Mid-Mount Madness: "Katy's Bogie Bash" Sleds...

[JoeRainville]

Progress on the JDX inches forward. Even RJ has come out to shop to lend Dad a hand.

5 of the 6 sets of bogies are now installed, with last set being left out to make room for the rear axle installation.

[JoeRainville]

The inner half of the rear axle was assembled late year and set aside. So last weekend I dug out the NOS parts for the outer half of the rear axle including replated swing and adjuster plates, repainted springs, aluminum bushings, new washers from Deere topped of with repoped inner bushings and new bolts courtesy of Brian Lindner.

I have the axle mocked up for final assembly, but one detail was bugging me. The original flat head screws that hold the bearing cups to the swing plates were straight slotted, 1/4"-20 and 5/8" long. No hardware store carried the correct fastener, not even Fastenall. But, I was able to order them so I don't have to have Phillips or Allen head screws showing where the original straights were. Fastenall had them in 2 days flat...

[chriszildjian17]

Looks good Joe. Id be scared to get those nos parts all crusty , that's just me though.

[JoeRainville]

So was the second replater much better?

Allen, I won't know for sure until I see how the zinc parts hold up. The duller cadmium plating was supposed to be superior in wet environments, but in the top pic below you can see three things: freshly plated zinc hardware, improperly plated cadmium plated hardware that began to corrode after a year in the garage and original rusty nuts and bolts.

Unfortunately I had to have all the cad parts redone in zinc, as even NOS parts I had plated in cadmium started to rust. I just picked up the last box of parts for the JDX-8 that included the upper chaincase hardware like the brake drum, pins and spacer; a bag of nuts bolts and even some gold zinc plated washers I had redone in silver, along with some NOS rear axle parts including a spare set of swing plates, the rear axle shaft and tensioner plates needed to complete this build.

The rear axle should be installed soon so I can flip the chassis over and start under the hood...

Chris, no worries, I don't think "this" JDX will see much use. But I have so many left over parts, I might do a rider that I won't be afraid to get dirty.

[JoeRainville]

Despite life getting in the way of any QGT (power steering lines on the Chevy, during which the hot water heater went out too), I was able to sneak a few minutes here an there to make some much needed progress:

After picking up the replated NOS rear axle parts, I laid everything out for final assembly. I have had the new large washers from Deere replated silver as they came gold and didn't look right. Lindner was kind enough to provide repop inner bushings and retaining axle bolts earlier this year. I had already blasted the painted the NOS rear springs when I did the bogies springs earlier this summer.

It's kind of nerdy and really no big deal, but that entire rear axle assembly mostly NOS parts, with a few new pieces like the bearings and hardware with the reproduction bushings from Brian. There are no used parts in it at all. I only had enough parts to build one complete assembly, so I figured this was as good a use as any

[JoeRainville]

Next step was the bolt the back half of the rear axle over the track to the rolling front half. I finally got to use the flat head screws that were a small pain to find. This was why I left the last set of bogies out, to leave room to work around that axle.

The final step of bolting down the rear axle was a bit of a pain, as that nice new NOS track was tight and needed a little help from a ratchet strap to get the axle far enough back in place to get the bolts in. After that it was almost a pleasure to FINALLY bolt in the last set of bogies.

Again, it's no big deal, but its really a good feeling to be putting all these NOS parts to use finally. The only used parts in the suspension are the replated inner bogie shafts, half the carriage head bolts, the bushings inside the bogie springs and the some of the clips. Everything else from the chaincase to track, axles, bogies, bogie tubes, springs, etc was NOS, plus new parts from Deere like bearings, nuts, bolts and washers where appropriate. I think I had to buy bogies from about 4 or 5 different collectors to get a set of 15 NOS ones. Thanks guys

[JoeRainville]

I called Cari Deerest into the shop to lend a hand flipping the X-8 over (don't worry, I gave her the heavy end, LOL!).

From there the hood latches went in, and I started back on the top of the chain case and installed the brake drum and new JD brake band.

It's nice to have the work bench back cleaned off, as I have a few Mikuni's to clean up for other projects due this weekend

[Curlymurt]

A thing of beauty. Can't wait to see it finished!

[jep_800]

Show quality! Gonna win a few trophies with that thing.

Jason

[400brian]

For those who have paid any attention to this saga, the 340/5 that has been making me look bad for the past 5 years or so, is now sitting on the bench fully disassembled. Last January, extreme measures were taken when I pulled the engine out of the wife's green machine, and swapped in the 440/21 that was prepped for her 73 X8 project. The swap was successful, the engine performed great! But if the 440 is ever going to get put in the X8, the 340 needs to be addressed.

[400brian]

This engine hasn't ran right since I sucked a mouse nest into it 6 - 8 years ago. At the time, I pulled the jugs off it, flushed the debris out of the case, and put it back together in time for the RWTC weekend. Since then it runs good cold, but after it warms up, often runs very poorly. There has never seemed to be any rhyme or reason to it, it would often run at home, then not get out of the parking lot in St Germain. I had swapped every ignition component on the engine, and the carb, only to see the symptoms remain the same. Obviously it was time to tear into the thing to see what was going on in there!

The first thing I noticed as I began the tear down, was the the crank had about a 1/16th inch of end play. The oil mark on the PTO end of the shaft was quite wide, and sure enough the whole crank slides back and forth too much in my opinion. Despite re-using the head gaskets on the last assembly, there was no observed leakage there. The jugs and pistons are well worn, but otherwise in good shape. I noted that the pistons are not exactly the same, one has the installation arrow on the top, the other does not. My guess is that a piston may have been replaced at some point in the last 44 years.

The case halves were separated, and the crank set on the bench. The PTO seal was replaced 11 years ago. it appeared serviceable, but worn, a good candidate for replacement. The mag side seal was installed in just the last couple of years, and appeared to be in very good condition, snug fit.
The bearings all spin smoothly, and seem reasonably tight. Then there is the center seals...they don't chuck up and down on the shaft, but they sure aren't snug at all. You can wriggle them around without any resistance.

I have never heard what the symptoms of bad center seals in a Kioritz engine are, but I am going with: runs like crap!

So, the plan is to send the crank out for new bearings and seals. When it comes back, the engine will be re-assembled with NOS jugs and pistons.
If that doesn't cure the problem, I will be out of ideas.

[400brian]

Here are a couple more pics taken with the camera rather than the phone. I am open to hearing any insight as to what you see here.

Note that there is some difference between cylinders. One head is as clean as can be, the other is showing some carbon. Same thing with the pistons, one is showing some port wash, the other is not.

[jep_800]

Brian, I assume the top view of the pistons in the cylinders are looking as if you are standing in front of the engine... in other words, the left one is actually the right cylinder, and the right is the left cylinder.

What's interesting is I DO see an arrow on the other one when I zoom in on the picture. But, it's the much lighter "stick figure" arrow instead of an open "fillet" type arrow. So, obviously there has been a piston swap at some time. And that is the one that has the port wash. Wonder if that has been the suspect cylinder in the past, and there has been an attempt to fix the problem by changing the piston, only to continue the problem. I'm sure servicing the crank and complete re-assembly should improve its performance greatly.

Jason

[400brian]

Spoke with Jerome Thursday the 6th. He told me to box it up and send it to him ASAP. So, that is my next task.

[JDT]

Brian, I assume the top view of the pistons in the cylinders are looking as if you are standing in front of the engine... in other words, the left one is actually the right cylinder, and the right is the left cylinder.

What's interesting is I DO see an arrow on the other one when I zoom in on the picture. But, it's the much lighter "stick figure" arrow instead of an open "fillet" type arrow. So, obviously there has been a piston swap at some time. And that is the one that has the port wash. Wonder if that has been the suspect cylinder in the past, and there has been an attempt to fix the problem by changing the piston, only to continue the problem. I'm sure servicing the crank and complete re-assembly should improve its performance greatly.

Jason

Same observation here. The exhaust side marks are there on both pistons.