I found this snowmobile at the dump!

[850 Combat]

I was looking at sourcing the rod ends in the steering and front suspension on my old Indy Trail. The parts were expensive, and the larger ones were NLA I ordered them by phone from a local bearing house for less than half of the price. The NLA ones were easy to find. None of these manufacturers designed any bearings or any rod ends. They design around standard sizes, and probably buy them from the lowest bidder. Tightening up the suspension and steering worked so well that I did it on another sled. I think I bought on line from Grainger, but it could have been McMaster Carr. They were even less expensive.

Cant wait to get mine out this winter in Maine. Planning my first three day trip. We want to go about 150 miles per day, to a small town each night, with a restaurant and bar in it. Not too ambitious, maybe but it should be fun. I have a really clean old 1991 and a near mint 1992 Indy Trail Deluxe with the old reliable fan cooled 488 Fuji motor, electric start, reverse, and the SKS long track. Super nice for the trail system. My brother has newer faster sleds, but the performance is not usable in the woods. I have about three grand in all three sleds and the trailer. To me, the old Indy Trail Deluxe is like the 850G of snow mobiles. Durable, inexpensive, useful, reasonably capable, comfortable for two up riding, and versatile. Decent for touring and trail riding, and they don't get stuck all the time like the fast sleds from the nineties did. I don't need the E start, with that motor, but it doesn't hurt.

Yesterday I think a bearing on the final drive end of the drive train failed.
I managed to get it home but it was getting dark by then so I haven't inspected it yet.
When I turned the drive pulley by hand I could hear the crunchy grinding of metal on metal.
Luckily all bearings through out are standard sizes and are readily available at minimal prices.
Which is a good thing because any parts for this that are 'Arctic Cat only' are insanely priced.


Tank

[Steel Toed Tank]

I rebuilt the suspension on an old Elan 250 twin when I was younger and it ended up costing me a small fortune.
A few years later I got a Yamaha Phazer for cheap because it needed the suspension fixed.
Once I saw the cost to rebuild it though I decided to leave it as a hard tail.

In the long run though that choice led to the track ripping apart and sent it rolling down a very large hill, totaling the whole sled beyond repair.

That is why I was drawn to this one when I first saw it sitting there.
It was obvious at first glance that the suspension was nice and tight.

In all honesty if it had been laying flat like most old sleds I would have left it there.

Those Indy's are bad ass sleds!!


Tank

[rustybronco]

Good replacement upgrade manifolds are available for around $200 including gaskets, so even if mines not cracked or leaking I'll be replacing it anyways.



Tank

Devcon plastic welder 2 will make short of any cracks as easily as a replacement intake will. And much cheaper to boot.

[almarconi]

Devcon plastic welder 2 will make short of any cracks as easily as a replacement intake will. And much cheaper to boot.

Usually when those manifolds fail, the front intake crossover pipe splits causing you to loose a lot of coolant very quickly. While replacing the manifold its also a good time to replace the water pump and clean your throttle body. The manifold I used was made by Dorman and was a relatively easy job to replace.

[Steel Toed Tank]

I'm aiming for a PI intake manifold from a mustang GT or a Crown Victoria.
It's made by FRPP (Ford Racing) and will cost me around $230, plus $100 for the Ford intake swap kit.
On top of the performance increase, I'll also get OEM quality.

As anyone who uses Emgo, Motion Pro or Versah parts knows, there's is nothing quite as good as OEM replacement parts.

Of course I won't know whats leaking for another week, so there may not be anything wrong with the intake.

Breaking down in the winter where I live would likely leave me 5-10 kms from the closest person or building in -35 weather.
Freezing to death is not unheard of out here.
When it comes to parts to rely on, I'm not going to skimp.

This car is getting all new fluids and filters, new rubber throughout from tires to hoses to vacuum and fuel lines, new power system from alternator to spark plugs, all new rotors and pads, new diff seals and gasket and of course new U joints.

On top of that all suspension, steering components and bushings will be inspected as well as body and motor mounts.
Anything not up to snuff will be replaced.

Once I have it running and driving safely and reliably I will add a few cheaper mods.
I'm planning on 80mm MAF, air silencer delete, J-MOD (shift kit), true dual 2 1/2" exhaust, eventually PI cams to go with the intake, and of course a mild tuned chip.

I'm not aiming for a 350hp beast, but those mods will put me over 250rwhp while maintaining OEM reliability.

For now I just want to replace all the things that can fail with age, it is 15 years old and has been sitting the last 5 of them after all.

Since I can do the labor myself, and get a healthy parts discount, and because the T-bird forum guys are just as cheap as GSR guys, all this should be doable for ~$2000 (over time) including tires and purchase price.
It will be in better condition than the few others around here that sell for $3k-$4k.

The body and interior are too nice to not treat this car right.

I treated my GS right once I got it and it rewarded me with one of the best summers of my life. Laying down mile after mile without so much as a hiccup.


Tank

edit: And of course the water pump, oil filter adapter plate gasket and serpentine belt will be replaced when the intake comes off!!

[850 Combat]

That is one of the IRS Thunderbirds, isn't it? Ill bet that they can be made to handle very well.

[Steel Toed Tank]

Usually when those manifolds fail, the front intake crossover pipe splits causing you to loose a lot of coolant very quickly. While replacing the manifold its also a good time to replace the water pump and clean your throttle body. The manifold I used was made by Dorman and was a relatively easy job to replace.

I did a little research and putting a FRPP PI intake right away won't be all that much of an improvement until bigger MAF, dual exhaust and a tuned chip is added.
I called and can get the Dorman kit with gaskets built in for $127.
I'll save the HP mods for down the road aways, maybe summertime.
Thanks for that info!

That is one of the IRS Thunderbirds, isn't it? Ill bet that they can be made to handle very well.

Yes they can! Mine came stock with the (jjjj) sport suspension, so I'm already ahead of the game. The jjjj set up is what a lot of t-bird guys upgrade to.


Tank

[Crankthat]

Read your post about people freezing to death.
I do a lot of camping even in the winter though my winters do not come close to the temps that you get.
Something my grandad never taught me but I picked up somewhere was the great Pen Torch.
Small enough to stick under your armpit to warm the torch up if It gets to cold to lite.
Will start a fire pretty easy even in the rain or when you are so cold people think you are drunk from slurring your words.
Of course my granddad would have just laughed at me but I am sure If he had ever seen me use It he would have bought one and never let me know

[Steel Toed Tank]

Read your post about people freezing to death.
I do a lot of camping even in the winter though my winters do not come close to the temps that you get.
Something my grandad never taught me but I picked up somewhere was the great Pen Torch.
Small enough to stick under your armpit to warm the torch up if It gets to cold to lite.
Will start a fire pretty easy even in the rain or when you are so cold people think you are drunk from slurring your words.
Of course my granddad would have just laughed at me but I am sure If he had ever seen me use It he would have bought one and never let me know

That's a good tip about the pen torch. I will remember that one.
One of my favorite winter tools since I got here has been my twin (one for each pocket) Zippo hand warmers.

The main rule of thump out here for distance driving is always travel with insulated coveralls in your car, and most of the winter boots sold are rated for -100C.

I'm a Carhartts man myself.
I have their Cordura nylon bib overalls with arctic lining and matching coat, with an insulated zip up hoodie for under all that.
For boots I have Baffin Derrik STP boots, about the best boots you can get up here.
They have composite toes and frost plates to keep from getting the dreaded frozen foot associated with steel toe boots in -20 or lower temps.

I might have to change my name!
Composite Toed Tank, hmmmm. Doesn't have the same ring to it.

Nice one Tank, I may score a snow-mobile this year myself, trying to do some horse trading, I may hit you with a few questions in the upcoming months of the dos and don't when getting one, things to watch out for on various models, will probably be looking at older ones.

I'll help you as best I can, but the last time I went sled shopping was 15 years ago!

Main thing to watch out for is tracks and suspension.
If they are beat to hell it can cost a TON to fix em.
New track for my old free sled is $800!!
It would cost just as much to rebuild the suspension.

Luckily the engines and clutches are easy enough to over-haul.
Two strokes are simple gizmos to work on, and many many aftermarket options are available.

Watch for damage on belly pans and tunnels.
A lot of smaller dents can be hammered out but stuff that's twisted up or has been forced apart will need to be replaced ($$$$) or they never really ride right.

Also, the newer you can get, the better.
The progress that has been made in suspension technology in the last 20 years is unbelievable.



Tank

[Crankthat]

OOh yeah, gotta love the zippo hand warmers.
The first year I made snow at a ski resort all I had was steel toe boots, my first paycheck went for a nice warm pair of sorel boots.
Once that steel toe gets cold It will not warm up.
I have always kept extra clothes in my vehicles and until I ran into a homeless guy the other week a U.S. military extreme cold mummy bag.
Have to replace that soon.
Its to warm at freezing.
You don't see A lot of homeless people around here I gave him the bag and a tarp.
And you never see a homeless person with a smile that big.
Hope he didn't sell them for booze.

[chuck hahn]

Tank...buy a few cans of Sterno and have them in the box with other survival stuff in case you get snow bound out in BFE. Also have a small pan..use it to melt snow and get it good and hot to sterilise some drinking water, or heat up some soup or whatever food is in the kit. It will also give off good heat and a few of them burning can heat the car up a good bit and save the cars gas. And keep a car charger for the phone too. IF you need to start the car, clear the exhaust pipe before you do.

[Steel Toed Tank]

Nice to see there are still considerate and helpful people (to strangers) out there!!

I always ALWAYS have a couple Coleman solid fuel camp stoves with me, they are small, cheap (I paid 99 cents each!) and do a great job at making heat or cooking food.
A big one out here is road flares or chimney fire extinguishers (same thing) for signalling distress on road sides, so I'll be carrying a couple of those too.

Half my adult life has been spent as far off the grid as I can get and still have electricity, and being prepared can often make the difference between life and death.

I suppose I should get a cell phone one of these days, but I'm not a big big fan of them.

Thanks for the tips guys, freezing to death is a serious thing!!


Tank

[chuck hahn]

Not just road flares for being seen from a plane, but an actual flair gun so you can be spotted from the ground as well. And how about a few of those air horn cans...those can be heard from a very long way.

[rustybronco]

Half my adult life has been spent as far off the grid as I can get and still have electricity, and being prepared can often make the difference between life and death.

I suppose I should get a cell phone one of these days, but I'm not a big big fan of them.

Thanks for the tips guys, freezing to death is a serious thing!!


Tank

Tank, a 'pay as you go' cell phone will suffice for what your needs are. Get a cheap used cell phone from a friend or off of Ebay and load a few dollars onto it.

Secondly is some food for thought. How about building a 'steam powered' 12 Volt electrical generator used to (re)charge a 12 volt battery connected to a LED lighting system?

http://www.green-trust.org/steam.htm

[CODE]Let us start with needs. Our home will need 2400 watt/hours of electricity per day. Since we only get 75% from a battery of what we put into it, we need to put in 3200 watt/hours (2400 / .75 = 3200). Even though 750 watts = 1 horsepower, there are inefficiencies in generators, belts, etc. A safe figure is a 30% loss, so 3200 watts over 70% efficiency = 4266 watts (3200 / .70 = 4571). Round up to 4600. Our horsepower requirement then is 4600 watt/hours divided by 750, which is 6.1 horsepower (4600 / 750 = 6.1).

Franz Nagel correctly points out the following corrections to this article:

An amount of energy (= power times time) is not measured in watt/hours,
but rather in watt*hours.
Neither is a power (= energy per time) measured in watt/hours but just in plain watt.
This assumed, the paragraph reads:

Let us start with needs. Our home will need 2400 watt*hours [!] of electricity per day. Since we only get 75% from a battery of what we put into it, we need to put in 3200 watt*hours [!] (2400 / .75 = 3200). Even though 750 watts = 1 horsepower, there are inefficiencies in generators, belts, etc. A safe figure is a 30% loss, so 3200 watts over 70% efficiency = 4266 watts (3200 / .70 = 4571). Round up to 4600. Our horsepower requirement then is 4600 watt [!] divided by 750, which is 6.1 horsepower (4600 / 750 = 6.1).

Using 47 lbs of steam per horsepower hour to be consumed by our engine, we take the 6.1 and multiply it by 47 and we get 286.7 or basically 287 pounds of steam/water is required. We’ll say that 1200 Btu’s per pound of water/steam will be required to turn the water to steam at our working pressure of 120 psi. So, 287 pounds of steam/water x 1200 Btu’s = 344,400 Btu’s are required (287 x 1200).

Our boiler is 70% efficient, so 344,400 Btu’s divided by 70% gives us the figure of 492,000 Btu’s actually required (344,400 / .70 = 492,000).

Our wood contains a heat value of 7,000 Btu’s per pound, so we need 70.3 pounds of wood (492,000 / 7,000 = 70.3). Let’s spread the load over two hours, and we can see that we will burn 35.2 pounds of wood an hour (70.3 / 2 = 35.2), or about 35 pounds. To put that in perspective, that is a hefty armload of wood.

Remember, these are “real world” figures and are dramatically different from what some pink-hands so-called “educated” type will come up with. [/CODE]
You could even heat your house with the waste heat from the steam or run a buzz saw, ect.

Thirdly, how about wood gasification to power a generator?

[Jethro]

I'm envious Tank! Big sledder here myself. Actually I will likely do more miles on my sled this year than I did on my bike, which is sad in itself. Nothing wrong with an old Jag like that, great ice fishing machine!