78 Liquifire rebuild!

[400brian]

I am making all new shafts for the CC suspension. The originals were rusted and corroded, and some I cut up while I was extracting them from the arms. I am no machinist, but I have some cousins over the hill from me that have some machine tools, and I can run a lathe well enough to drill and tap a shaft. 6 shafts are ready to go.

[400brian]

I picked up a Trailfire rear arm off ebay. A very clean part that appears to be straight. It came with all the bits and pieces, but the steel shaft is stuck in the tube. So..., I get to pull another shaft.

The Trailfire arm has the shock mount in the same position as the CC arm, but is longer and will have to be shortened and re-drilled. I will also have to add the tabs to mount the idlers on it, like the 80 LF arm had.

[400brian]

Pulling another shaft. I tried the puller...nothing. Warmed it up twice with the torch...nothing. Let it cool down and tried it again and between tapping on one end and pulling on the other I made progress! I filled the tube with penetrant and am letting it sit overnite. I believe it will be out tomorrow.
I believe patience is a virtue when messing with these things.

[400brian]

For the past week I have been working on and off to pull the shaft out of a Trailfire rear arm that I had purchased off ebay. It had broken loose quite easily, but after that I had spent three days gaining an inch sticking out of the tube. At the end of each session, I would stand the arm up and fill the end of the tube with penetrant.

Thursday I was getting a bit frustrated, and put the impact on the puller, and promptly stripped the threads on the Redi-Rod I was using. I have used this piece of threaded rod to pull several shafts, and as I use the same piece of thick wall tubing in the set up, the threads were getting worn and deformed in the same place and finally let go. I picked up a new piece of rod on Friday, and on Monday I was ready to have another go at it.
I re-squared the ends of my puller tube and removed the squished edge that was forming inside and out. Cut the threaded rod to the length I wanted, and installed the puller to the end I had been dumping the penetrant into. So far, I had never been able to move the shaft that direction more that an 1/8" or so out of the arm. I drilled a small pilot hole in the head of the 3" bolt I installed into the opposite end of the shaft, so that I could use the air hammer on it.

I fairly quickly and easily pulled the shaft back to its flush position, where the pulling began in earnest once again. It soon became apparent that things had changed a bit for the better. Progress was slow, but things were moving! I would wind the puller tight, hit the bolt on the other end with the air hammer, rinse and repeat. I soon had pulled the bolt head up to the tube, so I removed it and threaded in a 5 1/2" bolt. By the time that bolt head was up to the end of the tube I no longer needed to use the air hammer. It wasn't pulling easy, but I was in no danger of stripping the threads anymore.

I had the shaft out about half way when I bottomed out my puller tube, but by that time it was moving pretty good. I backed off the nut a ways and used the puller tube like a slide hammer to move it the last few inches. It appeared that the penetrant had actually gotten about halfway down the tube, so soaking it had helped.

As soon as I held the shaft in my hand I realized I had made a mistake. Before I started, I had put a magnet to the shaft in the end of the tube and decided the shaft was steel. Now in my hand, I realized it was aluminum! I guess that fact wouldn't have changed my method of pulling, but it did make the level of difficulty I experienced here more understandable. I was starting to think that either the shaft was bent, or that it was pulling metal as I was pulling.

After a bit of clean up, I ran the dingleberry hone through the tube, and after a light hone, looking down it shows a pretty decent looking surface. This was the most challenging extraction I have had so far, I am glad it is finally out.

[400brian]

I wanted a set of the aluminum side idlers for this suspension, because they are really what sets the CC suspension apart from an 80+ LF suspension.

The problem is that the original wheels Deere used are unobtainium! I have heard from various sources over the years that Cat used some wheels that were a reasonable substitute, but they had only been used in slightly larger quantities, so it was still a problem finding them.

Brock Weber is the guy who is building CC suspensions, reproducing parts, and knows the ins and outs of these things. I got ahold of Brock and he agreed to send me a pair of the original type reproduction CC plastic bushings that hold the springs on the front shaft, AND a pair of the Cat side idler wheels!

The next task is to get the wheels disassembled, polished up, and new bearings installed.

[400brian]

I have the side idler wheels knocked apart. I just purchased a new set of Chineseium punches and chisels, and having some fresh tools did make disassembly easier.

The bearings are toast as expected, but the new ones are here. Now it is down to clean up, polish, and reassembly.

[400brian]

Still mocking things up. The side idlers appear to match up to the rears with two .060 washers behind them.

The legs of the Trailfire arms are 2 inches longer than the LF arms, so they need to be shortened, and I intend to mount the small idlers to the arms as per the LF, as I feel that is an improvement over the separate shaft in the tunnel the CC used.

I slid one of my new main shafts into the Trailfire arm, and it slid in with one finger! Very happy to see that, and it looks like the length is pretty much spot on.

[400brian]

Working on the CC side idlers. Both of these have had the worst of the rash sanded down. The one on the right has a satin finish ( maroon scotchbrite ), the one on the left was finished off with Mother's polish. I have found that the aluminum centers get beat up more than I would have ever thought. These are right on the edge of being good enough to consider polishing. The satin finish tends to hide the imperfections while the polished finish highlights them. The rear idlers are already polished, so I would like to polish these so they match. Neither method duplicates the original finish in my opinion.

[SS440-80]

I think that they look really good, both of them.

[400brian]

Was raining here today, so after the Mother's Day hoopla had died down, I finally got a CC side idler re-assembled. I only had 1/2" and 3/8" long rivets on hand and it appeared I needed 7/16" . Those are on backorder from my source, so I bought a cheap rivet cutter on-line to get this job done.

[400brian]

My wife Katy and I spent the Memorial weekend attending the Snowmobile Hall of Fame “Classic Round Up” show and Swap in St Germain. The weather was looking very favorable this year, so I hooked our bass boat onto the pickup before we departed Friday midday.

It is about a 200 mile trip, but the many vacationers that were also on the road that day were really eager to start the party, and the speed limit was not even being viewed as a suggestion. We arrived at the motel at 4:30 pm, which gave us time to connect with Don Amber and get some parts into the truck that were heading back with us.

The cookout at the Hall on Saturday afternoon was well attended, and we got to visit with a lot of friends old and new.

I got to the swap Sunday morning around 10 am I think, and pretty well covered the grounds. I was looking for one item specifically; I wanted to find a mid-70s Kelsey Hayes juice brake master setup. I found nothing.

At around 1:00 pm we had some lunch at the pavilion, and were getting ready to depart for the next adventure. I spoke to Chuck Moser before we left, and he inquired if I had seen the K&H master out in the swap? Of course I had not, and he proceeded to pull it out of his truck and show it to me! After some discussion, Chuck decided I needed it worse than he did, so it came home with me! Thanks Chuck.

We then made the 40 minute trip up to Manitowish Waters where some friends live, and did a little fishing that afternoon and Monday morning. A great time in the Northwoods!

[400brian]

The K&H brake master has been scrubbed inside and out, a lever has been sourced, and will be shipped out ASAP.

Sam Polito out in NY is the K&H rebuilder. He has the parts, and can install a metal ring on the outlet end to reinforce it. This one is not cracked, but most are, so I want to get ahead of that.

[400brian]

I am making very slow progress on the CC suspension. I now have both side idler wheels assembled and mounted. I have a Trailfire rear arm bolted on, after shortening the legs 2". The Trailfire arm has the shock mounted in the same location as the 78 CC arm, that is why I am using that. I intend to add the 80 style upper idlers to the rear arm, rather than using the CC separate shaft and idlers. I am ready to toss the suspension into the track one last time to double check all the clearances and alignments.

If I am satisfied with that, everything will come back apart, grease zerks will be installed, and clean up and painting can begin.

[AirborneX4Special]

Might need a Colorado Kool-aide like what I see in the picture to go with my popcorn.

[400brian]

The K&H master is back from Sam Polito, rebuilt and ready to go. Everything iside was replaced, and a reinforcing ring was pressed on at the outlet end to prevent cracking.