CDI is in, the season begins!

Well kinda...

I got home from work today and the CDI for the Jag had arrived. I'd about given up hope and the place I'd bought it from didn't help by sending me a shipping notification or tracking number.

Its super easy to install, there are 3 plugs and 2 bolts. Here in place:

After that the sled started on the third pull. That was after priming it with maybe 60 pulls a couple weeks ago before I'd realized the CDI was missing. It even idled well which I think means it wants a bunch of Seafoam gas additive. Last year when I first got it it was hard to get it to idle well cold, once it warmed up it was fine though.

After that I put the windshield back on. I'd ordered some new screws and nuts and covers since I'd busted a couple last year.

They're actually a kind of cool system, the tubes on the left have nuts at the bottom, you put the screw in and tighten and it draws the nut up in the rubber which keeps it from coming loose. I shot a little cable lube on each screw as I put it in so I can get them out again in the spring. I also glued the rubber thing into place with a little form-a-gasket which will hopefully help them not turn in the hole while drawing up the rubber, seemed to work but we'll see. I took the windshield off since I don't have garage space for the machine and don't want the windshield ruined by the tarp pulling on it. I built a foam brace for the windshield on the Cobra, we'll see if that worked out. The Pantera and Wankel Panther both have windshields bent back from the pressure of the tarp.
There were a few screws I couldn't get into the nuts because some water had gotten in and frozen. Those were the ones on the front around the headlight. The tarp had come loose and we'd gotten a little rain. I put another bungee on the tarp so hopefully it won't come loose again.

Anyway I'm super excited, I got a couple of rips around the yard and it ran well so I feel confident it'll be good. Now all we need is snow.

Pantera clutch pucks

Speaking of the Pantera I never did talk about the new clutch pucks. This is a Comet Duster 94 clutch, its an aftermarket clutch pretty common to these older sleds. Its actually not supposed to be a good match to my Pantera, its not really supposed to be used on sleds of more than about 40HP, the Pantera's engine is closer to 50HP but this clutch has been on it since my friend Ed bought the sled back in 2001 and everybody has always been happy with the clutch engagement so I figure even if I have to fart around with it every 13 years thats acceptable.

Here's the object in question:

The black one was taken from my sled, the white is a replacement. Notice the scar on the black one, I think thats from the time the sled was frozen to the ground and I tried to break it free with the engine. The way the clutch works is these pucks normally at the bottom of an incline plane. When the engine is revved up centrifugal force tries to force the outward up the slope. The clutch cover resists that since its bolted to the end of the crank. This forces the inclined plane in toward the engine, this causes the outer sheave of the clutch to grab the belt transferring rotational force from the engine to the belt and then onward to the secondary clutch and finally the track. The scar is from the side of the track the puck rides in.

On the scale this one is 23.3g which was essentially what they all were. New pucks are sold by weight with nothing around 23g. The next closest was 25g so thats what I ordered.

All the replacements come in around 25.4g which could just be variation attributable to my scale.

The problem I was fighting was a clutch which wouldn't disengage. I hope thats caused by the pucks not sliding back down the incline due to the scar. Just in case I also bought another stock size spring. Its possible that the old spring has lost some of its sproing and the replacement will do better.

This '78 Pantera is one of the best riding leaf spring sleds I've ever been on so I hope this fixes it. If it doesn't I do have one more trick. Randy scratched up and possibly bent the clutch cover getting it off without the proper puller. The clutch performance actually got worse after that debacle so if the new pucks and spring don't work out I'll get a nother cover and see if that helps.

The snow is here!

I wanted you to see that the predicted snow actually did arrive. We got around 8" of heavy wet stuff. No riding for me, what with Thanksgiving and going to my parent's and then a work trip to Washington D.C. there hasn't been time. I promise that when I get home I'll see about firing up the Cobra. Hopefully the new CDI for the Jag will arrive and I'm also equally hopeful that the new clutch weights will make the Pantera clutch work right again.

Time to RIDE!

Big snow forecast here in north Central MA for today and tonight. With about 3" of good wet white stuff on the ground I went out to start up the '91 Jag Special. I'd tried to start it a few weeks ago and failed but later realized I hadn't turned the gas on. Today with the gas turned on I pulled it over 20 times and nothing happened. Thats when I noticed the CDI box was gone.
About two months ago buddy Randy called me and asked if he could borrow the CDI to try on a customer's machine. I said sure. Buddy Randy then never covered the Jag back up. That irritated me slightly but whatever, it happens. Today I'm extra irritated, my CDI never came back and buddy Randy's shop has gone belly up...

Fortunately its relatively easy to get a replacement CDI and they're relatively cheap. I'll be away next week so I wasn't going to be riding anyway but still.

As a second best maybe I'll go see if the Cobra will start. The Pantera is missing half its clutch. I did finally order new clutch weights and a spring and I finally got them installed in the outer sheave but I've never installed that on the sled. Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving I'm unlikely to get to it before December. Oh well, so it goes...

So the list:
'78 Pantera - Needs clutch installed, hopefully new weights and spring fix engagement
'91 Jag - Needs CDI
'95 Grand Touring - Needs trailing arm straightened and a stiffening bar welded on. Probably ought to weld a stiffener on the otherside too. Chuckie did warn me about that when I bought aftermarket arms.
'71 Panther - Needs crank seals, seals and o-rings are here as is the clutch puller, just need to have at it.
'79 Cobra - Shouldn't need anything
'70 Olympique - needs a lot...

Not a promising start.

Puttin 'em up

Its that time of year again... The snow is gone, well mostly. We had an April surprise storm this week that gave us 2 more inches and its been cold enough to keep that snow around but its doomed.

Saturday I gave the Cobra and Jag their last of the year attention. Each got an added slug of Seafoam gas additive and moved to their summertime parking spot.

One of the problems with parking sleds outside under a tarp is that the tarp is hard on the windshield. It gets warm under the tarp and the tension pulls the windshield in. This is very prominent on my Pantera and the Wankel Panther. The Cobra has a big windshield and I didn't want that to happen. A longer term fix is a snowmobile shed that I'm planning on building later this year. For now though I cut a piece of foam insulation to fit the Cobra's windshield which I hope will help. Not helping is the too-small tarp I bought for it. I have no idea why I flaked out and thought a 6x8' tarp was big enough, its not, it needs an 8x10'.

The Jag's windshield is held on my a bunch of screws that have little plastic covers. I managed to remove all the screws only ruining 1 of them although another one will also need replacement since its rusty. I'll put the windshield in the garage along with the one from the big Ski-Doo.

Its always sad parking the machines but we had a pretty good winter and my plan right now is to register the Jag and the Ski-Doo to ride legally in MA next winter. Plans are always subject to change of course...

The twin carb tour

This has turned out to be a pretty good winter, first week of March and we still have around two feet of snow on the ground.

I loaded up the '95 Ski-Doo Grand Touring, '91 Arctic Cat Jag and '79 Polaris Cobra, all three sleds having twin carbs I named this the "Twin Carb Tour".

We headed out to Leominster State Forest. This is a return to our roots, the scene of our earliest sledding adventures and still a favorite. Theres a good variety of terrain and all relatively low skill required riding.

My friend Ed lives on the edge of the forest, his house is where I kept sleds before I had a house of my own. Fortunately he was home and could join in the fun. He wanted to ride the Polaris and I put him in the lead worried that our more powerful, plush newer machines would let us take right of without him. Boy was I wrong about that! He set a blistering pace, other riders had already created a trail but with no grooming it was very bumpy and icy. Even with basically no rear suspension travel Ed got the little Polaris up to 30mph, riding the big Ski-Doo even I was sometimes having a hard time keeping up.

Actually the big Ski-Doo was the downer of the day. With no picks in the track when we rode on icy trails I wasn't getting enough snow onto the coolers to keep the engine happy and several times we had to stop and let it cool down. I'd experienced this before and I think its in part due to having too much coolant and not enough water in the system. I really need to drain the coolant and replace it with a proper 50/50 mix. I'd drained the overflow bottle once or twice which helped but not enough.

Anyway we rode about 14 miles which doesn't seem like much but considering these are ungroomed trails thats actually pretty good for a couple hours riding. Everybody got a chance on every sled and I was pleased to see that Angie was happy riding the new Jag.

The next day I went back alone and took the Jag out. My goal was to reach the coveted "KMart Hill" a feat I've only managed once back in 2003. I'd tried and failed another time so it'd be a big thing to make it now.
I found the start of the trail and somebody else had already been in to break trail for me but I lost the trail about halfway. Theres a lake crossing which I didn't particularly want to do, its pretty remote and I worried that if I broke through the ice I'd die before I could get back to help. I know theres a trail near the lake to avoid going on the ice but I couldn't find it and even managed to get the Jag stuck. After I got stuck I figured I was better off giving up now, with its extra rear suspension travel the Jag was tough to get unstuck and I was pretty blown from the effort.

I did manage 18 miles that day which again is pretty epic considering the terrain.

So the ride count for 2014 stands at 4 for a total of maybe 60 miles which again doesn't seem like much but considering the 2012-2013 count was 2 for a total of maybe 6 miles this is a big step up.

I'm off to California for work today, I might get another ride next week but I wouldn't count on it. We'll see.

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.