Vintage sled heads

[Davey Crockett]

Anyone grow up with older Yamahas ? I have an early 80s Yamaha excel III that's in excellent condition and runs right along once you get it moving but it's got the power band of a little electric motor. Bought it a couple summers ago with intentions of studding up the track and raising up the seat with storage underneath it plus an auger rack and a good hitch but after driving it I realized it will be a mutt if I weigh it down and hook a sled up to it. Was this typical of these sleds and is there any clutch work a guy can do or is gearing it down my only option ? It came with a new belt and I held it op to the old one that is on it and the old belt looks just as good.

 

[eyexer]

clutch work and gearing both. different springs on the drive and driven and weights/ramps. Then smaller drive gear and bigger driven gear

 

[Wild and Free]

1976 Merc 340 just like the one pictured below, still runs to this day as far as I know.
My back and ass still hurt just thinking about how many hours and miles I put on that thing in my younger years.

 

[Mort]

Love me some sno jet.....had star jet 338 growing up!



This is the sled I had growing up....would love a thunder*jet tho...those were the best kick ass drag sleds of the 70's.

This is the bad ass you want:

 

[LBrandt]

69 Artic Cat Panther, 534 Hirth engine. The thing was like 12 ft long. Back still fells like crap when I see pictures of that type of sleds. You needed arms like Popeye to handel those sleds. Next sled was a 440 Cheeta , now that was fun.

 

[Fritz the Cat]

Early 70's Yukon King. Orange in color. Anyone else have one of those?

 

[Pinecone]

did your cheeta have the seat to match?

 

[Davey Crockett]

69 Artic Cat Panther, 534 Hirth engine. The thing was like 12 ft long. Back still fells like crap when I see pictures of that type of sleds. You needed arms like Popeye to handel those sleds. Next sled was a 440 Cheeta , now that was fun.

Are you sure that wasn't a 634 Hirth ? Then there was the Boss cat/ King cat with the 760 Hirth that had the wrap around mufflers that came out of the front. Polaris and cat were in a race to build "Muscle sleds" back in those days. The TX 800 was an awesome sled too. I hear you on the backache. I can make about 1000 yards on a stock sled on flat ground before I have to call it quits but if I build/raise up the seat and ride it like a 4 wheeler It's not too bad if I take it easy.







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This was our first sled that went faster than 15 MPH , It had a factory exhaust bypass where you pulled a lever and made all sorts of noise but didn't go any faster.

 

[Jiggernaut]

This was my sled when I was younger. 1971 Ski-doo Nordic 399. She'd do about 75 mph top speed and was great on trails and in deep snow.

 

[LBrandt]

Your right, 634 hirth, old age likes to screw up numbers.

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Went to tec school in Thief River Falls in early 70's, tended bar at a steak house and pizza pub called the Covered Wagon to make ends meet. Got to know a lot of Artic Cat people. Sales men would bring Kawasaki engine people in for lunch, man could those little guys put away the food and beer, and tiped well to.

 

[BrokenBackJack]

Had a buddy that had the King Kat 760. Out riding one weekend and we were really hauling ass across a field and he hit a big rock dead center and caved the front end in and the front tip of the skis were bent around hugging the rock. He flew like a bird. Can still see that in my mind. We really laughed about it later. He got to laugh at me later as we were riding again and came flying up to a slough that had the grass cut and snow was about 3'' deep. Anyway it was swathed and not baled and my skis went into the swath and the sled stopped cold and i kept going busting off the windshield and thought i left my nuts on the handle bars. Couldn't move for quite awhile after that. Hurt so bad i was puking and he was standing there laughing his ass off.
Use to race Arctic Cats and Rupp sleds. Had lots of fun and met some great people. Those old sleds road like a stone boat and we thought they were fast. They were heavy as can be. Would like to ride a new one (not very far) just to see how it rides and how it handles compared to our old dinosaurs. Sure beat walking and made the winters go faster too. We used to get snow back then too.

 

[Davey Crockett]

clutch work and gearing both. different springs on the drive and driven and weights/ramps. Then smaller drive gear and bigger driven gear

Sounds like more than I care to put into it , I'll mess with the clutch springs a little and see if that helps. Might be better off selling it and a couple more that collect dust and get a decent sled with reverse.



Broken, Our neighbors had a 760, Man those sounded pretty. I could keep up to it with my 440 Super Stinger till we got in deep snow the Cat would walk right away from me. Another neighbor had a snow jet with a 634 Hirth That went pretty good.

 

[lunkerslayer]

I grew up on a1975 Rupp 440 free air nitro.
Davey, do you have any parts or whole engines 440 el tigre

 

[Davey Crockett]

No I don't Lunker, Almost everything I have for spare engines are Rockwell/cuyuna .


I saw a complete ElTigre a while back on one of those eastern ND barter sites that I thought was a steal but I wasn't interested. If I run across it or see another I'll send it your way.

 

[WormWiggler]

Most memories are pulling on the cord..

 

[Davey Crockett]

Most memories are pushing and pulling on the cord, My dad had either traveled by snow ski, saddle horse or harnessed horses during harsh winters all his life. I remember us taking a drive about 1965 to go look at the first snowmobile in the neighborhood , He was impressed and bought a used Larson a couple weeks later for his trap route. Started and ran fine but had a cable rewind and when it got real cold it took forever to push the cable back in.

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I still have the hood , It's pretty cool . If anyone knows of an old Larson sled I'd be interested in buying it or selling my hood to the owner if he needs one.

 

[5575]

I'm a big fan of old school lightweight 440 muscle!

 

[lunkerslayer]

Is that your sled 5575? Is it a 75 and a oval racer she sure it's pretty.

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This is what I grew up riding until I rode a 96 Mach z which scared the crap out of me.

 

[AR-15]

They say there is a guy in Park River or Grafton that has a lot of old Racing sleds that he shows, anybody know about this?

 

[Retired Educator]

Pictures bring back a lot of memories. I had one like the Polaris 432 that is pictured. Thought I really had something. Never really checked for rules and not sure how legal it was but there were a lot of foxes hunted with snowmobiles back in the day. Never got in trouble for it as there weren't all that many around so nobody thought much or it.

At one time it seemed like there must have been 100 snowmobile manufacturers. What are there now? 3 come quickly to mind or the Big 3, Polaris, Arctic Cat and Ski-doo.

I do remember it wasn't uncommon to ride for a day and then fix for a day, dependent on how hard we rode. How did we survive without trails to ride? Would have been less fixing as we wouldn't have been hitting rocks, muskrat huts, stuck in cattails, etc. I never had a 634 Hirth but a buddy did. He got stuck in cattails one day and those machines were heavy. Have no idea how we got that out. About all 4 of us could handle. Nothing but muscle it out. Beer time after we got it out.

Good memories.