Kevin's Liquifire

[Cdnturboz]

Thanks I'll look into it!

[nick80lf]

Sorry it's been awhile since I posed an update on the 82. Had a few things come up that stalled progress, had to put my dishwasher out of it's misery and I came down with the plague (still trying to shake that).

Even though the 82 wasn't completely finished, I robbed a seat off of one of my 80s and we took it to the show at Honda East in Toledo. We managed to bring home a plaque for best vintage sled. It was a great show and was great to catch up with some guys i hadn't seen i awhile.

When we got home and went to unload sleds we noticed the deck of the trailer seemed to be catching on something when we tried to tilt it (I have a 1999 Triton XT10-101 with a topper). Did a little investigation and found this ugliness.

I've come to realize that this bolt is broken and both halves are corroded fast in extrusion that are welded in the frame tubing. I haven't had a chance to get this apart but I'm sure this is going to be a good time. I did stop at the local Triton dealer to see if this extrusion could be purchased and the answer i got was....no. We will see where this goes.

I did manage to get out to the shop tonight and did install the battery box and ran most of the wiring. Since I'm not finished just yet photos will be forthcoming.

[snowmoer]

Congratulations on winning the category! All that hard work paid off.

That stinks on the trailer. I have a 95 Triton. I keep an eye on all the bolts just for this reason. So far, the only thing that I have had to replace was the deck.

[nick80lf]

The bad thing about the way these Tritons are made is that if the bolt corroded into the aluminum spacers the bolt can appear to be intact when it's not. I bought mine used in about 2013 and my suspicion is that the bolts were corroded fast long before I bought it. Talking with my son he believes my wife broke it when she recently borrowed it to haul some stuff for a function at school. He recalls her saying she heard a loud pop when they were loading (more like overloading) it.

[nick80lf]

Sorry it's been awhile since I've put up some photos. I've been dealing with back issues the last few weeks and have been staying out of the shop. I ventured out there today to attempt to winterize the wife's camper. While I was there I snapped some photos.

First one, here's the completed e-start system (sort of).

The battery in the photo is totally pooched and is only there for the photo op. This battery came out of a mobility scooter that seems to have taken permanent residency in my shop. Since my mower also uses a U1 battery my original plan was to use that battery in the sled (I don't use the mower to move snow, so why not?). When I dropped this sealed group U1 battery in I started to think it would be a good idea to use an AGM U1 instead of the plain flooded U1 currently in my mower. Did some investigating and it turns out you can get a AGM U1 battery. Ultimately this is the direction I want to go, just haven't purchased said battery yet.

Next is the seat. Here are photos of the seat I'm going to run on this sled.

This was the first time I've used the 3M headliner adhesive that John recommended. The good is....this stuff really sticks. The bad is.....this stuff really sticks. I'm not totally happy with the tail light area but I've never been happy with these and this is the best I've had one ever turn out. I would recommend letting your seat set for a few days before installing it if you use this stuff. I probably only let it set for about 2 hours before installing on the sled. When I pushed the rear corners down to install the bolts it caused the vinyl to stick to it's self. I don't think the contact cement was totally set up. I was able to work it out some but there's still a little wrinkle there.

[nick80lf]

Oh....forgot to mention this. When i bought this sled the key had been lost. I had intended to replace the switch but wanted to keep things as original as possible and didn't want to use the aftermarket switch that is available. So in the end, here is what I did. Turns out you can still purchase a genuine Indak switch from Arctic Cat that has the same pin out and uses the same "A" key cut. The only difference is the original deere switch had what I believe Indak called a start lock out. Basically you only had one shot at the start position after that you had to go to off before going to start. I assume they did this so someone wouldn't engage a starter with the motor spinning 8k. The Arctic Cat switch does not have this feature. Don't remember the Cat part number but these were used on the Kawasaki powered sleds from the 70s.

The second thing is Deere still offers the "A" cut key for this switch. It will have the new logo on it. These were used on the early Gators.

[nick80lf]

For those wondering the Deere part number for the key in the photo above is AM131841.

[High Top]

Sorry it's been awhile since I've put up some photos. I've been dealing with back issues the last few weeks and have been staying out of the shop. I ventured out there today to attempt to winterize the wife's camper. While I was there I snapped some photos.

First one, here's the completed e-start system (sort of).

20241102_114736.jpg

The battery in the photo is totally pooched and is only there for the photo op. This battery came out of a mobility scooter that seems to have taken permanent residency in my shop. Since my mower also uses a U1 battery my original plan was to use that battery in the sled (I don't use the mower to move snow, so why not?). When I dropped this sealed group U1 battery in I started to think it would be a good idea to use an AGM U1 instead of the plain flooded U1 currently in my mower. Did some investigating and it turns out you can get a AGM U1 battery. Ultimately this is the direction I want to go, just haven't purchased said battery yet.

Next is the seat. Here are photos of the seat I'm going to run on this sled.

20241102_114348.jpg
20241102_114419.jpg

This was the first time I've used the 3M headliner adhesive that John recommended. The good is....this stuff really sticks. The bad is.....this stuff really sticks. I'm not totally happy with the tail light area but I've never been happy with these and this is the best I've had one ever turn out. I would recommend letting your seat set for a few days before installing it if you use this stuff. I probably only let it set for about 2 hours before installing on the sled. When I pushed the rear corners down to install the bolts it caused the vinyl to stick to it's self. I don't think the contact cement was totally set up. I was able to work it out some but there's still a little wrinkle there.

I just got a battery a while back to put in my sportfire. I searched a while on the interstate site and went with a power sports one. It was smaller than the box dimensionally but I just put some foam spacers in on the sides. It cranks it over really well and sure beats pulling the rope! Here is the model and how it looks in the box.

Did you staple your seat cover to the wood or just use the glue? I’ve used that 3M stuff at work on cab upholstery and it is definitely good stuff. Also the 3M general purpose adhesive remover is the best stuff I’ve ever used to get sticky anything off.

[nick80lf]

I did staple the seat cover over the wood, used monel and stainless staples (I ran out of monel and wasn't paying that much for more so I switched to stainless). I used the headliner adhesive only where needed (butt area and tail light area). In the past I've tried super 77 and didn't have much luck with it holding long term.

[nick80lf]

Just an FYI. I believe the Arctic Cat part number for the Indak e-start switch that is used was 0609-278.

[nick80lf]

Today, Larry and I dropped a battery in the Liquifire for the first time. I've been very nervous about this. My main fear has been wiping out the HSR. I hate to admit how many times I have checked wiring, switch function, etc. in an effort to not fry the HSR. Eventhough I have known for a long time that everything is correct I just couldn't bring myself to install the battery until today. I didn't take a lot of photos but we did a few things to ease my mind along the way.

Once we had everything up and running we busted out the cheap Chinese PC scope to test the charging system. The yellow line is AC voltage going into the diode and the blue is the output side of the diode. You can see how there is a slight ripple that lines up with the peak of the AC voltage so it appears it's doing it's thing.

[nick80lf]

Did a little work this weekend trying to clean up a few loose ends.

First one was hood hold down hooks. When I took this sled to the show in Toledo I had mounted the rubber straps without hooks but had planned to take the hooks in for chrome plating. I've yet to have anything chrome plated and have been a little apprehensive about having this done. Before I was able to get an estimate for chrome, an eBay seller made me an offer I couldn't refuse (after thinking about it). I'm very happy with the outcome.

Here are the original hooks

Here are the hooks I installed

Second little project was to rehab and install the hitch. I had intended to zinc plate this but somehow it found it's way into the box of parts that were sandblasted. The sandblast finish will not turn out well for plating so primed and painted it. I might do something different down the road but this will work for now.

Last project of the weekend was a persistent coolant leak I've been messing with (still not sure this is fixed). When I rebuilt the engine I did not have a thermostat housing gasket so I made my own. This has been holding coolant for probably two years. Last year before I finished the hood I pressure tested the system, everything held. While at the show in Toledo I noticed a small amount coolant around the housing. I took it apart, gooped it up with Yamabond and put it back together. It was pressure tested again and check out fine. Several weeks ago I lifted the hood and there was more coolant. So, I sourced a NOS kawasaki gasket, took everything apart, ran the top of the housing on the surface plate, and worked over the housing in the sled with 600 grit wrapped around a flat stone. I reassembled without goop.....going to cross my fingers.

[nick80lf]

More photos

[Cdnturboz]

The second thing is Deere still offers the "A" cut key for this switch. It will have the new logo on it. These were used on the early Gators.

20241008_193751.jpg

Do you have the part number for the "A" cut key by chance?

[nick80lf]

It was in the next post after the one you quoted.

The part number is AM131841.

Edit: I have never had my hands on the aftermarket e-start switch. I'm not sure if the aftermarket switches use the same key. The AM131841 key will work on OEM deere (INDAK) switches. I'm certain the Kawasaki powered Arctic cats that had e-start used this key (models like the VIP). I also believe Polaris used this key at some point in the 90s, but have not confirmed this.