First repair of the year

Since the welding on the Ski-Doo was actually done last year (slow reporting I know) this becomes my first repair of 2015. I fired up the Polaris Cobra today to buzz around the yard. We really don't have enough snow to ride but enough to play. I got it going and for some reason looked under the hood and got gas in my eye. Turns out the fuel line to the left carb was leaking at the pump, spraying on the clutch and getting thrown up in the air. SO glad I found it before it sprayed onto the exhaust and caused a fire. I'd like to think I'd have smelled it but who knows?

I cut a piece of hose from my siphon kit and put it on with new zip ties. Its okay but even this one is stretched a little. I need to find a source for some really good gas line, clearly the stuff I used last year sucks.

Back from the dead

This blog isn't the only thing back from the dead, today I managed to revive the '79 Polaris Cobra!

Apparently my points cleaning was good enough, this afternoon I got some fresh gas, put the exhaust back in place, drained a gallon of varnish out of the tank, primed the carbs with a squirt bottle and it fired right up. Strangely I noticed I wasn't getting any gas from the tank, a little troubleshooting later and I found:

What you're seeing in my hand is the bung that goes in the tank. To the left there should be a piece of fuel line with a brass filter and check valve. The lack of fuel line means gas could only come out of the tank when it was full.. I took a run down to the sled shop to pick up some new fuel line and the check valve. With that installed and a little more prime the sled fired up and ran nice. I ran around the yard a couple times but its very warm and our snow is like oatmeal, very slippy and hard to ride on, fortunately the long track on this sled helps with that.
After my short ride I pulled in front of the garage and gave the sled a bath, it looks a lot better with the worst of the grunge off. It needs spraying down but my hose is unusable until spring. In the spring I'll wash it again and polish/wax.

Still on the to do list:
Free up the brake
Inspect the suspension - there doesn't seem to be any suspension travel at all right now. Considering how rusty the ski shocks are I suspect the skid shock is dead.
Recover the seat - I ordered a replacement seat cover on eBay
Replace the grips - Amazon is providing Polly Grips which are the same heated grips I had on my Centurion.

All in all not a bad day. If the sled still starts tomorrow I'll consider it a major win.