PICS! 1972 JD 400 Restoration, PART 2

[jeffreyrempel]

So far I have had a lot of possitive feedback on the sled at the show. I have been told a few times now that it is definetely the best restoration and best quality of work in the show. I consider myself a modest guy, but its nice to here and being my first restoration, I will definetely do another project. I want to restore a JD sled that I can actually drive and have some fun with. I am not sure what my plans for this sled are, as I will not be driving this one....

[luvzvintage]

awesome! Luv it. You did an awesome job on that sled!!

I've been a vintage Cat guy for years and ran into a deere first time between Xmas and NewYears of this past year. That deere was and is an '80 Trailfire 440 and I luv it...its an awesome fun sled to ride. Put over 700 miles on it last season! Blew out an upper idler wheel bearing at the end of the season and have since replaced every single bearing. Also installed the JD star stud kit, tunnel protectors, nice new gas suspension shock absorber and reconditioned the track and skid-frame. It's freshly fueled and rarin' to run! Hopefully i did everything rite and things stay together lol.

Have since sold my last vintage Cat and picked up another deere, this time an 80 Liquifire with 473 miles. Currently going thru the sled and preparing to replace the crankseals.

Luv this site and all the deere ppl!

regardz

Lloyd Neufeld

[jeffreyrempel]

Me and my sled

[SpitfireKing]

Looks amazing! Great work Jeff...that a sled to be proud of!

[jeffreyrempel]

So we woke up this morning with it snowing and an inch of fresh snow on the ground. My kids were very excited as its the first snowfall of the year. "it must have snowed for you Dad", they said. "Now can we go for a ride on your snowmobile? PLEASE Dad, can we"? My wife and kids have watched me work on this sled for two years and have always been waiting to be able to go for a ride on it, so I have decided that I am going to fire the damn thing up and have some fun with the family. Its to hard to just look at the thing and wonder what it would be like to go for a ride, so on my next days off its going to come to life for the first time in a lot of years. I will take a videos

[johnnycyclone]

This is what they were made for, to ride and enjoy. Have fun with the family, they will remember this for a lifetime, just as we remember what it was like to ride when we were kids. Your creating great memories, enjoy the moment.

[400brian]

That's what they were for.

If you don't let the kids ride, or have anything to do with it, it won't mean anything to them. They'll be looking to convert it to cash as soon as they come back from taking you to the old folks home. If they have a connection to it, they may appreciate it.

Have fun.

[JD_Sledder68]

HELL YES! You can always re-restore it again......but you can't recreate family memories that never happened!

Congrats!

[KamJD600]

what a amazing looking sled you did a GREAT job

[jeffreyrempel]

So I decided to try and start my sled today. I decided that before I put fuel in the tank, I should make sure that everything works first. At this point I am a little worried because when I finished the engine I decided to time the ignition with my eyes and without any special tool. I did use guages to set the point and spark plug gaps, and when I was done I figured I must be close or maybe I will be lucky and be dead on. I guess we will see. First I checked to see if I had spark and I had nice spark from each spark plug wire. Next I checked the compression, and I had over 125psi on each cylinder. I will get an accurate compression reading from each cylinder after the engine has run for a bit and get the compression difference between cylinders. For now I am confident that the engine will at least fire and hopefully run long enough for me to determine if I need to make any adjustments to the timing or carburetor.
So I decided to use a "nursing bottle" with a 20:1 ratio of premium gas and Amsoil to start. I dissconnected the fuel lines from the carb and connected the fuel lines from the nursing bottle.(first I injected fuel into pick-up line with a syringe to get fuel into the carb)
I choked the carb and started to pull vigerously on the starter rope and had no luck. I decided to pull the spark plugs and put a little fuel in the cylinders and try again with no luck....Hmmmm oops, I forgot to put the key into the start position.LOL So I turned the key and tried again. This time the engine fired and turned over long enough to draw some fuel into the carb and it ran as long as I held the throttle. I opened the choke and set the stop idle screw so the engine idled at 2500rpm and everything sounded awsome. I opened it up to full throttle and it didnt skip a beat, and then I noticed a lot of fuel spitting out the front of the carb.
It was getting late so I decided that I will try again tomorrow. I have a NOS WR7-5 carb that I will install and now that I know the engine will run, I will get rid of the nursing bottle, fill up the fuel tank and hook up the fuel lines. Wish me luck.
I will post a video of the sled running tomorrow night.

[jeffreyrempel]

Ok, the sled is running and I have no problems. I have a video that I am going to post shortly, as I am uploading it on youtube now.

[JDT]

[jeffreyrempel]

Here is the link to the post with the video:

http://www.jdsleds.com/community/viewto ... =1&t=12762

[jeffreyrempel]

So Bill Tasky has worked out all the details to have the 1972 400 console delivered to Saskatchewan. I will have it in my hands sometime in early December and I will post a pic of the sled when I finally have the original console finished and on my sled. Thanks Bill

[JDT]

Bill your are a trooper!