Kevin's Liquifire

[nick80lf]

I have been reluctant to share this because progress has been very slow for all sorts of reasons, life, covid supply chain issues, the list goes on. Hang with me this will be a long ride.

So back in Nov of 2020 I’m at work and my boss tells me that he purchased some farm stuff from a guy that had passed and while he was there he noticed a Liquifire sitting under the lean to on the side of the barn. He was going to pick up some more items he had purchased and asked if I would like photos of the Liquifire. At the time I had been seriously questioning my sanity with this hobby so my response was something along the lines of “it’s probably another 80 and God knows I have enough of those.” He was persistent about sending me photos and said “If you’re not interested, I’m sure you could help the family find it a new home”. He mentioned that the family was trying to clean up and it could probably be purchased for a song. So one Sunday I’m sitting in the recliner and this is the first photo that comes through as a text message.

This immediately caught my attention because I have always wanted an 82 Liquifire so I spent the next few seconds anxiously awaiting additional photos to download in the text message. So after a short while I received several photos and realized this one is a little rougher than I would like it to be, but what the heck I should go look at it.

I replied saying that I would like to take a look at it, already had my coat on and the truck keys in my hand. Then he replied stating that “we could stop someday after work" because it was very close to where we work. So now that I felt like a kid on Christmas that wasn’t allowed to open presents until my siblings wake up……..what else would I do……start sending these photos to my brother. A few days earlier I had told him that I was expecting photos of a sled so about 10 seconds after hitting the send button my phone was ringing. Right away he says…..you remember that sled don’t you…….ummmm…no. It wasn’t until he told me to look closely at the stripe on the hood that things started to come back to me. If you look closely, the decal had been damaged and someone painted the missing part of the decal on the hood. As it turns out this was the very first snowmobile that I attempted to purchase which would have been the fall of 1996. At the time I didn’t have a clue about Deere sleds other than as a child a family friend would stop by occasionally and give us rides on their new Trailfire, so naturally I wanted a faster sled…..insert Liquifire.

During the summer of 1996 I worked at the local Deere dealership and had asked some of the older mechanics if they knew of anyone that was selling a Liquifire. One of them mentioned that “Kevin” had one that he wanted to sell. Kevin was a farmer that frequently visited the dealership, so after talking with him, my brother and I visited him on a Saturday in the early fall. Unfortunately we never struck a deal, I left empty handed and never thought about the sled again.

[nick80lf]

For some reason my boss insisted on handling the arrangements for me to look at this sled, but like I said I was 99.9% sure I knew where it was located thanks to my brother’s keen memory. After several excruciating days we stopped to take a peek. Sure enough, he was right. It was Kevin's sled. Like I said in 1996 I didn’t have a clue what a HSR or TR-800 was, so I didn’t recall if these were there when I last saw it in 1996. After closer inspection this 82 was very complete, including e-start, and the motor was free. This sled's downfall was that somewhere between when I had last seen it and this November day, it had been moved under this lean to where it was partially exposed to the elements. Kevin’s sister-in-law was handling the details and evidently “a song” turns out to be what I would call fair market value for a sled in this condition. It was too late though, the allure of HSR, TR-800, and e-start had a stranglehold on me.

I will admit that on the drive home I was somewhat excited but at the same time thinking why am I doing this (especially since the boss lady wasn’t informed). I have a strict no mouse policy when it comes to the shop so I backed the truck up to the shop and was expecting to have Larry help unload the goods and de-mouse it. As my luck goes he was with my wife and as I’m getting out of the truck I see her car round the corner. My phone immediately rings, I see it’s the commander…….ugh…..I have to answer now. Needless to say she was not impressed, my penance…….Larry was not allowed to help unload. So this fine specimen of an 82 would have to wait on the truck until the mandatory waiting period passed. Thank God I decided to take the spare truck that day. Three or four days later I enlisted her brother’s help to unload. Ain’t she a beauty Clark!

After de-mousing and a quick scrub it’s time to get it on the lift to prep for surgery. Isn’t it amazing how wetting down a sled drastically improves the appearance!!!

[AirborneX4Special]

Looks pretty good considering the history. I didn't think electric start was available on a Liquifire until 1983 and it's not included in the literature for 82.

[nick80lf]

I have always had the impression the 82's came from the factory with the ring gear and crankcase cutout. I do have a service information sheet which details the installation on the 82's.

[AirborneX4Special]

I bet it depends on the engine series as to the port in the crankcase and the ring gear. I'll have to look at my 83 and see which series it has.

[nick80lf]

When Larry had an opportunity to inspect the sled he immediately noticed several things that I had missed. His first comment was “why does it have one 80 ski and one 82 ski”, this is something that I totally missed. Consequently the 80 ski is on the same side as the damaged decal. The second thing he noticed was a patched TPR panel at the nose of the sled on the left side, again, the same side with the 80 ski. At the time we sort of shrugged it off and put it on the lift in an effort to get the motor out and on the healing bench.

Extracting the motor went well and in no time the motor was on the healing bench. However, once the motor was removed some ugliness was apparent. The bottom of the belly pan had taken a hard hit at some point. It was pushed up to the point that there was not much room for the steering to move. Also the years of wet “stuff” under the motor had taken a toll. The result was some pretty heavy rust pitting under the motor and battery box, but no holes and the metal is solid. It was hard to identify but my assumption is the wet “stuff” we removed was years of decomposed hay or straw (most likely contaminated with hantavirus). Inspection of the steering column revealed that someone had been here before. The aluminum bracket had been welded where the steel column passes through it. My guess is that all of these things are related, I would love to hear the story behind this but it is most likely lost to time now. Even though the weld appeared to be holding, this was a no go for me. I wasn’t going to take a chance on this, so we were going to need an 82+ column.

We then turned our attention back to the motor. The plugs were removed and cylinders oiled. We rolled the engine over by hand a few times and then connected the jump box as a power source. To my surprise the e-start motor was alive and we had strong spark out of the HSR.

(I tried to embed the YouTube video but it doesn't seem to work as it did in the past so here is a link)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rBow5VCQxvw

[ihengineer76]

I’ve owned a few 82’s over the years and I always thought they were a sharp sled. Not really flashy, but just a great overall color scheme. Keep up the great story!

[JDGuy]

Great read, waiting to hear more.

[nick80lf]

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys.

[SS440-80]

Nice story and a interesting upcoming project

[nick80lf]

Photos are a little sparse for this next part but the next order of business was to rebuild the carbs. I recall that one of the choke plungers was stuck. I soaked it for a few days in some secret sauce, applied a little heat and eventually it gave up the fight. My biggest concern with this was not damaging the choke cable. I believe I had to cut the choke spring into little pieces to get a little extra working room.

Once the carbs were complete progress stalled. About this time my wife’s sister purchased a house that is about 1 mile from the Lake Erie shore and felt she needed a golf cart. She found a retired Put-in-Bay golf cart and dropped it off for a little rehab. This turned into a several month project. By the time I got back to the Liquifire it was late May of 2021 and progress was very slow.

In my younger years I always had a policy about only working on sleds in the summer. However, lately I seem to find it hard to find the time to work on them. Lately the kids have wanted to chase “perch eaters” with the in-laws' boat whenever we have some free time.

Anyway these photos were taken in Nov of 2021. As you can see the motor is mostly finished, except for a few details. I have a bad habit of letting small details get in the way of progress. In this case I was trying to get the Kawasaki sticker on the flywheel cover reproduced. In the end I gave up, masked off the decal and carefully glass beaded the flywheel cover. My other stumbling block was the coolant hose. I didn’t like the look of the old coolant hose so I purchased the R121427 hose. I couldn’t find the correct size spring type hose clamp (at a reasonable price) without purchasing a box of 10. Eventually I caved and purchased the box of 10.

Sorry....I have no Idea why the photos are upside down and sideways.

[400brian]

Great project, great story. It is easy to get sidetracked and or distracted. Then there is the realization that you are seeming spending about a $100 a day on sled parts. The wife doesn't bother me about it, and I justify it by reminding myself I don't smoke, hang out in bars, or gamble, but still it can seem a bit nuts. Keep at it, you're doing great!

[nick80lf]

Thanks Brian for the words of encouragement.

[nick80lf]

Once I was finished with the golf cart project, 4H, fishing trips, family vacation camping trip at the lake, camper winterization, in laws boat winterization / trailer wheel -brake rework, and a nice round of COVID it was November of 2021 before I was able to get back to Kevin’s Liquifire. I had the motor complete for the most part so we put that aside and turned our attention to the chassis. The goal was to completely disassemble the sled and gather all of the steel parts in anticipation of having them sandblasted in the spring so they could be primed and painted.

All I have to say is that you guys that always separate the bulkheads and tunnels are animals. I’ve drilled my share of rivets but I found these to be very difficult. As I kept drilling I was thinking to myself that these are not your typical hardware store rivet. After several days of searching I discovered that these are known as structural rivets, specifically Q type from Avdel Cherry aerospace (now part of Stanley Engineered Fasteners). While I was searching for rivets Larry was working over the tunnel and I think it turned out pretty well.

[nick80lf]

While we were waiting for spring I occupied my time by zinc plating some incidentals like skid wheels, and impossible to find hardware.

Once Spring arrived I took all of the steel items to the local sandblaster. I have always wanted a nice blast cabinet but when we did the Snowfire the local place was so reasonable I couldn’t justify it. However, when I picked up the Liquifire parts I had quite the shock. The cost was a little more than 3x what I had paid for the Snowfire sandblasting. Honestly I’m sure what I paid was reasonable, just not as reasonable as a few years ago. This place uses a Diesel powered portable air compressor and I guess $5+ / gal fuel prices must have had an impact.

Anyway, once the parts were back I spent the majority of the summer sanding and priming, priming and sanding. The rust pitting was pretty significant. I think I did 3 or 4 sessions on the bulkhead and a few other parts for the skid. In the end I chose to stop because I was afraid the heavy primer would cause the paint to chip. I also had toyed with the idea of filler but decided not to, again for fear of it falling out at some point.