78 Liquifire rebuild!

[400brian]

The egg crate foam in the hood had turned to dust, but the adhesive is still goo. I used WD-40 to help remove it, it was partially successful.

Like it seems with all of these hoods, this one has taken damage. The hinge is significantly twisted. Luckily, I bought one off ebay years ago to replace it with. The hinge attach bracket in the hood has been re-glassed in at some point, but not well. The entire hood needs attention inside and out at some point.

[High Top]

3M general purpose adhesive remover is about the only thing I use anymore to remove sticky anything. Works great and doesn’t seem to do anything bad to any surface I’ve used it on.

[400brian]

I decided to make an attempt to polish the original windshield. It is unique enough that I would like to keep it.

The products I used were sold under the Novus name. A bottle of heavy scratch remover, one of fine scratch remover, and one of clean, shine, protect.
My shoulder and elbow were not going to like this, but I dove in. I used the heavy scratch remover the least, and the fine over the entire windshield several times. It was immediately obvious that it was making an improvement. When I decided to quit it looked a whole lot better. If I held it up to the light, I can still see scratches, but it is very much improved. The bigger deal is that that the oxidation and hazing is largely gone. I believe I can use it. I will see what it looks like out in the sunlight. I have a new Kimpex on deck for back up.

Moving onto the hood. The bent hinge was removed, I used a drill and an angle grinder with a cut off wheel on it to remove the pop rivets. Access is poor, and I had to be very careful as I did not want to tear the hinge bracket out of the hood. I has been re-glassed in at some point to repair damage, but marginally successfully. I have seen a lot of these hoods with pop rivets through the hood holding the bracket on.

Once the hinge was on the floor, I installed the new hinge without any problems. I like to attach the hinges or brackets to my hoods with aircraft ( AN ) bolts, as you buy them in threaded increments of 1/16" so you can have a full shank diameter in shear, and the fine threads give more clamping pressure. But, I didn't have any this short on hand. So I dug around in my box of hardware and came up with some number 10 button heads, washers, lock washers and nuts, I was all set. The bolts were installed with blue Loctite.

I would like to revisit this hood next summer. It needs a full repair inside and out, and a professional paint job.

[BU1]

3M general purpose adhesive remover is about the only thing I use anymore to remove sticky anything. Works great and doesn’t seem to do anything bad to any surface I’ve used it on.

I agree. It is good stuff.

[400brian]

I have been waiting for the new fitting that goes in the head that the temp sender screws into. It arrived Saturday, so I confirmed that everything fit together and then installed it and the gauge into the dash, This gauge was purchased from Evergreen Restorations years ago.

The K&H brake has been filled and bled. I chose to use DOT 5 silicone brake fluid. It doesn't absorb water and it doesn't harm paint. I honestly do not know if it will play well with the rubber in the system, I guess I am going to find out. My father used silicone brake fluid in his 55 Chevy restoration 40+ years ago, and it has never caused any issues.

I put oil in the chain case Friday night and it immediately began leaking out from under the cover. Going to have to re-visit that. I have a new seal ordered.

As soon as I feel ready to handle whatever fresh hell awaits, I will dump the coolant into the engine to see what happens.

[400brian]

When we dug the hood out of the shed, I discovered the vent was not on it. A day or two later I found it, and then understood why I had removed it, the vent was broken in the upper corner.

After cleaning it up, and weighing my options of what I had at my disposal, this is what I did. I took a piece of .012 aluminum sheet, cut a hole in it to fit around the leg, then added holes for the adhesive to squish through. I then scuffed both the patch and the plastic with 100 grit, and cleaned it with alcohol. I pulled the two halves together with duct tape, applied a fairly generous amount of epoxy, and held things in position until it began to set up. An hour or so later, I added two small c-clamps to pull the two halves into better alignment. Eight hours later I have removed the clamps and the tape. It appears that with a little filler and a coat of Krylon, the vent should be serviceable.

[400brian]

I really like e-start, all of my sleds have e-start, so this one had to as well.. The 78 LF was never offered with this even as an option, because they had installed the radiator and coolant hoses where the battery box had been in the 76-77 models.

I started with a pretty rough mid-mount box. I have cut the mounting brackets off the bottom, and shortened the tower a couple of inches. Rather than the 4 pole rectifier the points sleds used, I plan to use the diode that was used in the 76 - 77 Cyclone / LF.

I will have 3 wires to run under the engine up to the ignition switch, and I will have to swap in a 76 - 77 switch because the 78 LF switch has no start position.

[400brian]

I think I have the e-start wiring largely finished. I made a four wire harness that now runs from the ignition switch over to the right hand side vent, then down under the jackshaft and down into the bottom of the pan. From there it goes forward under the steering and into a rib in the pan where it comes out at the front of the battery box and is clamped to the bumper support.

To put e-start on a 78 Cyclone / LF you have to replace the ignition switch with a 76-77 unit. The four wires I added bring: 1) 12v dc to the switch from the solenoid . 2) A wire is run from the voltage regulator tap on the electrical bar which connects to the top of the diode at the battery box.
3) a wire from the switch to the solenoid that energizes the starting side when the key is turned to start. 4) A wire from the bottom of the diode runs up to the switch that feeds rectified power to the battery when the switch is in the run position to charge the battery.

I salvaged three wires from a Cyclone wiring harness to get three of the terminals that snap into the three empty spots in the ignition switch plug. Everything was going good until I realized that the early switch does not fit into the switch hole in the 78 LF plastic dash. The aluminum panel under it is punched with the larger flat on each side hole for the early switch. The 78 dash has a smaller hole that is flat on the bottom. So, everything I have mounted in the dash will have to be loosened so I can raise the plastic dash up far enough to open the switch hole up to 20mm. The original two sets of wires in the switch plug have to be rearraigned to different spots to work with the earlier switch. The service manual shows how all this is supposed to go.

Ten days ago I put the oil in the chain case for the first time. It promptly headed for the floor. I have never had a chain case leak before. I had Luke at New Breed send me a new SPI seal, and I installed it Super Bowl Sunday evening. So far so good!

Monday the 9th, I finally got the wiring figured out, the early switch in the dash, everything connected, and when I turned the key the engine spun!

[400brian]

We are getting down to the end of the time left to prepare for the RWTC in St Germain.

The wife's Cyclone went into the trailer today, and my 73 X8 came into the garage for clean up and a new battery to replace the one that got robbed and put in the Gator at Classic Green last June. Our snow is mostly gone, I had just enough around the house for a quick rip on the Cyclone testing out the fresh ski alignment.

Back in the garage I decided I had procrastinated long enough, it was time to dump some fuel in the 78 and start it. I had finished the e-start installation the night before, so it was ready to go. I poured in a gallon or two, then with the fuel valve open, I blew into the tank while pinching the vent line, I soon had the carbs filling. Once I was satisfied the bowls were full, I flipped the enrichener on full and turned the key. In moments the engine lit and ran somewhat roughly, I flipped the enrichener off and the idle improved and steadied. That was the moment that I remembered I should have had the phone filming this. I shot a couple of short vids of the engine running, then opened the windows in the garage and headed home for supper and let things air out.

I was back around 7 pm, and began assembling the last of the parts onto the sled. I had held off on putting the secondary sheave on in case a carb had to come off, the same with the airbox. So the airbox, secondary, belt, and belt guard were installed. After that it was the skis. They were mostly ready to install, a bit of Loctite and some cotter pins, and they went on the sled.

I turned my attention to the battery install on the X8, and when that was done I decided I wanted to hear the track spin on the 78 before I went home. So with the windows open I turned the key...she started immediately in the warm garage. I blipped the gas a couple of times, then gave it enough beans to engage the clutch. The track spun without any weird sounds, vibrations, or anything else that would have caused me concern. I tried it a couple more times and then satisfied I shut the engine off. I vacated the garage for a while, then returned to pull the pipe off the manifold and apply some red RTV around the joint. Will need help mounting the hood.

[BU1]

Looking good, Brian! Eagerly awaiting your trail report early next week.

[400brian]

My wife gave me a hand in getting the rather unwieldly hood bolted on, then we carefully installed the hood vent, and last we got the original windshield put on.

After I got the hood on and the headlight connected, I fired up the sled and started looking to see what I had for lighting. Well, I found the only light I had working was the tail light, and that was a brand new assembly. I started pulling gauge bulbs and found every one of them blown. I replaced the tach and temp bulbs and they then worked. I pulled the headlight bulb out and found both filaments blown, I dug out the original tail light housing and both filaments were blown. I am seeing a lot of data here all pointing at a bad voltage regulator! My meter wouldn't show overvoltage, but perhaps I'm not revving it high enough. At any rate, I will be digging around the shop for some bulbs and a different regulator.

Should be coming off the lift soon, and looking for snow.

[400brian]

Friday afternoon I swapped on a different v-reg and replaced all the bulbs. Hopefully that resolves that problem.

With that done, the sled was lowered down off the lift and rolled outside. Our snow is just about gone, I had one small patch where it had drifted in. I made a couple of quick rips around the patch and ran the sled on the trailer. Now to find some snow!

RWTC here we come!

[AirborneX4Special]

[400brian]

The goal was to ride the 78 on the Reunion Ride at the 2026 RWTC. The sled successfully made the 30 mile ride!

I knew the lack of snow to test on before we left was going to be a problem, because there is always some tuning and bugs to work out of a new build.

I am seeing a fuel delivery issue, and it is going to take good conditions and temps to get this resolved.

That said, the sled rides great, and I am looking forward to it being a great rider.