Liquidator Refresh

[ihengineer76]

Good morning, everyone. I'm in process of doing a mechanical refresh on my Dator (#524) and figured some of you may be interested to see how it's going. The sled originally was sold to Don Krackenberger in Medford, WI. From there, it spent some time out in the desert of Washington if memory serves me right. Matt Cappel can correct me on this as he is the one that found it for sale on this board. He got it purchased and shipped back here and was very kind in letting my buy it from him. Thank you again, Matt! Overall, the condition is quite nice for an original. It has 970 miles on it. The engine was blown up and had been that way for quite some time. After inspection, I found that most all of the TSB updates had been done to it including the updated subframe, fuel pump bracket, clutch ducting, etc. Here are some photos of the sled in as-delivered condition.

[ihengineer76]

First order of business was to rebuild the engine. The crank was in great condition, so no rebuild was necessary. There was some light damage to the combustion chamber on the left side from when it grenaded. I was able to clean this up with some emery cloth. The bores had some light rust pitting and a score on the left side. They were taken .020 over to clean this up. I bought a new pair of Wisecos from Larry Houge. I walnut shell blasted all the aluminum components and repainted them. I rebuild the water pump with a new packing and gasket. Crank seals, water pump belt, and carb adapters were also installed. Everything was cleaned up, checked, and buttoned up. Pictures of the final assembly.

[ihengineer76]

Next was to clean up the chassis. The skis, skid, track, chain case contents, and secondary clutch were all removed. With a little elbow grease and some cleaners, it came out pretty well. It will be a nice survivor.

[ihengineer76]

I completely disassembled the ski and skid assemblies, cleaned, blasted, and painted all the components. The skis received new hardware, shocks, and wear bars. The skid was reassembled with any worn components replaced. I made new cross shafts on the lathe to the appropriate dimensions. All the aluminum shafts were made of 7075 and steel with 4140 PH. New shock, hyfax, and bearing in the small idlers were installed. I used the last of my NOS rear idlers for it as well. I gave each bearing a small dose of grease with a grease needle before assembly.

[jep_800]

It looks Awesome!

[nick80lf]

Wow.....that is one nice survivor. The project that I'm currently working on (not a liquidator) is not so nice and has me questioning my sanity.

[ihengineer76]

Thanks! This is definitely one of the nicer originals I’ve worked one.

[400brian]

The fact that the engine was blown is the normal situation since 1976. But, that is indeed a very nice survivor! Nice work Tom.

[Cdnturboz]

Looks great!

[ihengineer76]

Since I added a bulkhead cooler out of a ‘78 Liquifire, I needed to utilize the ‘78 lower steering shaft support. These have a tendency to tear out the bulkhead at the carriage bolts, so I added a stainless reinforcement behind the cooler. This should prevent any possible cracking.

[ihengineer76]

There had been star studs and claws added to the track at some point in time. About 1/3 of the cleats had cracked or broke at the rivet where the stars and claws were, so I removed all of them from the cleats. Any broken or cracked cleats were replaced with new reproductions. Thanks again, Brock! A quick coating of rubber conditioner was applied to help the track stay soft. It was already in really nice condition and I want to keep it that way. I’m still waiting on a couple pieces before I reinstall the track and skid.

[though]

That’s pretty neat, fun to follow! Thanks for sharing!

[ihengineer76]

I had a bit of a cool discovery today on this sled. I was able to talk to the original owner and get some of the history on it. Don Krakenberger and mechanic Duane Oldenberg raced this one at Tomahawk and at Balsam Lake where it suffered from an engine failure causing it not to finish. More to come as I track down info.

[ihengineer76]

Some more progress. I reinstalled the drive shaft, track, and skid last night. I used the best rear flap I had and an NOS rear grab bar to finish up the back end. I’m still waiting on one jack shaft bearing to arrive in the mail and then I can get the chain case buttoned back up.

[ihengineer76]

The engine is now back in its proper place. I’m telling you, the Dator engines are heavy!