Once upon a time there was a new rxt owner. He'd never heard about sc clutch washers needing replacement...and certainly never heard about the bearings needing replaced every coupla years at most. All went well for this new rxt driver the first year...he learned some...found some new friends...discovered some great info about his new toy. man, it was gonna be more expensive than he thought.
After the first year he figured he'd pushed his luck far enough and sent his sc in for a washer swap. After all...couldn't be too careful could he? The subject of bearings being replaced had come up...but if he was gonna do all that he might as well do a full rebuild....just couldn't justify the coin, after all...his ski was only just a year old.
The second year went pretty much as the first...except for the new desire for more speed. He'd done all the freebies...but everything was still stock...except for the sc washers. Then one day he entered a charity contest. During this event he was cruising at 60mph or so...in like company...when all of a sudden his ski stopped...literally in about a 100'. Ski wouldn't turn over.....sc intake was hot....figured the worse. His ski only measured 172hrs....and only 60 or so after his washer swap.
Later that night...upon removing the sc he discovered the bad news. His front bearing cage disintigrated...allowing all 7 bearings to group on one side of the shaft...allowing his sc wheel to touchdown on the housing...at 40Krpm or so....sending a cloud of aluminum dust into his throttle body and coating his oem inter-cooler.
He was however amazingly lucky in one very important respect....every single bearing stayed with the sc and not into the motor. He also recovered 99.9% for the cage that broke.
A complete sc was now on the "have to buy in order to even run" list. Hind sight...being 20/20 like it is...a full rebuild instead of just a washer swap should have been the call in the first place...instead of waiting for the "next time".
Suit yourselves fellas.
