LIQUIFIRE II

[Horicon Joe]

I thought I would share what I have been up to for the last year. I decided to do a custom build with a Liquifire and a 1996 Formula Z.
My main goal was to fit the Z’s drivetrain, motor, suspension and exhaust in the Liq without altering the hood or basic package of the original machine.
I knew it would be difficult and soon found out how difficult it really would be to fit it into such a small sled. I am nearing the end of the build and
will try to get you caught up. I have never had so much fun working on a snowmobile and have enjoyed all of it!

Joe

[Horicon Joe]

Tear down ..........

[Horicon Joe]

With some advice from Kevin and Ross ...... I wanted to keep the center to center distance of the clutch’s on the Z when installed in the Liquifire II.
I will be calling this contraption "Liquifire II" because internally at the factory, this is what they called the second generation Liquifires.

Here is what I made as an alignment tool for future reference.
This should allow me to keep the original belts from the Z without a bunch of screwing around with different belt sizes. Time will tell............

[skoalmint]

Keep it Coming Joe, I like It. Brock

[That Girl Racing]

Great project Joe. Get rid of that Doo back clutch and put a Cat when you have a chance! We raced one of those Z's in the stock classes "back in the day"

[AirborneX4Special]

I'll bet that thing will be really fast .......

[Horicon Joe]

First things first. I had to settle on a motor angle and position and sized up how things might fit. I put the doo chain case in to set where the drive wheels would need to go.
I made another alignment tool to keep the proper chain case center to center distance.

[kwc]

Are we going to see this sled in a couple of weeks up at the Paradise ride??

[Horicon Joe]

Peter .... we can talk some time about that clutch .... sounds interesting. Kevin that is the plan for now.

One of the first big problems I saw was the carbs. The steering column went right through the one on the right and the bowls crashed into the bulk head.
Also the frame needed to be cut for the exhaust pipe to fit down below the hood scoop area. I ended up cutting the clutch side frame as well for room that was needed. After dropping the motor in and out a few dozen times I came up with a mocked up motor mount and a mocked up steering column I made out of some thin walled conduit pipe bent by hand. The motor mount was made with a chopped up Sportfire mount and the Doo mount.

[Horicon Joe]

Once I had the motor mount close, I made the first laser/formed part. About a week later I made the final mount out of Stainless and added a few changes.
The motor mount alone took up a lot of time on this project but was well worth it as the motor went in and out many times after it was made.

[AirborneX4Special]

It's good you took the time to photograph the proceedings. It's almost like we are watching the stall build of a prototype machine back in the day.

[69camaro]

Looking good Joe.

[Horicon Joe]

Thanks Duane

Next move was to give the lower drive axle a permanent home. I made a shaft that slipped into the lower bearing case side and a bushing on the opposite side that fit into new side plate. I squared up the axle and tacked everything in place. Then it was time rotate the chain case forward
to its final center to center clutch spacing.

[sledder670]

Well and the nice thing is once your tired of the 583, the 670 will drop right in. I have seen this project of Joe's and it looks like it will be a very nice set up and built well also. I think he carved up to nice of a donor sled though, I could have found you some much nicer junk next time.

[Horicon Joe]

Thanks for the compliment. Larger motor sounds interesting but I don't even know if any of this is going to work yet
That sled was well used and the belly pan took about 3 hours in a 120 ton arbor press to get it even close to back in shape and
cracked aluminum everywhere etc......

Next step Y pipe in above pictue