78 Liquifire rebuild!

[400brian]

Anytime you deviate from assembling stock parts, you run into problems to solve.

Now in this case, it seems this was also an issue with the stock CC suspension. The wheel second from the top is one of the original auxiliary wheels that came off the suspension. As you can see, it has been sliced and diced. At the time I disassembled it, I didn't understand what had happened to it.

The Arctic track that I am using here, has the windows 1/4" closer together. Most of the guys just run a stock Deere skid, but I decided I would make mine fit. I narrowed the skid 1/4 inch by making all new shafts 1/4 inch shorter. So far so good.

When it came to the 4 optional auxiliary idlers that sit between the rails forward of the forward suspension arm pivot shaft, I started by shortening the outside spacer tubes to match the new shorter shaft. Setting the assembly into the track, I quickly saw that the wheels were going to make contact with the Deere style clips I had installed. Now I understood what had happened to the original wheel ( oddly, only one showed the damage ).

To rectify this issue, I shortened the center spacer from its stock length by 5/16". I made a jig to allow me to check the clearances out of some scrap wood. I am close, I am going to check it in the track again and make a decision of how to proceed.

[400brian]

I am continuing to play around with my aux idler wheel spacing. I set the narrowed wheel set into the track, and still wasn't satisfied. I want the side of the wheels to come against the center row of drive lugs before it can contact the clips on the opposite side. I re-shaped my jig blocks to more closely represent the track and clips.

I am getting close. I think I will take another 1/8" off the center spacer and see if I like that.

In the next few days I need to start running my riders through the garage to prep them just in case we get snow in time for the Ride with the Champs in February, that will put me off the 78 project for a while.

[High Top]