Cyclones!!!

[400brian]

So I have always wondered what the weight difference between the 76 and 78 suspensions was. Being as I had the 78 sitting on the bench, I set it on the scale. The result was an indicated weight of 42.4 lbs.

I pulled the 76 suspension out of the cyclone, along with the spring adjuster brackets, as they are not used with the 78. The 76 suspension came in at 53.8 lbs.

So the 78 is 11.4 lbs lighter, which is more than I expected.

[AirborneX4Special]

Documented evidence that Deere worked hard to trim weight from their sleds and still maintain reliability.

[400brian]

So with the suspension wrestled out of the tunnel, the next thing was to remove the drive axle. My brother had put black drivers and new bearings in, but a piece of the o-ring was sticking out of the flange, and I have a different track in mind.

You really need a second pair of hands to remove the bolts from the flanges, but with the help of a pair of Vice-grips, I got all 6 out. Once the axle was out, I took a good look at the bearing surfaces on the shaft. The chaincase side looked fine, but then they always do. The opposite end looked a little suspect, and running a finger across it it I could feel a ridge. The bearing was slightly loose on the shaft, and there are several things you could do to fix that. I have tried a bit of blue loctite, but the stuff sets up before you can get things in proper position, which is bad. I have welded them up and turned them back to size, but that is a lot of effort.

[400brian]

I decided to see what i had on hand. I picked one out of the parts pile that looked good, and took it down to the garage for closer inspection. This one still had the white drivers on it, they are cracked as they all typically are, so the first thing is to get them off.

There any number of methods to do this. Generally the aluminum hubs are either loose on the steel shaft, or solidly frozen to it, and if it is the later driving them off is not an option. I have cut them to pieces with the angle grinder, but for these I decide to try a hacksaw and chisel.

If they are cracked all the way to the edge you just apply the chisel and split them apart. On the first one that worked perfectly, on the second the retaining bolt through the shaft was seized, and the crack didn't go to the edge. So I took the hacksaw and cut the driver down to the hub. The saw cut it like butter, and once that was done the chisel split the driver in two. I had to cut the bolt off flush with the hub, then drove it out with a punch.

To remove the aluminum hub, I clamped it in the vice with one of the indentations up, then cut down towards the shaft with the saw. Once I was close to the shaft, I sat the hub on the anvil of the vice, and applied the chisel to the saw cut to split the hub. I saw no need to mess with the center wheel on the shaft, so I left it alone. I cleaned the rust off the shaft on each side most of the way to the center wheel, as you need to slide the drivers over to reinstall the flange bolts.

[400brian]

Once I had the shaft cleaned up enough that the black drivers would slide on smoothly, I tested bearing fitment. I'd had to file a slight ridge off of the splined end of the shaft where the spacer between the chain sprocket and bearing had mushroomed the edge slightly to get the old bearing off that end.

The opposite end looked good, no wear was obvious, but a new bearing was still a loose enough fit that it was likely to turn on the shaft. This may sound like over-kill, but I decided to knurl the shaft a little to correct this. Now when I say knurl, I mean shade tree mechanic knurling. I set the bearing surface of the shaft on the vise anvil, and while rolling it back and forth I tapped the claw of a carpenters hammer all over it. Not crazy hard, just enough to raise a little metal, and I tried to do this evenly all the way around. When the bearing fit snuggly enough that the inner race stayed put while turning the outer race, I declared victory.

[400brian]

Here is something I have ran into before as well. Graphic evidence of issues with the original bonded on cleated track. Had to remove a piece of broken cleat from my 74 JDX8, and did it again on this sled. This piece of cleat has a bolt in the end instead of a rivet, so apparently a repair was not real successful.

[AirborneX4Special]

My initial ride on the grouser bar train was an entire track of bolted bars that sort of worked if you were ambitious enough to check all of them twice daily, which seldom happened. When the inevitable crash bang ripped track occurred it was on to a complete bonded bar track. That worked great for nearly 75 or so miles when the first bars started peeling off and I was introduced to the drudgery of drilling and pop riveting an entire track. Whoever made the bonded bar product decision deserved a wooden mallet on certain soft tissue.

[400brian]

When I re-cleated the Kimpex 2/3 track that I had worn through the cleats on, I used NOS Deere rivet replacement bolts. I used red Loctite on them , and so far no issues, but re-cleating an entire track is a big project.

[400brian]

So the track I plan to install is the 78 that came with the skid. Many years ago I installed Woodie's Gold Diggers in this with the idea of running it in the 78 LF. The belts look pretty good, this was a low mileage sled, but some of the cleats are pretty corroded, my guess is that it sat on a dirt floor for some time.

The plan is to take stock of the situation, I do have some Deere style cleats, so I may replace the worst of them. It is actually a fair amount of work to install the pics. You have to chisel off the rivets and knock them out, then drill out the 3/16" holes to match the 7mm pics. The cleats are hardened, so you pretty much have to use carbide bits, then install the pic, and I use Loctite in addition to the nyloc nut. So I have motivation to use this track as the work has been done.

[400brian]

So I got started with the track repair. Looks like I will be replacing right around 18 cleats, between rust and damage.

One thing I am finding is it is a lot easier to drill the cleats for the picks with the drill press than a hand drill, which is how I had to do it in the past.

[400brian]

Have 15 new cleats loosely assembled. If I would have remembered to grab my bottle of red Loctite from the shop I could be done with the job.

So after the red Loctite is applied, everything will get its final torque down.

[400brian]

So I stood the track on edge, loosened the fasteners a few at a time, applied the red Loctite, and tightened everything up. So, I think the track is ready!

I discovered that the 78 suspension bolts directly into the tunnel. It does not bolt through the steel brackets as the 76 does, so I removed them. In the pic I am showing my removal method. I am working on the sled inside an attached garage, and I am not comfortable using the grinder and throwing sparks around in here. So I used the air chisel to cut the rivets on the cleats, and here I am using a nut splitter to crack the nuts to remove them.

The nuts broke loose, but before they were off the bolt, the carriage head would turn in the square hole in the boards. So, I cracked them open. These 4 brackets should have been on the 76 suspension when I weighed it, as it adds a little more to the total 76 weight.

The next thing is to measure the 78 tunnel, and locate the exact location of the four mounting holes. I know there is an inch difference in the distance between the mounting shafts of the two suspensions. So I know I am going to have to move at least one set, and possibly both.

[400brian]

So just an update on the 78 suspension install into a 76 Cyclone.

All four holes in the tunnel have to be re-located. Taking some rough measurements of the 78 tunnel the suspension came out of, and comparing that to the Cyclone, the following was observed:

The forward holes in the Cyclone tunnel need to be moved rearward around 2 1/4" and raised about 7/8". The rear holes need to go back around 3".

[400brian]

So I set the 78 suspension on the tunnel, progress right?

So after laying under the 78 tunnel for a while again, I worked to get some accurate measurements. The 78 tunnel has small rectangular steel reinforcing plates inside the tunnel where the suspension shafts tighten up to the sides. They are 1/8" thick.

Measuring at the bottom, both the 76 and 78 tunnels seem to be 16 3/4" wide However, when I place a shaft into the tunnel, two 1/16" thick washers make the shaft fit tightly into the tunnel. I'll check everything I can think off, but right now it looks like plates cut out of 1/16 steel will work in this situation.

Despite all the measuring, I have yet to drill any new holes in the tunnel. The rear hole is just relocated rearward. But the front hole in addition to being moved rearward, also is moved higher in the tunnel. After locating the new position, I found it comes out right on the edge of the inside doubler.
That is going to be impossible to drill by hand. So taking into account that I plan to put plastic skis on this sled ( which raises the front by 1 - 1.5 inches ), I am thinking I will move the location up to the angle reinforcement, so I can drill the hole without it wandering off.

[400brian]

I got sick of looking at the cleat puncture hole in the bulkhead, so that is patched up.