ditto to what Matt said.

They are only because they are paved. There's also a huge dirt area near the store and along both sides of the canal where camps get set-up too. Then there's the Washes East of the store. A recent shot on Google Earth during a busy weekend should show all that. One thing that's been noted about the Wash areas is if you're too far East of the store and end up having to cross the Railroad tracks with an OHV and a CHP is there, they will ticket you. Some BS about now it's illegal to cross the tracks. As far as your question of BLM patrolling. They don't patrol the dunes, they cruise the camp areas looking for tickets to write. If you don't have a valid pass displayed on your tow vehicle, you get an expensive ticket.

The closest towns are Brawley and Holtville. These are small rural farming towns, and I can't speak for what's available for lodging or what shape it's in. You might want to go on Google Earth or something similar to check it out. No matter what you do you'll need a pass. They're available at the ranger station. Have fun...

Then you should edit your post to state it's sold.

I have Sand Skate 2's which are very similar to the SandStar on my shee and they work great. I don't have any problems turning or hooking up.

That looks like a variant of a Dean Sundahl frame. I wouldn't mind seeing close up shots of the front arms from different angles.

I bought the +2 extension from Vito's a while back. Did this before spending money on an entire new piece and I love it. The front stays on the ground more than before, but it's not too much to prevent wheelies. I don't even notice it when duning, it doesn't prevent me from turning than when I had the stock length arm on.

Then you're lucky. I ran one of the small plastic type with the bronze inside and it didn't seem to affect anything. On the last day of a trip I broke. Took the top end apart and found one piston destroyed and the other was okay. Did the top end, took it to the desert to heat cycle it and it ran terrible. After making sure I didn't screw something up, we checked fuel flow frmo the tank to a gas can, with and without the filter in. The flow even with a brand new filter was half than without. My shee ran way better and I've never put a filter back on since.

Looks very cool. Any idea of how well that paint stands up to gas and cleaners?

You can't check voltage output on an engine that's not running. You'd need to either install your stator on another Shee or take it somewhere that's capable of testing it. Are the ground connections secure?

I did this a couple of years ago but haven't been able to get out to the dunes much to try it out due to performance issues. I started out with an Ricky Stator unit with the ground floated already so it was a simple bolt-on deal. I cleaned up the harness to simplfy it. The TORS was already removed when I bought it so I removed all the un-needed wiring. I have an 8.5" Vision X HID for the dunes and a 30 watt Trail Tech flood for cruising around camps. I wired a relay for each light off of the stock light switch; low beam for Trail Tech, high beam for HID. I cut out the tool kit holder and radiator reservoir and a buddy made a battery box from aluminum. I'm happy with the whole thing for the most part. I'll be even happier when I get my shee running right. Pulling the RS stator and putting the stocker back on for now to determine if it's the stator that's bad like other here have found.

I'll be there. Wasn't going to, but things changed so I can.

With EPA and California clean air laws, the good shops I knew of are gone. There's a shop in old La Mesa short of by Carl Burger Dodge that seems to do good work. A friend had the front end for his duece done there. It looked pretty good to me, but they took forever. Kept telling him one story or another of why it wasn't done. There's also a place in Escondido that does all sorts of metal finishes, but I don't remember if they do chrome. Have a card for them some where.

Yes, I have a battery. The draw of the HID is only about 8-10 amps max at start up, then it drops down to about 2-3 when it's running.

And no cracks in the paint either? Is fusion a paint brand?

I have a single Vision X 8500 with a Trail Tech 55 watt halogen camp light. Works pretty nice, just have to get the POS Ricky Stator fixed or replaced because she won't run much past idle. Thinking of just floating the ground on my stock stator. Anybody know if this will work or is it too much of a load?

So to use the stock plastic outer cover, I guess one would need to remove the heat shield that's inside it?