Bogie Bash Sled Slam

[400brian]

There had been some speculation that the 400 would go into the trailer in kit form. Joe was insistent that he would have several days in St Germain to finish it up. That of course remained to be seen.

[JoeRainville]

Part II: The St. Germain Massacre

After the craziness of the I-500 was over, on Sunday morning 12th I pointed the dually south from Bemidji toward the Twin Cities. I was going to stop and visit Babbler in Becker, and pick up a load of Liquidator hoods on may way over to WI. Since the I-500 ended a day earlier than planned, I was hoping to use the extra time to get the 400 finished up.

The sled was definitely in "Kit Form". While the motor was together and the drive train was assembled, there was much left to do including: install the fuel lines and tank, either rebuild the carb or steal one from Lindner, fix the brake, install the drive clutch and attempt to service both clutches, try to sort out the wiring and lack of grounding, replace the leaf springs, front spindles, bushings and fix the slop in the handle bars, replace the rusted headlight with an NOS one, install the hood, motor cover, seat and windshield and finally an NOS snowflap kit. Sure, no problem.

One nice thing about staying at the Whitetail is they are always very generous about letting us use the garage, and this year was no exception. I rolled the 400 in on Monday and got to work. First thing go to in was the fuel tank, then the drive clutch went on...

[JoeRainville]

One of the next things to be taken care of was adjusting the brake. It was out of room on the cable adjuster, so I tried moving the brake band pins to the alternate location, but that overtightened it. So I had to move where the cable attached to the band actuator lever. Seemed to work well enough to move on to the steering.

Even though this sled only had about 1,400 miles on her, and the speedo still worked when I took the driveshaft out, you could move the ski tips in and out about 6 inches without disturbing the handlebars or tie rods. Most of the slop was traced down to the lower spindle bushings where the spring saddle attaches. Of course it was all rusted together. Plus, the bolts that held the spring pack to the saddle were also sloppy. Oddly enough, even the springs were sloppy in the ski's, adding to the play in the steering.

The "quick fix" was to replace all that with new parts. So in went NOS spring packs and spindles, and new bushings that are still available from Deere (borrowed from the X-8 resto). Additionally a set of Joe Wanie's reproduction ski spring sliders were used to tighten up the fit of the front of the spring into the ski. NOS ski pins where the final piece to lock it all down.

The difference was huge. The front end was much tighter with minimal play in the skis. I gave it an eyeball alignment to make sure the ski's were toe out a bit and called it "good enough". Onto the next problem...

[JoeRainville]

There was another steering problem to solve yet however. The 72-73 sleds had a two piece handle bar that used cone shaped washers to keep tight. In this case someone drilled out the holes and just used a larger bolt once the original set up got sloppy. This made things worse, as the bars had about a 1/8 of a turn of slop before engaging the tie rods. Lindner thought it would make the ride more "exciting".

I tried a few things to try to fix it and talking with Brian we thought grinding a taper on some nuts would best work to simulate the original set up. After giving up on that, I just pounded in a carriage head bolt, and tightened the heck out of it. Worked well enough for the short term. I will probably have to replace the bars before next year, but this cludge worked for now and finally all the slop was gone.

Claiming victory, I installed the seat and hood and called it a night...

[JoeRainville]

By now it's Thursday night, the evening before the Bogie Bash is scheduled to take place. I have already driven back and forth to retrieve Cari and RJ from the MSP airport and attended the HoF board meeting. Lindner arrived in St. Germain Thursday evening and met me in the garage to do his favorite thing on vacation: work on my junk sleds!

True to his word, he brought along a rebuilt loaner carb that functioned like new. We bolted her up, ran the new fuel line and the in-tank pick up, and she purred like a kitten. Maybe sure purred a little too well...as the darn Salsbury drive clutch locked shut! This could have been one screw up that killed the whole deal. But, we pulled it off and found the manual was almost no help in taking the clutch apart. So we did it the hard way.

Once the cover was off we found all three rollers were locked over-center on the roller plate that was probably supposed to prevent that. While trying to undo that mess, we accidentally sent that triangular piece flying up into the wall, just missing Brian's head and the window in the garage. Lucky on both counts. After that we found the clutch to be in fair shape, gave it a quick clean up and put it back together. We then installed one of the new drive belts Matt had drop shipped me to prevent that from happening again...

[JoeRainville]

With the sled running and the track adjusted Brian gave me a hand with the body work. We installed the motor cover and the windshield and at some point I got to finally use one of those NOS 1972 snowflap kits I bought off eBay a few years back.

The sled was pointed out the door, and was ready as we could make it for "Katie's Bogie Bash" the next day. So far this sled had been very good to me. I stuck to some basic rules of not painting anything, fix what was needed by priority and ask advice from someone who restored a 72 recently.

I took it for a lap around the parking lot and called it good. Still didn't have a working electrical system, but would she survive the ride? There was only one way to find out...

[400brian]

Sometime before Joe got to St Germain, I revisited the fuel pickup fitting issue. He had said he had some, I asked if they were NOS or what? He replied that they were for his late model Cat. I replied: Dude, does your Cat use 1/4" fuel line? Do the fittings have the check ball to stop the fuel from running back to the tank? His reply was; I forgot about that. So then he says; I'll pick one up in St Germain tomorrow. I said; great, let me know how that works out.

So Monday or Tuesday night I am talking with him, and he says; I couldn't find any of those fuel pickups in St Germain. I say yeah, being as they haven't used them for 30 years, I don't know why that would be! So he goes: do you have any of those? This is when I start laughing hysterically! He wants to know what is so damn funny? I say; I have been waiting for this moment for two weeks!

As to the carb. The 72 400s use a WR-7 Walbro. They use the same gaskets and diaphragms as the 73-75 sleds, but the carb itself does not interchange because it has a smaller mounting flange. The one I had was the carb off the stablemate to the one I restored a few years ago. I had ran it through the solvent at the time I was restoring the 72, assembled it without gaskets, put it in a ziploc bag, and put it on the shelf. Joe wants me to bring it along, so I find it, and begin going through it on the Tuesday night before we leave. I examine all the fuel ports to see if they are clear, blow the main body out, scrub the surface oxidation off with a brass bristle brush, and examine the needle with a magnifying glass. It all looks good, so I begin re-assembly. I took my best guess on the metering arm, find a rebuild kit, then call it a night.

Wednesday night I am back at it. I replace the orange umbrella valve, then start assembling the plates. I coat all the gaskets and rubber diaphragms with a very thin film of Vaseline. Troy Miley put me on to this years ago, this allows you to disassemble the carb at a later date without the gaskets sticking and tearing.

Once the carb is together, I pull the seals out of the mixture screw bores, replace them with new ones, and set the screws a turn and a half out. The last thing I did was give each side of the choke and throttle shafts a drop of light oil. The carb then went in the ziploc bag. I was looking for something to put it in, when I spotted a box under the bench that a 72 jug had came in. I figure a JD box would be good luck, so the carb went in, and I tossed the fuel pickup fitting in as well. All I had to do was make sure I got it into the truck before we left.

When I offered to bring the carb along, I had pointedly told him that when I got up there Thursday night, that I would have better things to do than work on his sled in the motel garage all night! However, after we returned from Fibbers, I was out in the garage, wrenching on his sled.

OK, I will admit that I had gotten caught up in the whole "can I get a sled ready in a month" question. And I did think that getting Rainville on a mid-mount would be entertaining! But the bigger reason is that over the last 10 years, Joe has helped me out on numerous occasions, so it was only right.

We got the fresh carb installed, and Joe comes out with a can of starting fluid. I say no dude, use some premix. He insists it will be OK, I say OK, but I am going to stand way over there by Wade! He gives it a shot and pulls the rope, and the thing fires up and runs like a champ! This is GREAT!

Time for a belt and a test run, when we notice the clutch is fully closed...

I have no issues with the little Salsbury clutch, Deere used it on the 300 throughout its run. Joe's 400 is showing 1400 miles, and I did not see any significant wear. The rollers are rusted from sitting, that is about it. But here is the deal; on Comet clutches, a couple tools make working on them much easier. On the Salsbury, there is at least one tool you need to avoid personal injury! It is very simple, it is a medium size flat blade screwdriver, with the tip bent slightly, and a hole drilled in it. You put the tag end of the roller arm spring through the hole, then you pry the spring off, taking the tension off the arm. These springs are like the spring of a mouse trap, and the stored energy is likewise looking to bite you!

The electrical system healing itself Friday morning was insane! When he told me nothing worked, including shutting the engine off, right off the top of my head I told him that he had no ground. You don't need to be an electrical whiz to suspect that. Obviously it is now making contact.

This sled really wanted to live again!

One other thing; I was pretty sure you could not re-install the engine cover on a 72 without removing the seat. The 73 on ups, yes, done it many times, but they have a larger access cover on top. We did get the cover back on the sled with the seat on it! Took a couple of tries, the technique I use with the X8 didn't work, you have to stretch the plastic a bit more than I liked, but we got it on!

[jep_800]

This is a great run down guys! I don't think most guys would attempt this short of a build to get a sled ready to ride (especially in kit form), but with your guys' experience, it has a better than average shot of success. And it was a success, even though there had to be a trail side repair!

Brian, JDJR, I will be bringing a pack again next year, but I didn't like how bulky it got while riding. Maybe part of it was how damn warm it was when we were riding. My back was cooking being it was 50+ degrees, and the pack was jet black in color. I'm going to trim back what comes along, but try to include essentials. It always seems like what you don't bring is what you need, but a 50% plan well executed is better than a 100% plan too late.

Jason

[JoeRainville]

Thanks Jason! Note that Brian and I aren't saying that this is the way things "should" be done, only that it can be done, LOL! It was way to easy to over look one small detail, like replacing the impulse line, in such a time crunch. But it was fun to be under the gun a bit.

Luckily the sled was good to us as almost every turn. I had a 73 JDX-8 back in 83-84, but I had been working on restoring mine over the last year and a half to refresh my memory on how to wrench on them. But Lindner having restored his 72 a few years back was probably the biggest help. We were on the phone several times per week checking on progress and comparing notes. I really have to blame him for encouraging me to get this 72 done after it became apparent that my 73 X-8 was not going to be ready in time again. Nothing like a deadline to motivate you!

And now for the "rest of the story..."

[JoeRainville]

Friday Morning (February 17th, 2017) the small, dedicated, (maybe a bit crazy) crew began to gather out in front of the Whitetail. I fired up the 400 and drove her out of the garage and took her for a short test ride down the trail, passing Lindner coming the other way on Katie's 400. Must have been some magic 400 mojo in the air, as Brian witnessed a small miracle happen right in front of him: My headlight came on! And from that moment on the entire electrical system 'healed' and worked fine all weekend. The headlight, taillight, kill switch and key switch now all functioned normally and still do.

While a good sprite found my sled, one left Brian's 400 and it had to be left behind. While we gathered at Dave's trailer, I only saw Brian there, not Katie. He said her sled was having one of its infamous temperamental fits and she was not joining us. I look over and see Mrs. Lindner, all dressed to ride, walking toward the hotel from Brian's trailer. "To hell with that!" I say. I asked Brian if she would like to ride Cari's Sprintfire. So I ran over, grabbed the sled, and rode it over and offered it to Katie. She was a bit reluctant since I needed it the next day, but I would have none of that. She got "upgraded" to an oil injected, slide rail, liquid cooled dream machine, LOL!

Once we were all done fiddling with our sleds, the 6 of us took off toward Sayner. Captain Clark and his nephew Andrew on a Cyclone and an 800 respectively, the Lindners on a JDX-8 and a Sprintfire, Jason on his better than new 800 and me on the recently re-assembled 400. For the first time, not only was the "Bogie Bash" half bogie sleds, but once again we were all JD's.

"What could possibly go wrong?" Well...almost everything...

[JoeRainville]

I never knew how long the 15 minute ride to Sayner could take. Turns out an hour or so is not out of the question. Andrew's 800 was acting up. Who needs the high tension side of the CDI anyway? Then my 400 was dying out, but would run with about 3/4 choke. However, Brian's carb had the choke cable hook up on the opposite side of the carb from mine, so I had to ride it with my hand down in the motor cover, manually modulating the choke lever. Not fun.

So we finally checked it out just outside Sayner and found that we had the fuel and return lines hooked up backwards at the tank so it was pulling air, and on further inspection, the impulse line was split lengthwise. After the well prepared Jason saved my tail from his magic back pack, the 400 was stuborn to re-fire, but once started, she ran, and started easily the rest of the day.

And we were off...but burned a lot of time just to make it to Sayner. But we did make it to the Mobile station to regroup...

[JoeRainville]

We had originally planned to be "Katie's Bogie Bash to Bolder" and have lunch at Bolder Junction. But with all the goofing around, we almost became the BB to Sayner! In recognition of the time burn, and still wanting to get back to the HoF for the cookout, Brian suggested we jump across the lakes and hit Stillwaters. We have driven by the place a million times, but like Brian said, never stopped in. So we pulled in, snapped a few photo's, definitely got the attention of a few of the locals with our old iron, and sat down for nice meal.

The return ride was almost uneventful...until Dave's Cyclone ran out of fuel on Star Lake. The carb on his 78 Cyclone was out of adjustment and it could drink some serious gas. We got it taken care of, and we all headed back to St. Germain and made a "Triumphant" entrance into the HoF parking lot in plenty of time to enjoy the cookout

In summary, it was a thrash to get the sled ready, but worth every hour to get to spend the afternoon with such a great group of guys. If there was an award for "Bogieing with Distinction" it would go to Jason Peterson and his beautiful 800. I am already on Lindner's case to completely rebuild Katie's 400 motor from the crank up, and my 400 will get the clutches properly serviced, along with some paint on the black steel parts in preparation for next year. Oh, and I should rebuild my own carb so I can return Brian's loaner.

Thanks for the all help Lindner and for a great day of riding guys. See you next year...for the "Bogie Bash to...where ever we make it to..."
-Joe Rainville

[400brian]

Getting this sled running for the Bogie Bash turned out to be one of the more satisfying things we have ever done at the RWTC. Maybe not as big a deal as finishing the Vintage Challenge, but a big deal nevertheless. Joe claims the sled was resurrected in 3 weeks of wrenching in Texas, and 3 days in St Germain! If it hadn't been successful it wouldn't have been as much fun to say the least, but the fact that several problems were overcome there at the motel garage and then out on the trail, add to the feeling of accomplishment !

The hard part is done, now all he has to do is pretty it up a bit, and he has a great rider.

How about you? If Rainville can do a sled in 3 weeks and 3 days, anyone else can surely do one over the summer. Restoring them is for the most part overkill unless you have a basket case. I figure the CCW / Kioritz engines are good for at least 3000 miles if they had any kind of care at all, and most seem to be well under that. Freshen up a mid-mount and enjoy some real basic snowmobiling! Rainville was grinning like an idiot all afternoon, he was having so much fun. He really needs to find a JD suit though, the Arctic wear on a vintage Deere is gay.

Fridays ride was the high-lite of the weekend for me, the photos look so great! Plan to come up and join the fun!