Thinking of Snow

[mswyka]

Pulling out the chassis for the TOC project and yesterday's storing away of the 303 Panther has had us in and out of the machine shed quite a bit lately.  So tonight, as evidenced by the attached photos, we fired up two of the Invaders.  Yes, I must admit that I am thinking of snow.

[kawhead]

had my 550 in the front yard for the 4th of july,had a few nice comments...rode it in the shop at dusk with my 4 year old grandson,he dug the ski's up hole shot ;]...now i'm fired up

[mswyka]

So the euphoria of the first sled starting of the season had succumbed to the sinking realization that both of these sleds are leaking coolant.

I have yet to diagnose, but over the weekend I noticed that there was a puddle of coolant on the inside of the belly pan of the 79 340 Invader.  Then last night, when I was doing some checking for our current project sled I noticed that there was a green puddle in the bottom of the 80 440 Invader also!  Again, no diagnosis yet but I am a bit discouraged that they would both leak at essentially the same time.  And my fear is that somehow, for some reason, the leak may be from the water pump.

[Interceptor398]

That is not a happy place for a Friday!  Good Luck

[mswyka]

Saturday here in NY was a lovely, dry, cool and sunny day.   We managed to steal a few minutes to pull three sleds out of the machine shop.  And were able to spend a little time assessing what they needed to make  them run. 

The first was our 78 Intruder.  It stopped at the end of last season and, based upon how it acted we were assuming it needed a fuel pump replacement.  Yesterday's inspection revealed a split impulse line.  It is wonderful when the repairs are that easy.  While we were working on it we had the opportunity to add a hitch to pull the Kat Kutter.

The next assignment will be to figure out how the coolant is leaking out of the 440 Invader.  We have a few water pumps on the bench ready to go in for rebuild if it turns out that the pump is the source of the leakage.

[mswyka]

Hitch photo

[mswyka]

It is a crisp, clear evening here in NY.  We finally pulled the 1980 440 Invader into the garage to see where the coolant is coming from.  While I was fully prepared to pull the engine and pull the water pump for rebuilding I thought it prudent to give it a good once over before starting any major mechanical activity.  Except for a pool of coolant in the belly pan I couldn't find anything else that was wet.  Oil, sure, oil is everywhere - but no coolant.

So after about a half hour of poking, prodding and trying to get light into places where it is almost impossible to see we stopped to warm up the sled to see if it needed a little pressure to show itself. 

After idling peacefully for a few minutes, the temperature started to come up.  Still nothing.  Then after walking to the other side of the sled there it was...dribbling out of the radiator overflow tube!  May be time for a new radiator cap.

[72SSRS]

Always nice when its an easy fix

[mswyka]

I am hoping to be as fortunate with  the 340