[SkullSled]

Hello -

Has anyone installed an electric start kit on these machines? Is it fairly self explanatory or should I leave it to the pro's... With as many kids as I have, pull starting everyones machine everytime its time to go is wearing on the "fun-o-meter" of taking everyone. I ordered to electric start kits for my kids '07 550 and '06 300 ... did ski-doo make every machine e-start ready, or am I going to be drilling and tapping holes and shimming the starter to the perfect angle. If its a simple bolt-on with some wiring plugs to re-arrange ... I'm good but if it requires a tap and die kit, and an engineering degree to get the sprocket mounted and so on... I'm not messing with it.

Anyone been down this road already? Kits should be here later this week.

Any advice or experience in this task would be appreciated.

 

[Swish88]

My 07' Freestyle 550 had ES on already so I can't comment on that sled........but I did install it on my 06' 300 and it was easy. I would think it would be the same for the 550. Very plug and play. The only hickup I encountered was the bolt holes on the back of the clutch to hold the ring gear were not tapped. They give you some funky looking bolts and they almost looked like self tappers. I couldn't take that chance so I bought the tap and ran it in all the holes. Good to go.

I think the 550 has a ring gear installed weather it has ES or not. Does your 550 have a ring gear already?

 

[SkullSled]

I'm not sure if it has one or not, I'll check tonight. Now that you say that, it seems I recall seeing that it may have one after all....

I read something about fires because of the battery location on the '06 - any suggestions there?

 

[Swish88]

Yep.....exhaust is close to battery box on the 300 only.....and if it has ES only. Page through my thread in my sig. It adresses this.

 

[tommc56]

My 07' Freestyle 550 had ES on already so I can't comment on that sled........but I did install it on my 06' 300 and it was easy. I would think it would be the same for the 550. Very plug and play. The only hickup I encountered was the bolt holes on the back of the clutch to hold the ring gear were not tapped. They give you some funky looking bolts and they almost looked like self tappers. I couldn't take that chance so I bought the tap and ran it in all the holes. Good to go.

I think the 550 has a ring gear installed weather it has ES or not. Does your 550 have a ring gear already?

Pardon my hijack but I'm curious if anyone knows how this 300 motor compares to the Tundra II motor . We had another Talker looking for e start info recently and this motor never crossed my mind

I live in the past

http://www.dootalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=400209

 

[SkullSled]

Ring gear is on the 550 - but not on the 300. I searched through your posts as you suggested, I gather you suggest either locating the metal battery box for use, or installing some sort of heat shield to prevent melting/fires. I do not have the kits in hand yet to know what box it will come with. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Swish88]

Ring gear is on the 550 - but not on the 300. I searched through your posts as you suggested, I gather you suggest either locating the metal battery box for use, or installing some sort of heat shield to prevent melting/fires. I do not have the kits in hand yet to know what box it will come with. Thanks for the advice.

The 550 should be a breeze then.

My kit for my 300 came with the plastic battery box so I would assume yours will too. Just bend up a heat shield like I did or the heat tape as others have done. The shield works good for me.

 

[Shawno]

I put E start on my sons 2006 300F last year the most time consuming part was routing the cables and I will be putting one on my wife's 2005 380 this year. It went fairly easy and the instructions are straight forward.
It was also a good chance to do some up close and personal inspection of the motor, chassis, and many other components that normally get the glance over once a year.
You'll need a primary clutch puller, exhaust spring tool and a good ratchet drive Torx set along with a standard mech tool set.

 

[Swish88]

How's your ES installs comming along?

 

[SkullSled]

How's your ES installs comming along?

550 is done - and was simple. Going to pick-up the kit for the 300 tonight. For some reason, they didn't ship together... even though they have the same part number.

 

[SkullSled]

E-Starts are done on both machines. I used heat tape on both battery boxes next to the exhaust, and yes they are both plastic boxes. The 550 astually seems like it would be more apt to melting the box with the entire cansiter staged within a close proximity as opposed to the pipe on the 300. Either way, I taped up both boxes and they work great. Life will be alot easier on me not having to pull start all the kids machines everytime we take off... that and I put new struts on my trailer which I had no idea how bad they were until I lifted the cover with the new struts on it. I remember hurting my back lifting it last winter when it had some ice frozen on top that I didn't see until I had the lid up.

Thanks for the advice on the battery boxes with regard to the potential melting.

 

[Swish88]

Good to hear. Curious, did you need to tap the holes in the 300 primary?

 

[SkullSled]

Good to hear. Curious, did you need to tap the holes in the 300 primary?

Yes, I had to tap them.

 

[Swish88]

Good deal....

 

[fling7051]

just reading the thread here, guy's your talking about the same part# for the starter kits 300 and 550, looking to get just a new starter for my 06 tundra 300, starter motors are not the same from what i found in the manuals???let me know if the starters are physicaly the same, then it will enlarge my search options to get a used one.tks a lot for your replies...

 

[SkullSled]

just reading the thread here, guy's your talking about the same part# for the starter kits 300 and 550, looking to get just a new starter for my 06 tundra 300, starter motors are not the same from what i found in the manuals???let me know if the starters are physicaly the same, then it will enlarge my search options to get a used one.tks a lot for your replies...

I had the exact same kit arrive for both models and had no issues installing either of them.

 

[Teleskiah]

Question....was this starter that you ordered for the 06 300 OEM, or aftermarket? Another user is suggesting that 550 starter is identical to the 300, which I disagree, can you either confirm or deny that thought? I have a bad starter on my 06 300, which i have not been able to find an aftermarket one for. The OEM is almost $400, which I refuse to pay. Two other dootalk users are suggesting that NAPA makes a 550F starter that would work on a 300f, I called my local NAPA and asked for the part number, looked at the image and the picture looks nothing like the OEM that was on my machine. Your expertise in this area would be helpful...Thanks in advance

Hello -

Has anyone installed an electric start kit on these machines? Is it fairly self explanatory or should I leave it to the pro's... With as many kids as I have, pull starting everyones machine everytime its time to go is wearing on the "fun-o-meter" of taking everyone. I ordered to electric start kits for my kids '07 550 and '06 300 ... did ski-doo make every machine e-start ready, or am I going to be drilling and tapping holes and shimming the starter to the perfect angle. If its a simple bolt-on with some wiring plugs to re-arrange ... I'm good but if it requires a tap and die kit, and an engineering degree to get the sprocket mounted and so on... I'm not messing with it.

Anyone been down this road already? Kits should be here later this week.

Any advice or experience in this task would be appreciated.

 

[SkullSled]

Well I would hardly call this advice expertise; but when looking at starters, pay no attention to their physical appearance. If the bolt holes line up and the gear is the same size it will work. Aftermarket is just that - they try to make universal applications so that they'll fit more models in turn enhancing sales. It's not uncommon at all for a starter to have a different configuration and still be an applicable model. The starter kits I ordered were OEM and they were exactly the same and did work on both the 300 and 550. It is a different looking starter than that of a stock unit that came with electric start - again, an upgrade that skidoo likely made to make the unit more universal for various models. I'd say get the starter from Napa... take your old one with you and count the teeth on the gear and see if the bolt holes line up. I would gather while most places don't allow returns on electrical parts that if you explained the application to them if it does not work they'll probably refund your purchase if it ends up not working. I actually thought of doing the same to install e-start on these machines for my kids but once I took the shroud off and saw the simple plug in's for the e-start wiring harness... needing the batteries and battery box in addition to the starter and necessary relays made buying the kit more economical for my situation.

Hope that helps... I'd go get the Napa starter if one of these were out. You'll probably get a core refund that will make it even less expensive through Napa. Just make sure you return the core after you know it works. Don't leave it there when you buy the new one, you can always go get the core refund after you've made sure theirs works for you. If you leave it behind, they may ship it out before you come back knowing if it functioned or not.

Question....was this starter that you ordered for the 06 300 OEM, or aftermarket? Another user is suggesting that 550 starter is identical to the 300, which I disagree, can you either confirm or deny that thought? I have a bad starter on my 06 300, which i have not been able to find an aftermarket one for. The OEM is almost $400, which I refuse to pay. Two other dootalk users are suggesting that NAPA makes a 550F starter that would work on a 300f, I called my local NAPA and asked for the part number, looked at the image and the picture looks nothing like the OEM that was on my machine. Your expertise in this area would be helpful...Thanks in advance

 

[Watton Yooper]

I'm 66 years old with a bad back, I put electric start on both of my 2007 300 tundras, not that the kids couldn't start them, reason was I couldn't. I have an electric impact wrench and used that to put put the bolts in, no tapping. First one took a couple of hours, second one less than an hour. Worse part was getting the springs on the exhaust, I think I used vice grips and a few choice words. The dealer let me borrow his clutch removal tool.

Watton Yooper