83' Trailfire LX Resto

[idMXLT]

I think I'll look into this adding grease zerks business some more...... seems like there are several areas that could benefit from this. I like the fact that my MXLT owners manual has a diagram of the skid and a count of the zerks and their location (9 I think). Makes it easy to keep things free.


The crank smitfire sold me arrived today. It looks good, so I finalized my part list and made a New Breed order. Spent the rest of the evening cleaning gasket surfaces and prepping for engine reassembly. I also tinkered with the Liquifire a bit...... couldn't help myself.........140psi compression on both sides

But I digress, one project at a time.....

The Trailfire fuel tank is cleaned out and the battery box fabbed. Just need to blast and paint the box. Still trying to get the seat dried out. It might take all summer at this rate.

[JDT]

Greaseable spindles is a good idea.
Many other brands of sleds had zirks on them.

[smitfire]

My idea would be to drill a hole in the center of the spindle, and then come from the side and drill a hole making a tunnel for the grease to flow. Put a grease zerk on the top of the spindle.
But I'm guessing those spindles are pretty darn hard to drill into.

[idMXLT]

I bet the spindles are hard, and I don't have any carbide tooling to drill them with. All of my Doo's have the zerks on the side of the spindle post/bushing. Once I get the spindles out I can evaluate better how to retrofit zerks. I certainly want to add them.

Now for a different question. I'm ready to pull the skid and go through it. Are the JD cleated tracks prone to shrinkage when left without tension? Older Doo's are notorious for this (rubber tracks of course), to the point that the skid will no longer fit and the drivers skip if the track is left without tension for a few months.

[idMXLT]

Today I was gearing up to start reassembling the Trailfire engine.

Nice clean engine parts ready to go!




Unfortunately my gasket kit was not ready to go. I ordered the GS1048A kit from New Breed, and it appears that's the package I got. However, there is no way the intake gaskets are correct.






What's the deal here? The kit is listed for the Trailfire 440 LX, do they come with the wrong intake gaskets, or was this kit a fluke?

[Matt]

I'll get a set of the correct gaskets on the way to you. Winderosa is not always good about getting the applications right, and I have had this issue before.

[idMXLT]

Thanks Matt! Looking at pictures of the Winderosa 1048 kit online it appears to have the correct intake gaskets. Not sure why the 1048A kit is different, although I'm curious as to what engine the intake gaskets I have fit. I'm still on the hunt for a set of 440 LX copper head gaskets, the Sportfire gaskets I got do not fit. I'm wondering if there is a T1 engined Arctic Cat out there that used the same copper gaskets as the Trailfire LX. Might help with availability.

I finished deconstructing the seat last night, and have a fan blowing on the foam. The cover is still supple and in great shape, so I will try to re-use it. The wood base is soft but intact, so I will use it as a pattern and cut a new one. I'm thinking about using deck seal or something on the wood to inhibit rot.

[smitfire]

The intake gaskets you got fit a spitfire and snowfire. Been there done that, I've gotten the wrong ones too.

I will do some digging on the copper gaskets.

[idMXLT]

The intake gaskets you got fit a spitfire and snowfire. Been there done that, I've gotten the wrong ones too.

I will do some digging on the copper gaskets.

At this rate I'll end up using your whole parts cache smit!

Seriously though, I appreciate your help. Let me know if you find the correct head gaskets.


If anyone else ends up needing the Spitfire/Snowfire intake gaskets let me know, I'll send them along.

[harleysportster]

Please Delete..

[idMXLT]

Got the engine lower end buttoned up last night, turns real nice! Of course I forgot my camera in the shop so no pics until tonight.

I also received 2 intake gaskets from Matt (thanks!), he is looking for 2 more. I am still waiting for some other parts to come in, so I'll wait and see what he rustles up. Worst case I'll use the gaskets he sent as a pattern and make 2 more.

I also scored 2 NOS tachometer kits off eBay for $5 each, Part # AM52346. DK has had them on the shelf too long I guess! Normally I wouldn't want to graft on random parts to a resto, but since this tach was an option for the Trailfire I think I'll add it. Having a tach will be handy to evaluate the clutching.

[idMXLT]

One of the wrist pins and bearing had some surface corrosion on it so I decided to replace them. The parts came in yesterday, and I joined the top and bottom end today.





Starting to look like an engine again......

[idMXLT]

The bounty of eBay has provided the proper AM69554 copper head gaskets for my TF LX, but crikey the price !

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-John-Deere- ... 34&vxp=mtr

No offense intended if this is someone on the board, I guess I've gotten use to Matt's great prices for JD parts . At $25 a piece, the eBay items seem kinda steep. I hate to keep looking, but I think I'm going to pass on these...

[idMXLT]

Started cleanup of the bellypan last night and pulled the spindles/ski's to assess that situation. The bellypan is far less rusted than it appears in the pics. There are some spots that need touchup, but most of the "rust" has turned out to be bleeding from a couple of rusty spots. Rather than strip the whole thing, I'm going to clean everything up, treat the couple of spots with surface rust, and paint them. It's mostly covered by the engine anyway.

The spindles and bushings are in good shape. They were almost stuck due to the slight amount of waxy grease residue left and rust dust. But cleaned up they are smooth and tight.

I'm still scheming on how to add grease fittings. Right now I'm leaning toward drilling a small hole from the top of the spindle, and another from the side to connect the passage to the gease cavity between the bushings.


Speaking of grease, I repacked the cooling fan bearings. The bearings felt good but the factory grease had begun to dry up. A careful cleaning, and a bit if Mobil 1 grease corrected the issue.

Getting closer every day!

[idMXLT]

Got the exhaust system all painted up this evening with high temp paint. Looks funny in the photo with the flash, but it actually came out really good.



I also think I have a solution for my LX headgasket conundrum. I measured the gasket recess on the cylinders to be 1mm deep. The fire ring on the older style gaskets is 1.5mm thick....


So....





I carefully cut the fire ring out, and ended up with this.....




The OD of the fire ring was a touch too large to drop into the recess, so I took a tiny bit of material off the outside of the ring and voila, we have gaskets




The gaskets crushed down some (~0.25mm) when torqued, but there is still a gap between the head and jug, so the head is sitting on the gasket like it's suppose to. We'll see how it works.


Then some more assembly...





Making up the adapters to pressure test now, hopefully tomorrow I can get that done and complete the engine assembly.