1978 Liquifire Track and Suspension

[guitardude081]

I'm getting WAAAYYY ahead of myself here but, I'm picking up a '78 Liquifire on Monday and I will be railroading a restoration on it. I will no doubt be getting a machine that has been uncovered and stuck to the ground for at least 10 years. I'm assuming that I will have a junk track and at best a suspension that has 1 or 2 good parts on it. That being said, I'd like to do some upgrading. I've got a few 121" 2.52 pitch Polaris tracks and a couple of misc 80's fire series parts supensions. I would assume that a track swap is going to require rail spacing becasue Deere just loved to be ever so slightly outside of everyone's box when it came to track interchange. What can I do to get a more "modern" suspension under this sled? I will use only Deere parts. I'd like to have at the very least a Fire series style rear arm setup in this. By the looks of it, the Liquifire rear arm with the 4.25" wheels and 1/2 moon strip on top should alleviate the need for those nifty hifax deals on the '78 arm. The front arm setup from a newer sled would be a bonus as well. I am a big fan of extra wheels as well especially on a skidframe that is notorious for excessive front hifax wear. Being that you're dealing with 2 different track lengths and 2 different chassis', I could see why this could be a challenge. Can any of this be accomlished without drilling new holes in the tunnel? I'm really hoping that the engine is a "good runner" like they say it is or this could get expensive in a hurry. New pistons and gaskets always seem to turn into a crank, cylinders....in a hurry. I really don't know where I'm going with this sled. I want a restored show sled that I can beat the tar out of on the trail for about 500 miles a year and also enter in a few grass drags.

I would like to have this one ready by swap meet season.....which for some reason I feel that I have been down this road before. This will be the fifth restoration that I have bought in March and said I would be able to show at Haydays. Last count was 1980 Liquifire: 1 1/2 years, 1974 JDX-6: lost interest half way through and sold at Haydays, 1982 Spitfire: Still in progress since 1999, 1983 Sprintfire: 3 years and it still wasn't where I wanted it when I sold it. I'm hoping this sled will break the curse.
~Jack

[JDT]

Jack I made a sacrifce to the snowmobile gods today to remove the curse from your wrenches.

You can change the spacing on the rails and keep the Deere parts intact with the "modern" track.
I know someone with your ability would have it done in a day.
Post some picks of your mods.

[guitardude081]

I had to do this to squeeze a rubber track in my Sprintfire. The nice thing was that it was exactly 3/4" difference so I made a bunch of 3/8" spacers, got longer bolts from Fastenal and tossed it together. The hardest part was having to move the drivers outward and mount the bearing flanges on the opposite sides of the tunnel than they were originally so I could have sufficient length to mount the brake rotor safely. After that was done, everything had to shift 3/8" towards the PTO side. This was way easier said than done. Somehow that was the exact moment that I forgot all of the math I learned in college. I can still remember the night I did all of this. I had so many fractions running through my head that I swore off tape measures for life. To this day I still measure everything in decimals with a caliper whenever possible. My boss gave me the old WTF look today when I told him that I had to make drop brakets for my truck hitch that measured 2 inches and 375 thousandths. The track swap doesn't seem like it will be a big deal. Making a working skidframe similar to a CC or Fire series using the existing tunnel holes looks like it will be fun. I never thought I'd be so glad for spring. Once the ground thaws, I can pull this sled out of the ice at the guys house and get it home to start reinventing the wheel.
~Jack