250 TX Project (On a Budget)

[kirk600]

Kelly,
That rear skid looks good painted black. I agree it will look stealth once inside the track. I shipped a set of those crimped leaf springs/saddles to a guy in Minnesota this fall, and afterwards i learned about the spring being crimped as well.
I had the same visions in my mind about just using the spring..........but my intentions were to mount them in a set of early polaris plastic skis


Keep up the good work, your getting close.

Kirk

 

[skiroule]

Thanks!

Guess it was one of those ideas that looked good on paper.

Finally pulled the speedometer housing off and sure enough, water had been trapped in it over the years. This probably happens to a lot of older sleds but it’s pretty typical of these sleds.

The speedo cable insert was still intact, which was a good sign that the bearing wasn’t shot. Once the outer plate was removed and things cleaned up it didn’t look quite as bad. In fact, I finally came to the conclusion that the bearing was in pretty good shape and hadn’t been compromised by the water so I’m sticking with it.

The plate and housing were cleaned up but I simply wiped the housing out with a cloth and some thinner. One of the dumbest things I’ve ever done (and there are many) was to sandblast the inside of a housing on a previous project. Needless to say, the sand dust in the gears made for a bad combination.
A little rust inhibitive paint to help keep the water off the surfaces and I’ll put a coating of grease on everything and pack some in the housing for added protection.

 

[skiroule]

Decided to suck it up and try make some real progress tonight. First thing on the list was to take a really close look at the track. The first five cleats I looked at were cracked. At this point it was obvious that the track had to come out. Once out, it was way worse than I thought, 30 of the 37 cleats were cracked, sometimes in two places. It still could be run like this but at some point a cleat is going to tear out and be impaled in the bulkhead or worse, my rear end. Also, once the driveshaft was out I discovered that the main drive bearing on the chaincase side was very rough.

Time to pay a visit to the parts pile. I did have one take-off track that turned out to have three or four welded cleats but no cracked ones that weren't welded. Also found an older chaincase with new bearings. The chaincase wouldn’t work but the bearing would.

Finally got the track and driveshaft installed and moved on to more stuff I planned to do: Speedometer driveshaft gear/housing re-mounted, skis installed, steering hooked up and aligned, secondary mounted, and the engine set in. Will bolt the engine down after I take care of a couple of other items.
,
Definitely not on the home stretch but I guess any progress is good.

 

[kirk600]

Wow Kelly, that Polaris is coming along nicely! I imagine your ahead of schedule, even with the few setbacks recently. Nice detail job under the hood.
Good call on pulling out the track, and having a spare on hand saved precious time, not to mention money.I see replacement cleats for sale frequently, but for me they are only good in the northern most areas, as they dont cross dry roads very well.....
As a fellow vintage Tx owner, i have a few questions....Do you use covers on them in the off season or while in your trailer? I have a clamshell enclosed, and it seems like i get alot of moisture in there, so i am looking for suggestions.The trailer is vented, but Our climate here in SW Michigan is quite a bit warmer than Northern Minnesota, with plenty of warmups thruout the season, so i get condensation in the trailer. I am tempted to make some canvas covers for them, if i can find an old one and use it for a template Or use a generic one that isnt nylon, if it would help.

Keep up the good work,
Kirk

 

[skiroule]

Before we moved north I had a 400 sq. ft. “yard building” that was built on pilings with a plywood floor. Made for perfect summer sled storage, air flow under the floor and no cement condensation. My trailer has a Snow Cap, which is OK for storage in the winter but with the black fabric exterior you could bake caramel rolls in it in the summer – not good for sleds. I still have room to store the sleds in the garage at the new house during the summer but I did move a couple outside this fall make some space.

I picked up a couple of lightweight covers from Menard's of all places. Even the smallest size fits fairly loosely on the vintage machines so there should be some air flow and the material seems like it should breathe. Guess I don’t have any good answers for outside storage. Maybe one of those inexpensive canopies combined with covers and some plywood on the ground. Not attractive but fairly inexpensive and maybe better than just covers.

Got the skid in tonight and a bunch of stuff hooked up under the hood. A few more tweaks to do on the exhaust and it should run and move if it had fuel. Still have an issue with the tank and will try to get a decent photo of that tomorrow to explain it.

 

[snoluver1]

Holy cripes Kelly, your kickin' a$$ and taking names on that thing! Is that what its like to be retired? You can actually get stuff done? Who'd a thunk it!

 

[skiroule]

Holy cripes Kelly, your kickin' a$$ and taking names on that thing! Is that what its like to be retired? You can actually get stuff done? Who'd a thunk it!

Have to admit, it is an advantage. When you don’t spend almost half of each calendar day commuting and working it makes for quite a bit more spare time. I still do lose a certain amount of time every day trying to remember where I put stuff and then after finding it, trying to remember why I was looking for it in the first place.

Been holding out hope that I might fire it up tomorrow but that depends on my success at stopping drips. Knew about crack in the threaded fuel tank outlet (couldn’t get a decent photo) but also discovered a chaincase drip. Trying a solution for the fuel tank drip and will try a different chaincase cover and gasket tomorrow. Fingers crossed for the results.

Supposed to be a beautiful day tomorrow, would be fun to take a test ride.

 

[kirk600]

Looks great Kelly.
I had a leaking chaincase on my TXL and pulled the seal off and cleaned it real good, then glued it back on the chaincase with 3M weatherstrip adhesive. No leaks yet but i am keeping an eye on it.
might give that a try before forking over your hard earned money for a new seal.

Kirk

 

[skiroule]

Never thought about weatherstrip adhesive – pretty cool idea. This is what I like about the vintage world, you get so many useful tips that sometimes make a huge difference in how things go and how much money you spend

I did switch to a spare used gasket that was much softer than the original. Think the original had gotten to stiff to seal correctly. Just to make sure I used some Permatex non-hardening sealer for flexible applications. No evidence of leaks so it must have worked.

Also resolved the fuel leak and made some blue smoke today. That’s one sweet smell. The 250 absolutely purrs. Air screws seem very close but might back the idle screws out a tad to get the idle down a little and then re-check the air screws. It seems to come up in RPMs pretty quickly but the real test will be on the snow.

Going to do a little more detailing on the chassis tonight and adjust the track since I’m banned from the house. My wife won’t let me watch the Wild with her. Says I’m a curse.

Looks like a little kid that wants to go out and play. Test ride tomorrow!

 

[Deleted member 10829]

Looking great Kelly! You have way too many of those vintage TX's, I'd love to take one off your hands sometime. My first sled as a kid was a 1976 TX 250. Just loved that sled! I went through a few speedo gauge glass as I'd let the pull rope go and as it went back in, the handle would slap the speedo glass.

 

[skiroule]

You would think I’d get tired of messing with these things and take you up on your offer but it’s just as much fun as ever.

I have had the flying pull rope experience. That little 2” T-handle doesn’t work well with thick mittens. I have converted all of them to loop handles now.

Made the initial test run on the river today – the sled runs beautifully and rides beautifully. Then there’s the fine sound of that tuned pipe. Maybe someday I’ll take care of the remaining battle scars but for now, it’s time to ride it.

Good to see it in its natural habitat again.

 

[gary_in_neenah]

Nice one Kelly. Enjoy your efforts!

 

[skiroule]

Thanks guys, it’s so nice to see the appreciation for the old iron and your positive words really help when things occasionally get difficult - seems like every project has some of THOSE moments.

Hopefully people find these project threads interesting and as Kirk told me, they might inspire someone else to take on a vintage or classic sled project and help preserve a piece of snowmobiling history.

The sled is now a good little rider for about $400 invested (plus the cost of the sled). Yes, I still have a wish list for future improvements on this sled but I need to balance the money spent on this project this year with some other projects – might provide an update about that in a couple of weeks.

 

[samc]

Very nice job. That sled looks amazing......

 

[kirk600]

Very nice job. That sled looks amazing......

Great job again Kelly......mission accomplished.
I made it back up to Cadillac for the weekend, and warm temps and fog kept me from getting to ride my sled, although I did go visit Ogemaw Hills vintage show and poked around there looking at the old iron.......they had a really nice turnout. Its nice to see clubs putting these shows on for the public free of charge. Heck they even fed you for free just asked for a donation.

 

[Whaler2121]

do you sale any of these or do you know of any one who has a txl for sale?

 

[skiroule]

Have to confess, I'm not very good at being able to sell anything. I've seen a couple of 80's for sale in IL. One looked pretty rough but the guy only wanted $200 and said it ran good. The other one was better and I think he was asking $800. There is a TX facebook page that is worth watching if you are really interested in a TXL>