78 Spitfire project

[nick80lf]

The 1" ID bearing is a RA100RRB and the 7/8" ID bearing is a RA017RRB.....assuming the outer races are not drilled for grease. I've never messed with Spitfire bearings but I don't remember the Snowfire using flanges with grease zerks.

[400brian]

That’s always been my pet peeve with spitfires is the snow flap being plain. Let me know how much you trim off

The width of the Spit and mid-mount flaps are the same, as is the mounting bolt locations.

I think the mid-mount flap is somewhere around 1/2" to 3/4" longer. If we shorten it a bit, it may help keep it from getting sucked into the tunnel.

The flap will be one of the last things to install and consider where we want the length. But being as it is a used flap, it won't hurt my feelings to do whatever we have to do.

[400brian]

Todays mission was to get the driveshaft freshened up.

The original drivers were removed, the rust sanded off, and the NOS drivers were installed.

I am finally going to be able to use this Spitfire speedo kit I have had for years, so to finish up the driveshaft I cleaned the hole on the end and installed the speedo drive key bushing.

[400brian]

Galen was out Saturday to get some things done on his sled. I put him to work soda blasting the secondary sheaves with a new blaster I got from Harbor Freight. It is of the finest Chinesium, $41 to my door. It seemed to work pretty good.

Grandpa had spent Friday evening sanding the rust off the idler wheels that no one will ever see. We installed the new bearings and bolted the wheels together. If you get a bearing kit from New Breed, make sure to get 5/8" ID bearings for this application. Newer models that used these same wheels used a smaller bearing ID.

Then we went down to the garage and went to work removing the old license numbers. They did not come off easily, but after a while we developed a technique. I heated the number with the hair dryer, and the grandson worked the putty knife under the number and slowly lifted it off.

It was a good day.

[jdjock]

Get an aerosol spray bomb and spray the outside of the clutch’s so they will not corrode so soon. I did mine 10 years ago and they still look great

[jdjock]

Clear spray of course. I forgot to mention!!

[jdjock]

I also did the recoil housings on some of my Deeres and turned out good.

[jdjock]

Looking very nice you two guys. Keep it up.

[400brian]

The rear axle is polished up a bit, as are the spacers on the idler shaft.

[400brian]

Today was a big day! We got the suspension parts painted. I strung a wire up in the barn to hang the parts on and we took advantage of the warm temps. Once they were black, Galen went to work cleaning the gas tank and the NOS skis that I had dug out of storage on Friday.

We then went down to the garage and removed everything off the handle bar. Neither the throttle or brake block was in very good condition, but I have that taken care of already. With that done, we moved down to the house basement and installed a genuine NOS Spitfire bar warmer kit in the bar. The rubber grommets in the kit were too hard to use, so I will have to find some fresh ones.

Looking forward to reassembling the suspension and getting it installed. We brought the track down down to the garage this last week, and took a good look at it for the first time in 5 years. I was very underwhelmed to say the least. It is showing little wear, but it is very dead looking, and is showing a lot of cracking, inside and out. We would like to find a better track.

[400brian]

We have the skid just about assembled. The shock and the shaft it mounts on is about all that is left. The plastic spacers that center the shock on the shaft left the chat 5 years ago, so I have some aluminum tube to fabricate a new set from. Keep r movin.

[400brian]

I fabricated shaft spacers from thin wall tube to replace the plastic spacers ( M67068 ) which were gone.

The shock was then installed, along with the rear springs, and the rear idler wheels. All the fasteners were installed with Loktite, all the shafts got a coat of grease.

I believe the suspension is ready to install. Just need a track that is better than the one we have sitting on the garage floor.

[400brian]

Working on a long list of little items that have to be ready when we get the bigger stuff done.

I pulled the VM28 carb apart and was happy to see a fair amount of liquid 2 stroke oil inside, negligible corrosion, and even the bottom of the bowl was reasonably clean. The only thing that put up a fight was the needle jet, and that wasn't too bad.

The only thing I found wrong was the typical plugged pilot jet. The enrichener orifice was shiny and smooth, which is a deal breaker if it isn't. So the main body went into the Chem-dip last night, and this afternoon I rinsed it off and scrubbed everything with a tooth brush. You know, 50 years ago when you pulled a carb out of the solvent the greasy crud would just run off of the part or be gone. The good old days. The bowl and a few other small parts are now soaking in the can.

I think this was the first carb I have opened up and found the little plastic caps on top of the float rods. Looking in the parts book, it appears these were first used starting on the Dator, and then 79 up commonly.

The order went in to New Breed last night for the parts to freshen the carb and fuel pump up, and get them ready to go.

[400brian]

Galen was out Sunday, and we got some work done on his sled. We sandblasted the ski spindles and springs. We got them ready to paint along with the rear grab bar and handle bar hoop, and shot a few coats of primer on them.

We got the Gator fired up for the first time this spring and got some back yard clean up done. Of course we had to drive around a bit as well.

[400brian]

Took advantage of the 75 degree weather today by painting some parts. It looks like the weather won't be as nice for the next week or so.

The secondary sheaves got a coating of silver. The spring that goes in it got a shot of blue. The handle bar hoop, the rear grab bar, the spindles, and the ski springs all got shot with a low gloss black.