OK here is the deal. My '04 600 H.O. snapped a clutch arm in half with 2 miles on the sled. The determing factor was a faulty cotter pin that held the roller in place. The cotter pin snapped, and the end result was a snapped arm.

My neighbor has an '04 800, and today we were out on the lake doing some radar runs. I was smoking him from the 660' line and the 900' line. My MPH was about 5-8 mph faster on each run. He was about to do some clutch tuning when he noticed the surface of his primary (where it makes contact with the belt) looked like someone took a sandblaster to it. Not good. He took apart the primary and found one of the cotter pins to be sheered off, metal filings dancing around all over the place (result of wear on primary surface), the roller had fallen out, and the arm was on the verge of breaking. It was bent and the roller could not fit back in.

Is this purely coincidence that this happened to two neighbors or are others having similar issues? Mine broke at the dealer luckily, and he noticed his right at the trailer. What if it let go in the middle of nowhere?? What is going on here? Is ski-doo taking a short cut somewhere that we have paid for or is it purely coincidence???

Friend's sled with about 500 miles on it (04 800HO) had a bunch of damage to the sheaves.

Click the links for pics....is the damage similar? So far the cause is unknown...The dealer is covering it.

pic 1 (http://www.developer10.com/~john/clutch01.jpg)
pic 2 (http://www.developer10.com/~john/clutch04.jpg)
pic 3 (http://www.developer10.com/~john/clutch03.jpg)

damage is on both sheaves, both clutches

That looks very similar to the damage on my neighbors sled. It wouldn't hurt to take apart the primary to ensure everything is entact. Only 5 mins to get it apart for some piece of mind.