John Deere Sprintfire 1983. Long time project....

[SS440-80]

So now I have taken a big step in to the unknown....
I have always been a Yamaha man, old 2T Yammies of course, not the new Yamahas without soul.
But now I'm entering the world of the Deere
I bought the sled cheap because the engine was without cylinders, pistons and head. The seller got the sled when he bought other sleds and now just wanted to get rid of it.
I figured that since parts of the engine were left it would be possible to find the rest of the parts over time, so I bought it.

Unfortunately the motor in it wasn't a Fireburst

Here are som pics of the poor thing.

LOOKS ALRIGHT FROM A DISTANCE





JOHN DEERE USE A LOT OF GREEN COLOR, BUT I DON'T KNOW.....???



SADLY IT IS A POLARIS 340 FAN FROM 1990 IN IT



BUT THE DIRECTDRIVEN ARE STILL THERE AND THAT'S GOOD



BELLY



THE TRACK ARE IN GOOD SHAPE

[WinnipegStPaul9]

First of all, WELCOME!!! Secondly, someone went to a lot of work to put that motor in the Sprintfire. Best wishes.

DA

[JDT]

Good news... your track is good. That is the hardest part to find.

[snowkat79]

welcome, and it looks like you have a long road ahead of you! good luck!

[SS440-80]

Thanks guys

Yes, it's a lot of work on the sled but as JDT said "track is good" so the hardest part to find will be the engine.
If I don't find a Kawasaki 340 L/C it might work with a Fuji 400 L/C, or what do you experianced people say? Or is there another small L/C engine that could work as a substitute until (if) I find a original Sprintfire engine?


I'm glad that I found this forum, it will make the restoration much more easy
I hope you will put up with strange questions and bad spelling

//Robert.

[80spitfire]

Im not sure if you've seen it or not, but there is a NOS Sprintfire motor on eBay right now. Kinda spendy, but it's an option at least.

-Brian

[JDT]

Seams some guy in Texas has one too.

[SS440-80]

Im not sure if you've seen it or not, but there is a NOS Sprintfire motor on eBay right now. Kinda spendy, but it's an option at least.

-Brian

Thanks a million Brian!

The seller don't ship international, but I wrote to him and begged on my bare knees that he would make a exception for me. So now I wait for hes answer.
Maybe...just maybe

Hi JDT, do you have a link to the Texan?

[JDT]

He's our very own JDJR.

He posts on here everyday.

Something about the first fuel stop usually.

[80spitfire]

Not a problem man glad I could help. Just an FYI on a NOS motor though, it's still a very wise decision to replace the crank seals before you run that motor because even though it's never been run, the seals are still old and often dried up. Many NOS motors have been burnt down because of them. Seals are easy to find and relatively easy to replace so you'll be fine if you just go ahead and replace them.

-Brian

[JoeRainville]

You have to watch out for any Texans crazy enough to collect Deere sleds...but anyway, Todd is correct. I do have several NOS engines, including a reciently aquired NOS Sprintfire unit, but it's not for sale. The advice to tear down an NOS motor and reseal it is very sound, if you end up with one.

However, I do have a used one I could sell cheap, but it squeeked a piston due to a broken oil line. And, while NOS jugs are easy to find, good used or NOS pistons are not that common.

-Joe Rainville

[SS440-80]

The Ebay-engine is gone now. The seller didn't even respond to my question about shipping, kind of rude I think

But it looks like it's gonna be a Kawasaki 340 L/C heading for Sweden soon, thanks to another member here

About watching out for a Deere collecting Texan, I don't think he are more crazy than a Swede who wants to pay several hundred dollars for shipping a 30Hp engine to Sweden

About the engine with the bad cylinder and piston Joe, it's good to know.

[SS440-80]

Maybe time for a short update on the "long time project".
Since my last post in january, not much has happened. The board member did not send the engine, so I have been thinking about some other engine for the sled.
But sometimes thing turns the right way The guy that sold me the Sprintfire called and said that he had found some engine parts that maybe belonged to my sled, and YES IT DID almost everything was there, crankcase, crank, pistons, cylinder and head. Pistons looking really good.

There were some missing and some broken parts, but hopefully I will have a box with parts coming to Sweden soon....

[SS440-80]

When I saw this thread http://www.jdsleds.com/community/viewto ... =17114/url with the perfect tip about a replacement gas shock for Sprintfires and Snowfires, I ordered one.

And today it came

IMG_0140.jpg (16.74 KiB) Viewed 8069 times

So my plan is to take the skid out next week and start my renovation.

[SS440-80]

Yesterday I bought my first kit of inch tools ever...
I can't believe that you Americans still after more than 200 years, lives in slavery under England and her majesty the queens imperial measure system

Today I tock out the skid, which will be dismantled, sandblasted and painted.