1971 Viking Vigilante

7

700classic

New member
Well,a few set-backs on the rebuild. First, the motor sat in my Brother-in-law's shop for 2 wks, put the motor in and went to roll it over,and it turn about 1/4 of a revolution came up solid. What the @#$%? A mouse came up the exhaust and deposited a s*#~load of rat poison in the cylinder(either one bad mouse or poison no good).Pulled off head clean out the mess then pulled the jugs and cleaned the crankcase out. Back together and installed. This last weekend finished putting the sled together, aimed it out the door(hang on here folks) went a total of 65ft. One of the drive sprockets shattered. Now we need to find a sprocket that will work with the Fastrac that is on the sled. 9 tooth, holes in track are on 2in centers. They are held in place on a 1in shaft by a roll pin on each side. Trying to get this going so we can surprise my father-in-law(original owner) at X-mas at his place on the 19th. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks, Chuck
 
P

polarisrider1

New member
700classic said:
Well,a few set-backs on the rebuild. First, the motor sat in my Brother-in-law's shop for 2 wks, put the motor in and went to roll it over,and it turn about 1/4 of a revolution came up solid. What the @#$%? A mouse came up the exhaust and deposited a s*#~load of rat poison in the cylinder(either one bad mouse or poison no good).Pulled off head clean out the mess then pulled the jugs and cleaned the crankcase out. Back together and installed. This last weekend finished putting the sled together, aimed it out the door(hang on here folks) went a total of 65ft. One of the drive sprockets shattered. Now we need to find a sprocket that will work with the Fastrac that is on the sled. 9 tooth, holes in track are on 2in centers. They are held in place on a 1in shaft by a roll pin on each side. Trying to get this going so we can surprise my father-in-law(original owner) at X-mas at his place on the 19th. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks, Chuck
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I think I can get you hooked up with a guy who has access to unobtanium parts. He is between Lowell and Alto. just off 96 between GR. and Lansing. His name is Dave and he runs Pirate Salvage, a vintage sled shop. 616-897-5438 is his number.
 
F

frnash

Active member
polarisrider1 said:
I think I can get you hooked up with a guy who has access to unobtanium parts.
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"unobtanium" — I love that term! :)

Not just from The Core, or Avatar, it actually goes back to the early days of the Aerospace Age:
"A substance having the exact high test properties required for a piece of hardware or other item of use, but not obtainable whether because it theoretically cannot exist or because technology is insufficiently advanced to produce it."

Interim Glossary, Aero-Space Terms, by Woodford Heflin, Feb. 1958, reproduced in Paul Dickson’s A Dictionary of the Space Age, 2009.
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(From: World Wide Words: Unobtanium.)

A 'nuther favorite term "indestructium". :)
 
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7

700classic

New member
polarisrider1 said:
I think I can get you hooked up with a guy who has access to unobtanium parts. He is between Lowell and Alto. just off 96 between GR. and Lansing. His name is Dave and he runs Pirate Salvage, a vintage sled shop. 616-897-5438 is his number.
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Is he just east of Clarksville, just off of Clarksville Rd.
 
S

sledboy482

Member
You are going to find more parts in the drive-train under the tunnel that are going to shatter. That yellowish rubberized plastic they used back in the day turns to very brittle plastic. A friend bought a Vigilante a good many years ago. We got it running and just spinning the track caused little brittle yellow pieces to come flying out. So, he ended up parting ways with it. I know a guy in Wisconsin Rapids, WI who is a Viking Guru. He has the very first Viking ever made. Among many, many others. His name is Bill Haske. He has a vast amount of parts- some NOS, some rebuilds. He certainly would know the track to put on it. He even races a Viking each year at Eagle River. He's about 80 years old. Very nice guy. There's also a guy in Pittsville, WI who is a huge Viking Collector. His name escapes me right now. Just went by his place today. He has at least ten of them on the lawn right now.
 
7

700classic

New member
sledboy482 said:
You are going to find more parts in the drive-train under the tunnel that are going to shatter. That yellowish rubberized plastic they used back in the day turns to very brittle plastic. A friend bought a Vigilante a good many years ago. We got it running and just spinning the track caused little brittle yellow pieces to come flying out. So, he ended up parting ways with it. I know a guy in Wisconsin Rapids, WI who is a Viking Guru. He has the very first Viking ever made. Among many, many others. His name is Bill Haske. He has a vast amount of parts- some NOS, some rebuilds. He certainly would know the track to put on it. He even races a Viking each year at Eagle River. He's about 80 years old. Very nice guy. There's also a guy in Pittsville, WI who is a huge Viking Collector. His name escapes me right now. Just went by his place today. He has at least ten of them on the lawn right now.
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Any phone numbers?
 
bearrassler

bearrassler

Well-known member
700classic, did you ever get the old Viking running? I found a new website a couple weeks ago that has lots of information on the old Vikings. It is vikingsnowmobiles.com, and they do talk about track conversions from the old Fastrak and have lots of pictures
 
7

700classic

New member
Yes, the old Viking is a runner! Between the 2 parts sleds, head scratchin', busted knuckles and Do overs She lives. My son has pictures, just need to get them posted. I was going to take some when we finally had it fine tuned, by the time I got the camera the boy(22yo) was gone. 25 mins later I am getting ready to go look for him Decided to call figured if he was broke down he'd hear his phone. Sure enough he answered, was about 2mi. away at a friends house showin' it off! Thanks for the website info. Will post pictures as soon as we can!
 
7

700classic

New member
Would love to do that, but already had a ride planned this weekend. The Viking is mechanically ready to go but still needs alot of spit and polish. Maybe try for next year sounds like it would be a great time.
 
E

ezra

Well-known member
yeah it is a great show huge vintage swap lots of trailer queens and tons of last legers and eaverything in between 2 days of racing .all that and what I am excited about is the pork chops the lions sell
 
A

aps0428

New member
Viking Pictures

Here are some pictures of me running around on the viking, and a still shot of her in running condition
 

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