No much happening but, the end of an era

So winter 2015-2016 is looking to be a washout. Probably to be expected really, we had 2 years of excellent snow, you can't count on greatness every year.

Obviously I haven't been doing much riding and having 7 sleds around doing nothing seems pretty absurd so last Saturday I finally said goodbye to an old friend, the 1995 Ski-Doo Grand Touring left the yard for the final time.

I accepted less money than I'd planned to but I still got better than 2/3 what I paid for the sled 7 years ago so I suppose I didn't come out too badly.

Friday I took the '91 Jag out for a spin, we'd gotten maybe 4" of snow and I just couldn't resist. The trails were rotten, the water holes had a skim of slush on them and were slippery as heck in the bottom, I had to keep hard on the gas to get through. The odo says I went 2.5 miles but I bet it was closer to 2 miles with half a mile of track slip. Still even a bad ride is better than no ride at all.

Finally I got the Wankel Panther going again. I'd gotten kind of disgusted with wrenching last winter and it was a challenge to get going again but I managed it. The change is nothing short of remarkable, the entire time I've owned it that sled was a challenge to run, I could never get it tuned well and it was just never happy. Once I got it back together and dealt with the fact that the gas line in the tank had melted it fired right up and ran pretty much perfectly. I think I could open the low needle just a little more but otherwise she's all set. I was so pleased I made a video:

Eventually I want to make a bunch of these where I show off the machine and take it for a ride, sort of like Jay Leno's garage but for snowmobiles.

Anyway, theres an update, we got another inch or two of snow last night so I reckon I'll get the '98 Jag out today and see what it can do. I've been fighting the carb on that one, it spits and dies. I think I had water in the gas so I finally bought an electric fuel siphon and drained the tank. With fresh gas it runs better but I think I need to go through the carb one more time. This summer I'll put a rubber glove on the gas cap in case its leaking...

Progress!

Finally got my shipment from Dennis Kirk so work can progress.

The puller that I bought for the Pantera doesn't fit perfectly, the smaller 6mm holes don't line up perfectly with the holes in the magneto. Fortunately the larger holes line up well enough that the 6mm (grade 8) bolts would thread into the magneto. I added a little grease to the pulling bolt to reduce friction, then tightened it up. The puller has a cool little rod to keep the engine from turning. Or rather it USED to have a cool little rod to keep the engine from turning, that promptly broke off.

I barely put any torque on it at all. So I put the rope back in the cylinder and whacked the end of the puller a couple times. Then added a little more tension and "CLANG!" I thought I'd broken the puller but:

The magneto popped right off. While I was on a roll I bought a #3 phillips head driver, chucked it into a 1/4" socket and pulled the screws holding the PTO side plate on. I'd tried with a #2 phillips before but I couldn't apply enough torque to break the screws free.
Now I need to haul the engine back into the basement to replace the seals.

After taking the dog for a walk I went back to the Wankel Panther. I cleaned the mag side crank shaft really well and lubed it with axle grease, I also greased the shaft and held the o-ring in place with yet a little more grease.

I briefly considered some hylomar for holding the o-ring but was to lazy to go back into the house for it. The grease will melt out the first time the engine gets good and warm and won't cause any trouble. There was no o-ring there at all before so this has to be better...

The grease kept the o-ring in place perfectly allowing for easy installation which I strangely didn't get a picture of.

Getting the stator in place correctly took more time than I would have expected. I managed to get it not seated fully on one side which made the magneto hit, glad I rolled it over a few times before I buttoned everything back up. It turned out I had some wires trapped, once I got those aligned correctly everything went together easy.

I quit while I was ahead since I couldn't find my multi-meter. I want to check to be sure the points are opening before I button up the engine.

Back to the Wankel

With the Ski-Doo mostly straightened out (I still want to figure out why the speedo doesn't work, its not the speedo or the cable) I headed back to the Wankel Panther. The clutch has been sent out for repair so I want to make sure the crank seals are all set before that comes back. The PTO side is done so now its time to dig into the Mag side. I'd previously pulled the recoil, recoil cup and fan housing. With all that removed the engine is really small...

The fan is attached to the magneto. In the past I've had good luck pulling them with a 3 arm puller but this is the WRONG way to do it and can potentially crack the magnets ruining the magneto. So finally I got smart and picked up a harmonic balancer puller:

For $12 I feel like an idiot for not buying one sooner, this makes pulling the magneto almost childishly simple. The force of the pulling is applied so much closer to the shaft that almost none is wasted in the flex of the magneto and since its a straight pull theres little chance of the magneto flexing and binding on the shaft.

With the Magneto removed I'm staring at the stator and it looks like somebody has been here before, theres a nice index mark, you can see it just to the left of the top screw.

The one thing that really aggravates me about this sled is that there are no connectors in the wiring harness to the engine. This means the stator comes off with the plate that lives behind it.

Okay we're getting down to it now, the crank seal lives on that plate which, based on what I found on the other side I'd expect to have an o-ring also, except it doesn't and I can't figure where one would go...

Heres the engine side:

So I'm kind of in pause mode now. I posted on Vintage Sleds and sent a note to member 303Wankel who hopefully has done this before...

Wankel Panther brakes

Tonight I reassembled one of the crank seal holders with a new seal and o-ring. I need to check in with the Vintagesled boys and see if I should put some goop on the o-ring, my first instinct is no but its good to check.

Then since it'll be a couple weeks until I get a new clutch I turned my attention to the brakes. The brakes on this sled have really never worked, I'd adjusted them six million different ways to no avail, they either didn't work or they stuck on. I finally ordered new pucks and when I compared the old to the new I found that the stationary puck is pretty much the same but the old moving puck is less than half the thickness of the new one.

I can also see where the brake caliper was rubbing on the rotor from over adjustment.

I had to spend some time cleaning up where the edge of the caliper had been ground into the opening for the puck so the new puck would fit.

With everything installed the brake feels good for the first time ever. It'll be fun to ride this sled with everything working for the first time.

Aww geez!

Finally got some inspiration and decided to get after that Wankel Panther. I grabbed the impact gun and pulled the bolt from the clutch, the outer sheave of which fell off. I was left with this:

Heres the other side:

Whoops! That probably explains why occasionally the sled felt like a freight train on takeoff. It might also explain why I had such a hard time tuning the thing properly, although bad crank seals might have caused that also.

Anyway I made a post on Vintagesleds.com and got a kind offer to help me out, if I send him whats left of the clutch he'll combine it with his half and send me back a working clutch.

With that part worked out I got back to the remaining piece. I hooked the big puller onto it and ripped it to pieces before it finally came off:

Heres the engine with the clutch off:

That big counter weight smooths out the odd shape of the rotor, if you look directly behind it you can see where the seal has been leaking. I'd guess this side has been leaking longer than the other.

The seal carrier has an o-ring around it, that o-ring and the seal were both in terrible shape, its surprising the sled ran at all. Again I have high hopes that the engine will run much better with new seals.

Anyway, next step, put the new seal it, get the clutch shipped out, then on to the mag side!

Wankel Panther with the wah wah trombone

This post was supposed to be about the triumphant return to life of the Wankel Panther but life of course took a different turn. Rewind back to December/January when I got the Panther running after cleaning the points. When I got back from LA in February I was disappointed to find that it wouldn't start and considering it didn't even pop I figured it was without spark again. I figured this failure was due to me not doing a good enough job cleaning the points. For reliable operation the points need to be clean clean clean. So I quickie cleaned them again. For a test I just did a little cleaning and the sled fired right up nice as you please. For once in its life I was able to get the sled to run good both while moving and at idle.

So that was Sunday, and yesterday I decided it'd be fun to make a little video of starting up the Panther since the Wankel makes such a cool sound, so I started the camera and of course the stupid sled wouldn't start. Again no pops or anything so once again no spark... AAARRRGGGHHH!

Well what have we learned about points in the past year boys and girls? Considering how well the Polaris Cobra has been running we've learned that clean points require good crank seals. So the Panther needs crank seals, theres just no way around it. Fortunately the guys on the Vintagesleds board knew what I needed and got me a link to Dennis Kirk. Unfortunately I'd placed an order to Dennis Kirk YESTERDAY for brake pads for this stupid sled and a clutch puller for the Pantera. I KNEW in my heart of hearts I'd need something else, why didn't I just wait? I hate placing an order just for one thing, the shipping is going to be more expensive then the part...

Oh well. While the engine is out I'll be able to finally replace the helicoil in the spark plug hole which will finally allow me to change the spark plug. Whoever did the helicoil last time didn't get it to stay attached to the hole as well as it attached to the spark plug so it comes out every time I remove the plug. I'll aim to get the hole cleaner, use more locktite and use the kind of helicoil thats made for a spark plug hole and can be swaged into place.