Cyclones!!!

[HoosierDeereMan]

Brian,

Very nice looking sled. Katy won't want anything to do with a mid mount after riding the Cyclone.

I would seriously consider a rewound stator and Hewtech CDI if you can get them. Some things a scarce right now. I've been burned by the old stators and CDI's. It's crazy, they fire right up that morning and everything is going great. As the morning wears on you start to feel pretty confident about how it's running. Then you stop for lunch or make a gas stop. You pull the rope and nothing! Yep key is on, kill switch is off, try again. Nothing! Trailer time! Has happened to me twice.

[jdjock]

I would check the drive end of the track drive shaft to see if the small key has twisted off. Lots of these low miles sleds are not, because of this problem. I’ve found this out the hard way. Maybe you have already checked it. Tom

[400brian]

I would check the drive end of the track drive shaft to see if the small key has twisted off. Lots of these low miles sleds are not, because of this problem. I’ve found this out the hard way. Maybe you have already checked it. Tom

Good point! That has occurred to me in recent days. The driveshaft is coming out to replace the white drivers, so I will know the truth eventually.

[400brian]

Crank seals going in. As you can see they needed to be replaced.

PTO side first, clean up the shaft, the case opening, a little lube, a little sealant, and wrestle that bugger in there!

[400brian]

Mag side next.

Philips head screws were messed up. Stator screws came hard, trigger screws were way worse. Heat got 3 out, but the top screw stripped out. I drilled the head off, got the trigger off, put the heat right where it needed to be and turned it out with the Vicegrips. Socket heads will be sourced for re-assembly.

Always an adventure.

[400brian]

Mag side seal is out and the clean up begins.

I pack a strip of oil soaked paper towel into the bearing to keep the grit out. Then I degrease the shaft and polish it with 600 grit. Clean the case opening and remove any burrs found.

I give the bearing a squirt of 2 stroke oil, put a bit of tape over the key to protect the seal, and give the shaft a film of oil. I put a bit of sealant around the case opening, oil the seal opening, slide the seal over the shaft, then tap the seal into place. For whatever reason, these always seem to go into place much easier.

[400brian]

On to fan bearings!

These fan towers are always so nasty looking! I have sanded them smooth and polished them, but when you get them cleaned up you find they are fairly rough and there are a lot of imperfections, so it takes a lot of work and then in the end they really do not polish up all that nice, at least that is my experience. I have soda blasted them, which takes off the oxidation and brightens them up, and that seems to work very well on the cases, but leaves the towers lacking. I want it to look like new, whatever or however I think that looks. Well it is too cold to any soda blasting anyway, so I cleaned the worst of the gray fur off with 220 grit sandpaper, then worked it over with a maroon Scotchbrite pad. Hey it's better than it was.

The new bearings are in, they haven't been fully seated in t he pic, but I did remember to put the spacer in between them! Just need to source a new fan belt.

[nick80lf]

[400brian]

So I have been showing how to freshen up a Kioritz engine. We have been harping on the new guys coming into the hobby to change the seals ASAP, so the question of how to do that comes up all the time. I have personal experience with the Kioritz engines, I believe the same procedures can be used on the Kohlers. I would not suggest doing this to a Kawasaki, as they are more like a swiss watch, and don't seem to have as much tolerance to things not being perfect.

The mid-mount models have been my area of interest. On those sleds the seals and fan bearings can all be replaced without removing the engine from the chassis. The engine I have been photographing for this thread is a 340 out of a 76 Cyclone. On that sled it appears necessary to pull the engine to change crank seals.

So after the seals have been replaced, I like to replace the fan bearings and belt. Generally I find at least one of the two bearings will be rough sounding, but you have to remove the bearings and spin them one at a time to hear it. I no longer check them, I just replace them. They are common metric bearings. There are shims and spacers that need to kept track of. The belt tension is adjusted by adding or removing shims between the sheave halves behind the fan.

Replacing the belt is a no-brainer. Many, but not all of the Kioritz engines used a JD M65414 belt. That belts converts to 9.5 mm wide x 650 mm long, your mileage may vary.

The kids often pick up a sled free or cheap, and they are unwilling to spend the money to buy a clutch and a flywheel puller. The first question is often; how can I make this sled go faster? We tell them they are going to blow up the engine unless they change the seals and update the cooling system, but often that falls on deaf ears with predictable results.

[400brian]

We got the Cyclone rolled on her back on Sunday. From this angle you can see the typical dead center impact damage that seems to required.

I was surprised to see that the sled already has black drivers on it! The 2/3rds cleated track looks quite serviceable, with a few dinged cleats, but not too bad.

Note the O-ring sticking out of the bearing!

I am still thinking of installing a 78 suspension along with a 78 cleated track that I put some picks in years ago.

In for a penny, in for a pound.

[400brian]

Pulling spindle bushings. This tool works the best of any method I have tried to date.
Pieces include a piece of 3/8" redi-rod, a length of thick wall tube, and a recycled bushing.
The real benefit here as that you can apply tension to the part, then apply heat or persuasion via the BFH.

I did warm this one with the propane torch, which normally doesn't get things hot enough to help, tapped on things lightly, made sure the puller was wound tight, then put a socket over the nut on the end and added the persuasion. You will know it has moved when you can tighten the puller more. A little PB Blaster can't hurt, and the bushing was out.

This one wasn't rusted bad at all, others I have done required the oxy/acetylene torch, and red hot to break the bond. These bushings need to be greased and free to turn in the spindle. Once seized, the bolt turns in the bushing, or the spring saddle begins rocking on the bolt, none of which is good.

The tube I am using here is longer than it needs to be, because I use the same tool to pull suspension shafts out of the tubes.

[nick80lf]

The o-ring looks impressive.

I've always found that setup a little odd. I get it but the oil can still leak past the clearance between the bearing and drive shaft.

[400brian]

The Cyclone got side tracked as I got ready to go to ERX, then after we got back I got sidetracked putting a set of plastic skis on the 73 X8 before we headed up to St Germain for the RWTC.

The Hewtech stator is installed with socket head screws, and the recoil starter got the gray fur polished off and installed. I purchased several belts, and wound up installing a 10A685.

[400brian]

The intake manifold studs were messed up, it appears that someone cranked SAE nuts onto the metric studs. So after some consideration I decided to swap the entire manifold out. I have never messed with reeds before, but being as I had cracked the manifold off, I figured I should go in all the way. So I took it down to the case, cleaned everything up, and reinstalled it all.

[400brian]

I have had this 78 suspension restored and loosely assembled sitting in my basement for years. The plan is to slide this into the 76 Cyclone.

The shafts are all greased and all of the fasteners are tightened up with Loctite. Should be ready to go.