It turns out that if you ride in 35 degree weather at home to check everything out and then get up north where it's 5 degrees at best, your sled does not run the same. I went into the weekend with the main and pilot jets one size below stock along with a S&S can. (I knew the main jet had been changed but not the pilot...this comes into play later in the story.)
We got up late on Friday night and decided to unload and ride up to a restaurant, planning to do the majority of the riding the next day. Sled started right up and I let it warm up for about 10 mins. Once on the trail it had no low end. Lots of backfiring and it kept falling on it's face. If I could get it above about 50 mph it was crazy fast. I knew something wasn't right and suspected that it was probably running lean. Decided to park it and haul it into the dealer first thing in the morning. They confirmed my suspiscions and I left with a bigger set of main jets and the regret of knowing I was going to be tearing apart my sled in 5 degree weather. Got back to the cabin and proceeded to change the jets. Not too bad considering the conditions. Fired it up and got pretty much the same results. Seemed a little better but not enough to ride. Now stumped, I called the previous owner who happens to be my friends brother and he explained that both pilot and main had been changed.
Frick....Back to the dealership for more parts and in search for a very small screwdriver to change pilot jets. At this point I was thinking I should be feeling guilty about holding up the group from riding but my other buddy was in the process of fixing the 2nd of 3 problems he also had this weekend so I had some time to tear it down again and change them out.
Got the new pilots in and it ran much better. Didn't seem to backfire or stumble and ran pretty good once it got fully warmed up. Needless to say we rode for a while that day but ended the trip short since my buddies sled was limping along and we were afraid it was going to break again. He had already taken the chaincase off to put a bolt back in that had loosened and come out, taken the chaincase off to fix/replace the chain tensioner, taken the chaincase off to replace the broken chain. Yes....that is three times and alot of chaincase oil.
In the end we learned to bring a lot more tools than we did this time and to not bring up snowmobiles that are not reliable. Luckily I am going up again this weekend!
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