30 year old sleds! Aren't they great

[DeereKid9]

So, after a nice topping of fresh snow last night. And a nice slow drive home from work this morning. I though I would take a little spin on the ol' JD's.
First off, I had been pre-warned that the Trailfire died in the yard last night and that my son was going to pull it up to the garage. I knew that I had never gone over the procedure for towing, so I told him to just leave it. It has elec start and happily it cranked right over, but when applying the choke, the switch broke off right in my hand. SOaB I said. .......So, I towed it in.

My thoughts were still to ride, and ride I would. Uncovered the 82 LF, choked it (nice and carefully) and pulled her over. Third pull like always. She starts right up and I am left with the recoil rope still in my hand. But she is running. A few spins around the neighbors field, I park her next to the Trailfire in the shop.

So, guess how my weekend is going to be spent. I have all of the parts that I think I will need thank goodness. But does the madness ever stop?

Anyhow, As I will be wrenching, I will be thinking of my buddy Rob, knowing damn well he would enjoy having my troubles right now. Get better fast Rob.

And to the rest of you snowmobiling fools, please play safe and have a safe new year.

I'm out.

Bob

[WinnipegStPaul9]

I have NEVER had the choke knob fall off in my life. This week it did on the CC and again on Sean's LF and now Bob's sled. Must be a "choke knob grinch" in Churubusco.

DA

[Danzig]

I am sure you guys have plenty of them flippers...

Send me some snow...I would take a couple inches...this grass sucks. Gets the sled dirty and it dont turn well.

[SpitfireKing]

Sounds better then the ride on my 74 JDX4 sp, first ride ever after buying this fall and it's thumping something severe, so I pull it in the shop and put it on the lift... Tracks super loose so I tighten it, after i find a suspension bolt missing and a tightener bolt snapped off and a short bolt that wont reach the rear shaft stuffed back in. Then i figure I better check the chaincase... The last j off put the 2 tensioners in wrong and they were shattered in a million pieces, so off to parts bin for those.

Fixed all that and still thumping of sorts... Pull it back in and today pull the secondary cover off... All the shoes removed except one that worn right into the metal... Some great but this thing was. Better find my spare clutch and give her one more try

[HoosierDeereMan]

Bob,

I feel your pain. Christmas Eve they started predicting the big 10" snow we got. I had been working on the Spitfire for my 8 year old grandson. I had it running in the garage 3 weeks prior and it idled and seemed very responsive to the throttle. So I went out Christmas Eve night and the thing would not even hit a lick! I had spark and lots of gas. Too much gas! I yanked the carb off and it had small black fines in it. Prior to this I had flushed the tank,new fuel lines, and filter. But it ran so I didn't touch the carb. I got lucky with the gaskets on the butterfly Mikuni and in the carb cleaner can it went over night. Christmas afternoon I put the carb all back together and got it installed. The 3rd pull of the rope the knot broke and I watched in disgust as the rope disappeared into that tiny hole in the recoil housing. Really, did this just happen? After the usual fishing and retensioning the recoil, I finally got it running again. The 78 340 liquifire fired right up but refused to idle. I had to pull the carbs and sure enough found a gummed up pilot jet. I'm two for two so I might as well keep going. Next was the 75 JDX8 back in the barn. Dumped in the gas, primed it and fired right up and ran great for about 30 seconds and died. It would start but acted like it was only running on one cylinder. When I opened the glove box door I discovered evidence of the dreaded rodent renovation! Hummm! The wire screen over air intake hose had a 1/2" gap in it. Is it possible they got into the air box? Sure enough that is what happened. I had set the choke when I put it up for storage so I knew they hadn't gotten any farther than the airbox. When I pulled the airbox there was a wad of mouse nest in nose of the Walbro. I used the shop vac and got out everything I could see. Cleaned out the airbox and adjusted the screen and it fired up and ran fine. Both 400's required the pull your guts out to get started but they both ran.

Yes the old sleds can be a headache but it sure is rewarding with snow on the ground and the kids and grandson are all out banging around the field beside the house. It's almost scary. I'm waiting for them to start dropping like flies as I'm typing this and watching out the window at them.

Troy

[JDT]

Love the stories guys.

Feel your pain. But as stated it is worth it.

[Steven Rempel]

Well I feel the need to chime in. I don't understand why but here goes... so after 24 hours of labour, and stealing parts from the donor sleds, I finally got to go out for a quick drive just to be too enthusiastic and not only forget the fuel cap (which, as you can imagine, resulted in fuel everywhere) but then I broke the drive cog, about 2 seconds after noticing the missing fuel cap. So... 10 minutes of sledding after 24 hours of labour...
I'd love to switch the ratio. And yet I tell myself I am still having fun

[Mr. Deere]

Ohh thats nothing!! Looks like a little of my lucks wearing off on you guys. The Liq is in pieces. My X8 runs for about 30 secs at a time and dies. And my sporty is rubbing hard on the rear shock! Not to mention I broke a ski spring the third lap around the house. Lucky I have 2 spares at the moment. all this with about 6 on the ground and another 6 falling as I type. A new sleds starting to look pretty good right about now.

[JDT]

Bob, Bob, Bob.... Where is the love?

New sleds break too.

Nothing makes my day more than to pass a group of guys on the trail gathered around some shiny new $12,000 sled with the hood up as I wave and putt past on a 30 plus year old dinosour.

[Mr. Deere]

I know I know but I just want to ride for once and not have to keep fixing Stuff!!

[JDT]

Summer is for fixing, winter is for riding.

[Mr. Deere]

Tell my sleds that.

[lwb140]

Summer is for fixing, winter is for riding.

sing it brother todd!!!!

[friendlyfarmeria]

hay guys,,,, Wait till they're 40 years old LOL

[nick80lf]

Summer is for fixing, winter is for riding.

That's what I do.

The look on the part guys face (before the days of New Breed parts) was priceless. Can't say how many times I've been told "we don't sell many snowmobile parts in the summer". I've also had to wait till early fall for a part because the distributer was out of stock and wasn't going to replenish their stock till early fall.