Dantheman's Kitty Cat lift kit.
An email from Dan before purchase stated this:
"1994-2000 no modifications necessary at all to anything
pre 94 you will need to drill the 2 front skiis to 3/8 holes"
After completing the install, I found nothing needing to be
drilled on the skis, but did find the track lift plates needing 2 holes
drilled for the center mount bolts. In the first picture below is exactly
what comes in the kit delivered to your door
Again this post in no way do I claim ANY responsibilty for
anyone else working on their things... this is just pics of my
install Please use safety when working with any and all tools
and support whatever you are working on correctly and safely
First step I did was to loosen and remove the 6 side bolts
holding the stock track plates on
Next I safely and securely raised the rear of sled and lowered
the track assembly
I then loosened the rear track adjusters and the 6 side bolts
that retain the rear cog axle and the 2 bogie wheeled axles
Then I simply reversed previous procedure and
installed the lift kit plates
This is the only thing I found that needed to be
"drilled" on the installation... the center bolt that holds
the track lift plate in
The stock track plate has retaining nuts welded
to the inside of the plate. The new track lift plate does not.
So a quick run to the hardware store for some new lock/pinch
nuts and all was good!
Besides needing to drill the lift plates, another modification the lift kit required was clearancing the
new ski spindle lifts to clear the ski mounts.
Below is a picture of the new ski spindle lift installed. It is at
full travel and only has about 1/4-1/2 inch of movement
overall. Beside it is a modified spindle
This is a picture of travel after doing the
modification. Beside it is the unmodified spindle
This is the travel of the stock spindle...
notice how much difference in spindle length/height there
is from the stock to Dans after modifying them for movement/travel
This is the modification needed. I ground out a small
area on both sides allowing the new spindle to have some
travel allowing ski to move up and down similar to the stock ones I removed
Lastly... another issue I ran into on the
install was the
threads in the new lifted spindles. While I was disassembling
one side my son was watching and asked if he could start
putting the new spindle in the other side. I happily handed him
the ratchet. Shortly after heard..."Dad, this doesn't turn
anymore". So I look and the bolt is more then 1/2 way out.
I back the bolt out and it looked like he
cross threaded it.....but it wasn't.............
The stock Kitty spindles have FINE threaded bolts
holding the steering assembly on the top of the spindle and
spindle on sled The new lifted spindles are COURSE thread.
So another quick run to the hardware store for some
course thread grade 8 bolts and all was good again!
Will put some installed pictures in a "Part 2" thread
