Got the kit, put 'er on. I did not modify the airbox except to remove the snorkle piece, and used my existing K&N instead of the Uni that came with.

I went riding with my usual partner, a Banshee built to the max... I could stay with him through 3rd gear but once he hits 4th, it's bye-bye Scrambler... he used to blow me away in 2nd. It took him 4 passes before he could believe it.

The good news is that I was able to beat a 400ex, and a kid on a Banshee. The kid's Banshee was built by Duncan Racing. He had just got back from Oklahoma where he bought the thing used and one of his buddies on a Blaster rode up to us and asked my partner on the Banshee to race the Duncan Banshee. Evidently, the kid on the Blaster was tired of his friend running his mouth and wanted someone to put him in his place. Long story short, the Duncan Banshee wanted to run me after I beat the 400ex, and I beat him. Now, I've got to believe that he wasn't used to his new toy, but he kept a pretty low profile the rest of the time we were there.

I took it over to the flat track where there was a pretty rough 250R tearing up the track. I was able to hang with him well enough that when we stopped he came over and wanted to know what I'd done to the Polaris that made it so fast.

A few hours after we got home, another rider called my partner to tell him that all he heard all afternoon was about the guys on a yellow Banshee and a white Polaris beating everything in sight, and wanted to know if it was us.

I still have a little carb tuning to do I think. There is a slight hesitation when I hit the gas, but Rick thinks is could be the air screw needs a little adjustment. I was looking through my service manual and noticed that I do not have enough free play in the choke cable, so that may be a contributing factor as well.

I will be removing the airbox and buying one of those K&N's that clamp directly to the carb and covering it with the water-repellant outerwear.
I'm thinking that should give me enough air.

I know that I'm preaching to the choir, but I would highly recommend the kit to any other 400 owner. Rick, look for more orders from Iowa in the coming months, and thanks.

 

Hey Hawk,
I too have a '99 SCR400 and a K&N filter. I am considering buying the RCR Midrange kit and wanted to know if I could get some more detais from you. Is the power difference very noticeable? What spring did you use and was it hard to install? Is the clutch engagement much higher?(I worry that the engagement will feel jerky) How loud is it?(I don't want to sound like a piped snowmobile) How hard was it to install the kit and how long did it take you to put it on? Did you notice much difference on the top end? You mentioned a lag that you think is due to your carb. was this lag present before you installed the pipe? I know I ask many questions, thanks for your time
Matt '99 SCR400

 

No problem Mayhem,

- the power difference is VERY noticeable - Much faster
- I installed the spring that came with the kit. very easy to install. simply loosened the 6 bolts around the perimeter of the drive clutch cover, and slowly backed out the main bolt (the one in the middle that holds the clutch to the motor). This insures that the cover comes off straight. Be sure to mark the cover so it goes back on in exactly the same position, and reverse the process to install the new spring.
- the clutch engagemant is a little higher, but not drasticly so. This is to be expected when changing the clutch spring. It is definitely NOT jerky.
- The pipe and silencer are louder, but not annoyingly so. I have no guilt when I start the quad up in the driveway (unless it's 6:00 am ;-))I don't know what a piped snowmobile sounds like, so I'm no help there.
The kit wasn't hard, I had a couple of questions, but Rick was there on the phone to help me through it, probably took me 2 - 3 hours start to finish.
- as far as the lag being present before the kit, I cannot say for sure. My belief is that it was there, the kit simply made it more noticable.

I think it was absolutely worth the money, you will not be disappointed (Rick won't let you be).

 

Hello Hawkman,
I too am a very satisfied RCR customer. I have a 95 Scrambler 400 with RCR Trail porting, .040 wiseco piston, shaved head, bored carb, oil injection eliminator, reed spacer, boysen reeds, HPD pipe and silencer, and HPD aggressive helix and clutch kit. I too had a slight carb hesitation after the break in. It was remedied by disconnecting the micro switch in the thumb throttle. I don't know if my switch was going bad or it was the problem, but it really made a difference. It's easliy checked by removing one of the wires from your circut board under the hood. I traced the wiring from the thumb throttle to the board and removed the white one.

I've also beat bikes that I never would have thought I could hang with. You'd never know it was a 4WD !

 

Hey Hawkman,

I am having what I think may be the same lag you had with your bike I have similar Mods on a 99' Scrambler 400. Ported/Shaved Head/Carb Bore/Reeds&Spacer/K&N/Aggressive Clutch Kit/RCR Midrange Pipe&Silencer/Lightened Flywheel. When these mods were first put on (almost all at once) the bike shot out of the hole but just recently the bike lags at take off and then takes off hard at about 5MPH. I have checked everything, jetting, plug, compression, filter, clutch, belt, and everything checks out OK. I cannot however get the front end to lift off the ground anymore. Did your problem with the microswitch sound like a similar problem to the one that I am having?

 

Hey Lars,

I accidently sent a response to hawkman that I intended for you. Sorry! Without rehashing the whole thing please check out the reply I sent addressed to hawkman regarding the lag on my bike and your comment regarding the microswitch.

Thanks,
Wolp

 

Geez, Lars, that thing must absolutely scream.

I think I solved my problem by turning the air screw out a half a turn and adjusting my choke cable. What does the micro switch in the throttle do?

An interesting (to me) point, I cannot adjust the choke cable so that there is any slack at all in the switch on the dash. In order to see how much "play" there is in the cable, I have to pull on the switch - If the cable were routed incorrectly, would that cause that problem? Right now, the cable runs underneath the gas tank.

 

Hawkman, have you eliminated your air box and put a filter directly on your carb? I was considering doing this because of the lack of air flow through the air box. I do already have my air box modified but I still feel the machine is air straved. Let me know your results.

 

If any of you want to get a better flowing air box, White Bros has them. They are made of aluminum and are part of their 38mm TMX carb kit. They run around $80 for just the airbox.

Lars13 and Wolp,

I'm just curious about why you had your carbs bored? I've found you can get much better throttle response by either going to a flatslide carb (38mm TMX or 39mm PWK) or by using a U.F.O. (Ultimate Flow Optimizer) on the bottom of the round slide carb's slide.

I think that you'll find (as I did) that with porting, the larger carbs not only offer quicker throttle response but you'll gain some serious horsepower all over the powerband.

If you still have the original slide in your bored carbs, and don't want to spend the money ($300) on a new carb, why not try the U.F.O.? It costs about $30 and is fairly easy to install. The hardest thing to do is the jetting. You MUST reduce the pilot jet by one half it's size (# 40 pilot jet to a #20) and you must take the main jet up one size. The throttle response on Celeste's Trailblazer was vastly improved. Mind you, this is on a piston port motor too. Just a thought.

 

Mike Chero,

The airbox from White Bros, is it similar to the stock unit? I would like a better flowing box, but I travel in lots of water and mud, so deleteing the box altogether is not an option.