Bogie Bash Sled Slam

[JoeRainville]

A little background: I have been working on restoring a 1973 JDX-8 for about 2 years now, and its still not done. The original goal was the 2016 "Bogie Bash" at the HoF, but I missed that due to RJ's birth last Feb. Work resumed on the sled, but this winter I decided the tunnel just wasn't nice enough to justify powder coating it. A text out to "the guys" resulted in an offer of a straighter chassis from Wade Bennett to be picked up at the RWC. (Thanks Wade)

But this still left me without a Bogie Bash sled, and I couldn't let Lindner have all the fun. Rewind to my original thread, and I have a solid original 72 JD400 in my storage barn I obtained years ago in a trade from our premo custom sled builder, Kevin Campbell. She was "Barn Fresh" but could the old 400 be made trail ready in only a few weeks if I threw some elbow grease, NOS parts, new bearings and seals at her?

Turns out she could...

[JoeRainville]

I called Lindner for advice, because aside from not talking me out of it, he also restored a 72 JD400 his father bought new. Brian would be more familiar with the particularities of the 72 models and hopefully provide guidance as I tore into things. So the 400 was wheeled into the shop for inspection and possible tear down.

At first look, the motor pulled over smoothly (fogging it a few times over years was a good thing), the steering had more slop than a 50 year old farm truck, the track had a bunch of edge tears, original white Gates drive sprockets were cracked, half the bogies were crunchy, gas tank was half full of some form of decomposed petrochemical (should have dumped it 10 years ago, opps) but on the positive side it looked like she was always stored in doors and had very little rust. Overall condition was good, but the mechanicals needed updating. Some good news was that it was last registered in MI in 1999 so she 'only' sat for the last 18 years...or so...

The I-500 Liquifire was torn down, and the shocks were sent out already, so I had about 3 weeks to get this done. It was now, or never as it was already early January at this point.

[JoeRainville]

I pulled the bodywork to get a better look at the massive 28 hp, 340cc motor. I figured if I can get her running first, then I can justify moving onto the chassis. The plug wires were MIA, so I raided the NOS stash for new ones and got new plugs locally. I ordered new crank seals from Matt's "New Breed" store to backfill the ones I 'borrowed' from the JDX-8 project.

As I feared, there was no spark once the new wires were installed. So I changed the external coils with new ones. Still no spark. Called Lindner. He suggested cleaning the points before going to far with the stator. That was a good idea it turns out, but I decided to change out the crank seals, fan bearings and fan belt while I had the motor apart. I was glad I had all those goofy old JD sled tools, as it turns out I had the Salsbury clutch holding tool. But I had to borrow the puller bolt from Lindner.

[JoeRainville]

The clutch was pulled and then the fan side of the motor was stripped down, including the recoil, flywheel, fan tower, stator, backer plate, etc. Once all that was removed the crank seals could be removed and the crank ends polished. A thin film a sealer was applied around the case openings and a light film of oil was applied to the crank ends before the seals were tapped into place.

[JoeRainville]

While re-assembling the fan side of the motor, we found one of those little nuances of the 72-73 motors. The fan bearings are smaller on that era 400 compared to the rest of the CCW/Kioritz motors. Ironic part is that I have a bucket full of NOS bearings used on the rest of the motors, but they do not fit the 72 400's. So I had to order new bearings for the fan, but I needed to test fire the motor.

To keep progress rolling, I cleaned the points, then installed the stator and flywheel. I loosely installed the fan tower and recoil so I could check for spark and attempt to fire the motor. With the new external coils and plug wires installed, she had nice bright spark this time.

By running fuel lines to a gas can, I bypassed the fuel tank and was able to fire the motor. After the initial prime, she would then start on one pull. I took that as a good sign, called Lindner to share the news and planned to tear into the powertrain next. I started tearing into the sled on Friday January 13th. I had the seals replaced and the motor running by Sunday the 15th.

Game on at this point.

[JoeRainville]

I was able to source new fan bearings locally, and the installation went pretty smooth until I tried to remove the inner bearing from the fan. It was being a pain, so I said 'screw this' and grabbed and NOS fan off the shelf to speed things along. Then we came to the fan belt. Turns out the 72-73 JD400 uses a unique fan belt. Go figure. Its also DOA in the JD parts system, with no sub to number. I really didn't want to run the old belt, so I installed the fan housing, but held off on the belt and just loosely installed the belt pulley to hold the fan in place.

Next, I moved onto stripping down the chassis and pulled out all the bogie assemblies. Most all the bolts came out with little issue, and the hardware was generally in good shape. The front tube was pretty bent, and the another was pretty rusty, but none of the springs were broke.

[400brian]

Joe brought up the idea of getting the 72 400 ready for the RWtC about a month out. I thought it might be possible, but a couple of things would have to happen. First, the sled would have to cooperate. Kevin had sent me pics of this sled when he originally bought it, and I remembered that it appeared to be a nice clean original. If Joe ignored cosmetics and concentrated on mechanicals, it could be done, if it ran without too much effort.
That was the second thing, if there was anything wrong with the engine, it wouldn't happen, but if all it needed was maintenance, then it might. As it turned out, this is a low mileage machine, and everything that needed to happen, happened, without too much effort. The sled was very good to him most every step of the way, which I will point out as this story unfolds.

[JoeRainville]

Like Brian said, if this sled had not been properly stored, or had been invaded by mice, this project would have been a no-go from the start. But since it was reasonably well stored, it was quick to get running and wasn't a rust bucket, she came apart pretty easily.

Even the often difficult rear axle assembly came apart with only minor convincing. None of the carriage bolts on the running boards spun in the holes and the drive axle came right out. No broken bolts, no drama, no real problems...except the typical 100 series issues.

[JoeRainville]

In the days following getting the motor running, I was busy with figuring out the fan belt issue, and getting the powertrain serviced. I already knew the white Gates drivers were trash, along with half the bogies and the track. I was trying to steal as few parts as possible from the JDX-8 resto, but I did nab a few things along the way as there wasn't a lot of time to order parts.

Thank God I had a good stash of used and NOS bogie sled parts to raid, or I would have been screwed. In the storage barn I grabbed a mint track with the updated reinforced edge. On the parts shelves I found I had another NOS 1 1/8" drive shaft for the bogie sleds, as I had already used one for the JDX-8. The original 1" shaft and sprockets were going in the scrap bucket. Also found that being a pack rat pays off as I had 3 used 340/s track drivers, of which 2 looked useable.

The bogie tear down yielded the expected results: half were toast. Half might be salvageable with a shot or two of grease behind the seals and one or two of the cross tubes were in rough shape. Luckily I had NOS cross tubes and a pile of used bogies left over from the JDX-8 project, plus some I bought from a dealer that thought they were "NOS". You can see the PN painted on those...

[JoeRainville]

As mentioned above, the rear axle came apart quite easily, even the inner bushings came out. But the bolts got a bit chewed up when I got carried away with the impact gun. Luckily I had NOS parts to burn up on this project, including the rear axle shaft. Lindner had sent me a hardware kit for the X-8 that had duplicate sets of rear axle bolts, so they were put to use long with NOS rear springs, side plates and adjuster bolts.

Again, the oddness of the 72 got me. The rear axle bearings are unique and had to be sourced locally as the set for the X-8 had a different PN.

The front axle was made of the used 340/s drive sprockets left over from a resto, and the NOS drive axle. I did steal the drive axle bearings from the X-8, and back filled them with ordering new ones from Deere.

The weekend was going to be spent installing the track and suspension I hoped...

[JoeRainville]

Putting the drive train back together was actually pretty straight forward. Once you get the hang of the 100 series sleds, they are not too bad to wrench on. The track and drive axle went in smoothly with new bolts, bearings, and O-ring and NOS cork gaskets. Even the original speedo drive core wasn't broken, but I did use an NOS one anyway and lubed the right angle drive with grease.

The bogies were all previously greased with a needle attachment on the grease gun. I had enough new JD bolts and washers left over from the JDX-8 resto to use all new hardware to bolt the 15 bogies onto the cross tubes. Two NOS tubes were uses, but all the original cross bushings and inner shafts were re-used. I did find I had another full set of NOS springs, so the they were put into use also. I figured this sled was going to ride as good as it did in 72.

One thing I didn't do because the motor was still bolted on was flip the sled over to install the suspension. It would have been much easier to install 24 carriage head bolts and brackets with the sled upside down on saw horses.

[JoeRainville]

It only took a few days to install the rest of suspension and rear axle, along with the chain and gears, but time was getting short. It was already the weekend of January 28th and the shocks for the Liquifire had been located, rebuilt and shipped. The following weekend was going to be RJ's birthday party (Feb 4th) so it was going to hard to get more done past the 29th of January. Press on as they say...

One of the little PIA's we hit was the darn little fan belt. I had a pile of NOS ones for CCW's, but not the 72-73 400. Deere was no help either and Lindner wasn't 100% positive if it was a common belt or not. So I stopped by a NAPA after work one night, figuring they might be able to match it up. Turns out it was just a common "A24" industrial belt and I walked out with two of them. Problem solved.

[400brian]

From the day Joe started wrenching on this sled, it was just one major set-back away from disaster. Disaster meaning not having it running for the 2017 Bogie Bash.

As I said before, the engine was key. I asked, does it have spark? He didn't know, there were no plug wires on it. Some wires were installed, and no it did not have spark. I asked, did you try with the harness at the engine disconnected? He said yes he did. So I said pull the flywheel and clean the points. A while later I got a text reporting that he now had bright spark on both sides! Now we are getting somewhere, and I am feeling better about the chances!

Not too long later, after he had found some short reach plugs at a local cycle shop, I got a call reporting that not only did it run on spray, but the carb was pulling fuel and the engine was purring like a kitten! This now established a pattern, where each day I would get a text, reporting that while on his way through the garage to leave for work, he would give the rope a pull, and the engine would start! Eventually I suggested that the novelty of this would wear off after a while, he reported that it hadn't so far! Relating this story to Troy Milely, Troy suggested that when a person is used to pulling their guts out on Kawis, the Kiroritz engines routinely starting on the first pull freak them out.

Knowing Joe's history with deadlines, I suggested that he get a few things ordered ASAP ; drive belts, a carb kit, and a fuel tank pick-up fitting. Matt had the belts dropped shipped to him, and he did get a couple of carb kits, the tank fitting he claimed to have. I suggested he get the carb into the solvent now, but he didn't want to. The sled was running too good, if he messed with the carb he would probably mess that up! I asked if he thought running 20-30 year old diaphragms was a recipe for success? He admitted it was not, so how about he send the carb to me? I suggested he was a wus, and that sending the carb at this point allowed for too many chances for things to go wrong! After listening to much whining and moaning, I finally said; OK, I have a 72 carb that had been through the solvent a couple of years ago. I will put a kit in it and bring it along to the RWTC. That got him calmed down, but I also knew he would now never touch that carb.

On the hardware; at least a year ago, Joe sent me a box of parts for the 73 JDX8 project. I was putting together a box to send to him, and it seemed like I was really getting the better of this deal, so when I ordered some hardware for the sled, I ordered extra to send to him. Hardware can be a deal breaker, and having the correct stuff on hand really simplifies assembly. So the night before the Packer playoff game with the Falcons, Joe is telling me that he has to go to the hardware store to get the suspension pivot bolts. After a moments thought, I say; I sent you those.
He replies that I sent him some stuff for the X8, and he was trying not to rob from that project. I say, but I think I sent you 2 sets, dig it out and look. The next day, I am at a Packer party, watching the Pack get creamed, when I get a call. Joe is calling to tell me that I had indeed sent him 2 sets of the pivot bolts, and so instead of driving around looking for bolts, he was assembling the suspension,, and that i had been very helpful! I replied; you're welcome, and that it was good someone was looking out for him!

[jep_800]

For those who have the older mid-mounts which came with Walbro carbs, and are thinking about a resto, it can be a bit intimidating to dive into a diaphragm carb. Especially if you don't have much experience with them. I thought the same thing until I found this link on Vintagesleds which goes step by step on installing the new gaskets & diaphragms. They have a little different quirks depending on which model you have, but this tutorial is a good basic overview on how to get it done.

http://vintagesleds.com/bs/index.php/to ... #msg566663

I was almost in the same boat as Joe with my X8 resto, as it ran perfect hooked up to a gas can. I thought I should just leave it alone since it ran so good. A buddy of mine who is a dirtbike gearhead talked me out of that, just like Brian did with Joe. Basically said the same thing.... you think the 40+ year old gaskets will hold up? You're crazy! I rebuilt it.

Jason

[JoeRainville]

Without Brian's encouragement and assistance, this would have been far more difficult. But the one thing he left out on the carb rebuild was time. While I totally agree it would have been crazy to try to run a 45 year old carb, I didn't have time to dig into it before arriving in St. Germain. I have rebuilt a Walboro before, but I was in HS at the time:>) He kindly offered to bring a loaner, and I purchased a few rebuild kits to try to get mine done up there. And since the sled at least ran, I had bigger fish to fry on the weekend of January 28th -29th, as the shocks for the I-500 sled were due to arrive on Monday the 30th.

With the fan belt issue solved, the button up of the motor went fast. The recoil was in good shape so I left it alone aside from dripping some oil into it. It was sparking great, but for some reason, I couldn't stop it. Installing a new tail light to get rid of frayed wires and an NOS kill switch were of no help. I gave up and figured I better either fix the brake, find the ground issue or learn to choke it really fast.

I pulled the crud filled tank and drained it only to find out the filler neck was rusted through. I attempted to located another one, as I had a bunch of them in NY at one time. Luckily I found that I tossed one in the trailer on my last load down here, so I had a nice clean and dry, although silver not green, tank to use for this sled. I vacuumed it out and hoped for the best with it.

The chain, gears and tensioners were the typical pain to get back in, but I was able to keep most of the skin on my hands at least. After adding oil to the case and installing the plugs, I found the brake was going to need attention. I stole a lever of a rough 72 500 I have, but adjusting would have to wait.

At this point, I can insert "The (I-500) Thrill of Defeat" thread" as the sled, and a ton of NOS parts were loaded into the trailer. I hate bringing unfinished sleds to St. Germain, but I felt pretty good that I was going to have enough time to tackle the steering slop, run new fuel lines, install the drive clutch and belt and maybe even ride this beast. Part II is up next: The St. Germain Thrash...