300/440/550 keepin another 550 alive

[cookn]

Just wanted to share some pics of my 550. I just finished a budget rebuild on the motor after melting a piston at the end of last season. I didnt want to sink alot of cash into it so i found some pistons on fleabay for 20 bucks each with rings. i had an extra cylinder with a decent bore at 1.5 mil over. i honed it out, and sandblasted everything. i bored out the cases and put everything back together and fired her up. nice.

 

[cookn]

I also made my own fuel pickup to replace the crappy plastic one. just some 5/16 brake line but it worked nicely. after searching and trying many different products to seal up gas tanks, i think i have finally found the miracle product called Q bond. You use a powder provided then put the super glue on that and it turns rock hard in about 10 seconds. we will see if it stands the test of time

 

[Mr Bojangles]

Looks good. Even got the PJS hood on!

 

[Sanoman]

Looks good. Even got the PJS hood on!

l just noticed the hood,use to have one on my old 550!

cookn,IDK if you have tried this,but l have fixed several old kawi tanks by heating up the area you want to fix with a small torch till the area almost becomes clear and placing a another piece of a junk gas tank in the spot till it heats up.Heat up slowly,take your time and it will bond itself together.lt may take several times to do this,so you don't allow it to get too hot.MAKE SURE THE GAS TANK IS WASHED WELL AND NO GAS FUMES ARE LEFT.AND MAKE SURE TO DO IT OUTSIDE!

 

[cookn]

Thanks for the input guys. My hood is actually a butch's ski shop hood, really close to the pjs style tho. They look way better than the stock hood and were designed to flow alot of air, but with that comes the water to. i have a few tricks in there to keep the water away from the carb. Thanks for the tip sanoman. That tank was originally plastic welded by who ever converted it to internal fill but that was probably in the early 90's haha, so it just leaks a bit from the front. If this doesn't work i guess that is my last option, but fire and gas tanks is always a last option ha.

 

[cookn]

Got to finally test out the ski. there was a little snow this weekend but that never hurt anything haha. It ran well until i lost spark.The problem was the pins on the end of the wires coming from the stator are worn out and don't want to stay in the plastic connector to the ebox, so the ground ended up pulling out. Im going to wire in a msd connector

 

[cookn]

Time to revive my thread. So three months later that motor gave up when the flywheel key sheared and dickered up the nose of the crank pretty good and melted the flywheel nut right out the cover. Thats ok though because that motor lasted longer then i thought it would on a 10 year old crank and crappy pistons, in which are still in decent shape. It also cracked one of the crank bearings in half. In the meantime i was able to get my hands on a nice parts ski with a good 440 crank and jetinetics charging flywheel, and a bunch of other goodies. I am just waiting on new crank seals and i will have it all back together.

 

[cookn]

 

[cookn]

I have a JRE intake spacer and a 44mm intake manifold for sale if anyone wants to convert to the 44SBN. This is one of the best mods i have done IMO. I also have a couple of 44SBN in varying conditions that i can jet for the 550. I have all the little items that make a ski complete, if you need anything you cant find, i may have it so just send me a pm.

 

[cookn]

This is the sbn 44 setup i have for sale. 150 bucks takes it. The carb needs a throttle shaft rebuild. I cant ship anything by mail due to the strike right now.

 

[cookn]

My new motor runs amazing. I finally got my crank seals in the mail after the canada post strike held them up for a good month. So currently im running .75 over bore, and jetinetics charging flywheel, i ran all new wires from the stator and put a brand new wsm charge coil in. Finally i have a ski that charges, its so nice not having to worry about the battery anymore. The the light flywheel is awesome, the motor is so much snappier now. I don't understand why they made the stock one soo heavy. I am now using the butchs half pipe manifold, as it was in better shape, but kept the factory pipe chamber and it seals up nicely now, where before i had problems with pipe coming apart there.