Some people attempt to do this modification WITHOUT removing the pole. I preferred to do it with the pole off so I could easily work on it. My recommendation is to remove the pole.
Remove the chinpad by removing the two screws coming up through the pole holding it in place (10mm socket). |
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Find the two connectors highlighted in the picture and disconnect them. These are for the stop/start buttons. They disconnect just behind the carbs, between the carbs and the electrical box. This picture was taken standing on the RIGHT side of the ski looking down in the hull. The front of the ski would be toward the right in this picture. DO NOT CUT ANY WIRES ON THE STOP/START ASSEMBLY TO REMOVE IT...YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THIS. |
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| Unhook the throttle cable (A), the steering cable (B), and remove the cable keeper (C). You will also have to loosen the bolt holding the steering cable in place (not shown, but it would be below where this picture cuts off, further down the pole) and slide the steering cable out of its mount. |
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Slide the accordian boot off the cable keeper where the pole attaches to the hood. Make notes on what cables went in which holes, and remove them all from the cable keeper.
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This picture just shows the stop/start wiring pulled loose and ready to be pulled up the pole.
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Remove the nosepiece cover by removing the two phillips head screws on either side near the pole pivot point. Slide the nosepiece cover forward to remove it. This will expose the large bolt that goes through the pole and mounts it on the bracket. Remove the nut, and thread the bolt out. Slowly remove the pole, making sure all cables slide through easily and don't get stuck. |
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Here's the pole on the chopping block, ready to go. Throughout this tutorial, I'm referring to the black piece at the bottom that the mounting bolt goes through as the "boot"....not sure what the proper name is, but that is what I'm calling it. |
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| This bit works great for cutting fiberglass (Dremel 561 Multipurpose Cutting Bit) and is what I used to cut my pole. |
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| Wear proper eye and breathing protection while doing the cutting.....it generates lots of fiberglass dust. Cut carefully around the boot, making sure you cut all the way through the fiberglass. This will shorten your pole 1 and 3/8 inches. If you want an even shorter pole, you can mark the pole a little farther up and cut there. Just be sure your cut is straight. Use the bracket as a guide. |
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| Close up of the cut. |
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| I used a hacksaw to quickly cut through the styrofoam that is inside the pole. |
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| Pry out the leftover styrofoam. |
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| Drill the heads off all the rivets. |
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| Knock out the rivet pieces with a hammer and punch. |
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| Begin prying out the old fiberglass that is glued into the bracket. You have to get all of this out to get a clean fit when you slide the pole back in to remount it. If you are careful, you can get most of it out in big chunks. |
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| Close up - prying out the old fiberglass. |
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| I used a small screwdriver, and drove it in behind the stubborn pieces with a wooden mallet. |
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| This step was the biggest pain in the butt of the entire process. My ski was not cooperating...the old glass was not coming out as easily as I had hoped. |
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| Keep at it until the bracket is completely clean. Slide the pole back into the bracket. Make sure it goes in all the way, and rests on the stops inside the bracket. |
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I actually cut my pole twice. After I made the first cut, I slid the pole back into the boot, then repeated this process. That way, I was sure to get a nice straight cut using the boot as a guide both times. As this picture shows, exactly 1 and 3/8 inches are removed from the pole each time, so my pole is shortened 2 and 3/4 inches from stock. |
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| Slide the pole back into the boot (don't glue it in place yet!!) Temporarily mount the pole back on your ski. (don't worry about the wiring or the spring, just put the bolt through the pole). Test to make sure the pole is lined up correctly in the boot. If it is off by a little bit when it slid into the boot, that could make the handlebars off by quite a bit one way or the other. Make sure when the pole is resting on the hood that it is centered. If not, pull the pole back out of the boot, sand off some of the bottom of the pole, then re-test until the pole is perfectly centered when it rests on the hood. |
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| I wrapped masking tape around the pole so when I used sandpaper to rough it up, I would not rough up the part that will be visible. Everything below the tape will be inside the boot when I put it back together. |
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| Scuff up the part of the pole that will go into the bracket with some rough grit sandpaper. Trim the styrofoam back about one inch, so you have room to easily get to the bolts you are going to use to bolt the pole into the boot. |
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| Finished trimming the styrofoam. |
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| Another shot of the finished styrofoam. |
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| Mix some the JB Weld according to the package directions, and glue the pole into the boot.. Let it sit overnight so the JBWeld can harden. When it has dried, drill out the existing holes where the rivets were using a 1/4" bit. The existing holes are JUST barely smaller than 1/4" so it doesn't take much to drill them out. Drill all the way through the fiberglass pole when you drill these holes. Bolt the pole to the boot with the 1/2" by 1/4"diameter bolts and nuts, then remount the pole on the ski, feeding all the cables back up through as you re-mount it. |
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Here is a shot of the bolts looking up into the pole from the bottom.
That's all there is to it! Hope this was helpful.
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