A Liquidator, Leubner, the I-500 and Me...

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Wed Mar 06, 2019 3:03 pm

It's a well documented fact that my luck racing the one day vintage class of the I-500 hasn't always gone well since the very first running in 2011. Before this year, my 80 Liquifire has only managed 2 finishes, once with me on board in 2014, and last year with my teammate and mechanic Adam Leubner piloting her.

It's been a comedy of errors like not being prepared, hitting large rocks that induce 60 mph cartwheels and CDI boxes that have suddenly gone rouge. Even when you think you have the Liquifire sorted out, things can break like the 4 rear wheel Cat ZR rear axle set up did this year on Adam.

As I noted in the thread I started about building the I-500 Liquidator from a junk tunnel and a box a loose motor parts, Adam really pushed me to move on from the Liquifire and build a Liquidator. He did most of the assembly work, all the motor work, and really pushed me to make it happen. It was a team effort that came up short last year, but not this year: I finished the 125 miles of the I-500 on a real, live Liquidator...

And as you can image, there is a story to tell.

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Wed Mar 06, 2019 3:41 pm

We will rewind to last fall, just before Thanksgiving. Adam had already rebuilt the Liquidator from last years I-500 attempt. This year she has nicasil bores over the iron as she scuffed one last year. Cari and I were flying up to see her family in NY for Thanksgiving, so I was planning to help Adam with the sled. He had talked me into a dyno tuning session at Jim Czekala's Dyno Tech Research in Batavia, NY and I am very glad we did it.

Squish was too large with the thicker Cometic gasket, so I swapped it back to the thinner one for the run. We loaded up my Dator motor, stock and Aaen pipes, his Cat motors, spares and after a brief 4 hrs of sleep we headed out.

This was time and money well spent. We found out the Aaen pipes are oversized for the little Dator, but in the rush to leave we forgot the stock stubby manifolds. So, we were not able to run the stock pipes this time. We were able to run the Aaen pipes on a stock Deere muffler which not only reduced sound, but gained back a lot of power. We made the needed tuning adjustments that would could to deal with the pipes, and went on to testing Adam's Cat motors for his new racer....

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Wed Mar 06, 2019 3:55 pm

Around Christmas time Adam let me know that his new Cat racer was NOT going to be ready for the I-500. Even with the motor and chassis complete, he was just too busy with work and finishing up the Liquidator to do all the finishing work on the Cat. Well, I can't let him come be a spectator, so I told him I would try to prep the Liquifire for him to run again.

But, it was going to be a big job. It was going to need a total motor rebuild after being run out of oil last year (and still finishing!) not to mention she had well over a thousand miles since her last rebuild. The sled was probably due for chassis bearings, not to mention a suspension rebuild and regular race maintenance.

Luckily, I already had a spare Jerome Kretzman crank, Wiseco pistons and nicasil cylinders on the shelf. To that I added an NOS stator, new coil and after further inspection, and NOS set of cases and good used heads. Also ordered new bearings for the drive axle and jackshaft, and ordered idler wheel bearings for the skid. But it was already early January, and the race was Feb 9th...

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Wed Mar 06, 2019 5:20 pm

Aside from being under time pressure to get the basically new Liquifire motor together, another neat thing about it is that it will go down as the first motor Richard helped me with. He was very adamant that I let him help, and he even learned how to put sockets on bolts and snug them down. Working with my boy was probably the best part of this project.

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Thu Mar 07, 2019 10:31 am

Moving to the chassis, I had a lot of do and a short time to get it all done. The track, skid, drive axle and jackshaft were all removed. Found one SNAFU in that the jackshaft was toast, again. Luckily Tom Rowland of Thomas' SnoSports came to the rescue and sourced me another used Cat one just in time.

And it was time to replace all the bearings, things were starting to get a little crunchy in places. Surprisingly a few idlers were locked up, or close to it. The same bearings we have purchasing from Wahl Bros. Racing for the large 7 1/8" aluminum idlers for the 74-78 sleds also fit these 6 3/8" plastic idlers, but are of course much easier to install.

Luckily despite years of abuse the studded Kimpex track is holding up great. It shows some wear, but for well over 1,000 miles and many high speed blasts in ditches and lakes at high speeds, (the 100 mph speedo read as high at 90+ at times, act speeds unknown) it still looks surprisingly good and was pressed back into duty.

All 4 shocks were pulled and fortunately found to be charged and functional. No doubt they will need a rebuild after this year...

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Thu Mar 07, 2019 10:45 am

Calling the motor "rebuilt" isn't exactly accurate since only the flywheel, it's housing and recoil, the new CDI Box from last year, the gearbox, water and oil pumps, and a few manifolds actually carried over from the old engine. Everything else was new, reconditioned, rebuilt or NOS parts. Kind of like "Grampa's Ax"...

One large chassis part that was replaced after the motor was installed was the wiring harness. Luckily I had a spare NOS one on the shelf as this one has burned wires at the motor plug again, killing the lights when Jason borrowed her last year on the VC. So good bye to wiring issues and burned out bulbs.

I also grabbed a hood from the barn and added a few stickers for Adam "I am not a John Deere Guy" Leubner to race with. Considering it was his second time racing the Liquifire, I figured he should have his own hood and not have to duct tape over my name on the old one.

"Furious Adam" refers to his affinity to Suzuki Fury sleds. I always say that "Hell have no wrath like Adam's Fury"...

With the Liquifire mostly assembled, I had to move onto the Liquidator suspension. I was still waiting for a weather delayed box that had new carb boots and some carb parts and such, but that would have to wait. I had a skid to build so I could race in a week.

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:26 pm

With the Liquifire set aside until more parts showed up, I finally jumped onto rebuilding the Liquidator rear skid. The Dator racer is built to be a "77 Style Updated-Up-Dator" with an aluminum suspension. I even used a spare set of Up-Dator wheel kit brackets, but with larger idler wheels as I am running a rubber track instead of the original cleated one. Luckily I had already sent the rear shocks out to Carver to be rebuilt and re-calibrated, and had received them back by early December. We chose to soften up the damping 'about 10%' from last year as Adam noticed the sled would occasionally want to kick you in the tail over moguls and bigger bumps. Turns out it was a good call.

The rest of the skid was basically "clean, inspect and repaint" before assembly, and I replaced the slides as a bent track clip chewed one up on the side a bit. The rear wheels posed a small problem, as I found that despite them being rebuilt by our idler wheel expert Lindner, the bearings were all toast. I started to rebuild another set, but get distracted by truck projects like fuel injection and water pumps.

So, I "Pulled a Rainville" as Lindner would put it. I tore the rear axle out of every steel skid I had until I had a pile of aluminum centered idlers to choose from. I picked the best two of the "late" style" with the large opening and black spacer/seal around the bearing and re-used them. For the center position, I installed a new bearing in a plastic 78 340 Cyclone idler and ran that. Problem solved for this year.

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:55 pm

I spent Monday the 4th loading the trailer and doing any finishing work I could on the Liquifire. Finally on Tuesday, the much delayed, but very much needed parts box arrived. I hurried and installed the Mikuni carb boots and finished the underhood work on the sled, fired it up, did a quick track alignment and got her ready to load.

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:59 pm

Wednesday the 6th was spend finishing the Liquifire, loading the trailer and installing the vinyl strip door that showed up on Monday.

Finally, well into RMT I pulled out of warm, sunny DFW Wednesday evening, around 5:30 and pointed the dually toward the frozen north. Adam was already in Thief River, and let me know it was sub-zero and that I would be better off finishing the Liquifire in DFW vs. trying to wrench in below zero weather, especially since I didn't have a decent generator.

Little did I know what adventures the trip up to TRF had in store...

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Thu Mar 07, 2019 7:48 pm

The drive north started off well enough. After doing a ton of work on the old '07 Dually this fall, she was running good and steering straight. She was due for some serious maintenance after nearly 240k miles, and I didn't want to have any issues on this trip. It was still nearly 73 degrees at 6:00pm after peaking at 75 earlier that day.

But the temperature was dropping fast as I hit the OK boarder, only an hour and a half away from home. Farther north the "Check Engine" light came back on. Not happy after replacing the injection pump, all soft fuel lines and filter head back in December needless to say.

By OKC it dropped to 31 and raining...time to watch for ice already. And then it got really fun crossing a bridge...sideways. Hit an expansion join and the back of the dually kicked out rather abruptly. I had already slowed down to below the speed limit. After straightening out the truck and trailer, I slapped her in 4-Hi and slowed down a bit more. It kept getting worse with sleet and freezing rain accumulating on the roads and no plow trucks.

I was talking to Lindner around this time, telling him that I had planned to drive through the night to make sure we had test and tuning time in TRF, but going 45 mph wasn't working for me. So I pulled over around 1:00 in northern OK at a Casino/Hotel and gambled that the roads would be better after the sun came up.

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Sat Mar 09, 2019 11:34 am

Once morning hit in northern Oklahoma, the roads were much better so I hit the highway. I was in contact with Adam so he knew I was running behind, but I still should have been able to arrive in TRF by late Thursday night. This would give us all day Friday to test and tune, and give me time to install the race skid in the Dator.

I was also in touch with Adam's father Bill, who was several hours ahead of me. Bill was working in Kanas City and was driving up from there. He was advising me about the weather, so I was keeping my eyes out. But so far, the trip from Kanas up to Nebraska was pretty uneventful...

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Sat Mar 09, 2019 12:33 pm

Luckily I made really good time north into South Dakota. If everything went well, I could make TRF by midnight or so Thursday night. But this was me, and everything never goes well. Bill was several hours north of me, and had been parked in Fargo, ND. They closed I-29 to all traffic. OK, that was only a few hours away from the Casino, so if I made it that far I could still get to town early in the morning. Rumor was the highway would be open by 5:00 am.

Except for one more hitch. South Dakota closed I-29 too, and much earlier, and much farther south. I found a traffic gate shut at I-29 and I-90, over FIVE hours from the casino and TRF. Rats.

OK, let Adam know, hit the rack early, and got up at 4:00 for the expected 5:00am reopening...

But they didn't reopen the road until 7:00am. Then it gets really aggravating. it got cold that night, down to about -15. Shouldn't have been a problem, but it very much was. I woke up to dead batteries and gelled fuel. We tried for an hour to jump the stubborn SOB to no avail. Running short on ideas and not wanting to get the truck towed, I called a Chevy dealer and had new batteries delivered...and they brought the wrong ones. So I rode back to dealership with my old ones to fix that. Finally, got the truck started, let the bottle of "Diesel Medic" do its job and let some heat thaw the fuel filter. Finally pulled out of Sioux Falls, SD around 1:00 pm Friday. Race was the next morning, and I was at least 5-6 hours out. GREAT.

And stupid me never thought to call my crew, Dustin Elder, who just happens to be a Diesel mechanic, and only lives a few hours from where I was stranded. I finally pulled into the drivers meeting while it was half over (again). It was down to -25 that night, the heaters wouldn't light, so we elected to get up early and deal with the sleds in AM. Dustin, Adam, Bill and I crashed early...

jep_800 · Post by **jep_800** » Mon Mar 11, 2019 6:05 am

Like the write-up Joe.... keep it coming.

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:50 am

Thanks Jason, hope you are enjoying the craziness...

So it's -25 degrees out Saturday morning, February 9th. Its the first day of the I-500 and the 'one day' classes are going to run. The modern sleds are running two laps around the 125 mile loop, while vintage, classic IFS and juniors are doing one 125 mile lap. As usual (and luckily in this case), vintage goes out dead last.

We left my dually at the track, so Dustin and I took his Buick to the trailer and grabbed the Propane bottles and heaters, and left them in his car to warm up while we met up with Adam and Bill for a quick breakfast in Goodridge. We went over everything that needed to happen in just a few hours for both of us to make to the line. Suspension swap and windshield on the Dator, the Liquifire needed a few things, neither sled had race numbers, etc.

Luckily I have a few friends at the track and stopped by the Dohrn racing trailer. Rick Dohrn was a JD guy, and his boys run Pro and Semi-Pro on new Ski-Doo's. Dillian and his brother Dustin were very, very kind in letting me pinch some trailer space to swap the Dator skid while Adam and Dustin Erickson tended to the Liquifire and get the heaters fired up in my trailer. After I pulled the Dator into their trailer, I said: "Don't worry, I'm not running pro!" Even though they were racing soon themselves the Dohrn boys both lent a hand getting the skids swapped out and dragging the sled around. I replaced the short windshield from last year with a taller 77 Up-Dator / 78 Liquifire height one for this year. They also loaned me some tape to block off part of radiator since it was a bit chilly out. Rick posed for the pic just before I left. I can't express my gratitude enough and hope to return the favor sometime.

Thank you Dohrn Racing!

JoeRainville · Post by **JoeRainville** » Mon Mar 11, 2019 1:02 pm

Returning to my trailer, I found that Dustin and Adam had more or less dealt with the remaining issues on the Liquifire and buttoned her up. We got the sleds tech'd and numbered, and started to finally layer and gear up. But during all this, the 100 plus sleds had already been leaving the starting line. Time was getting SHORT.

I was still in the trailer when I hear them call "Dave Chambers-Vintage +50 class...and that is your 2019 I-500 staring line up folks!" I finished pulling on my helmet, didn't grab my glasses, did grab my goggles and said to Adam: "We got to go, and go now!" He handed me a pack of hand warmer packets and said: "Just rip this open, they activate in air". Had he not done that last act of support, I would have been screwed later on...

So I pull up to the starting line and yell "Can I go"? The flag man asked if I had a transponder, which I pointed to my pocket. He waved the flag, and once again, a Liquidator was starting the I-500.