Zollinger Tube Chassis Restoration

[gp800]

I had been searching for a pre-built motor similar to what I had used for the 800 with no success. Everything I had been able to find was either a basket case or a shipping nightmare. So I decided rather than roll the dice on someone else's problem I would have an engine built to my specifications. Luckily I was able to track a great candidate just a few hours away. it had came from a low mileage 97 Mach 1 but I'm guessing it had locked up after sitting for so many years. After removing the head I couldn't see any obvious signs of damage so it is something in the bottom end.

 

[gp800]

Aside from the material needed for the motor mounts, another awesome piece of the puzzle I'm expecting to arrive this week are the original pipes that were modified for this chassis. A huge thanks goes out to Curt at Fastrax for offering them up. he currently owns the original 700 engine and has it in a extremely clean wedge chassis asphalt sled running in the five second range at over 110mph in the 1/8th mile. Curt has been extremely helpful throughout both builds with supplying parts, information, photos and advise.

 

[Scott]

I thought some of you may like to see a build I wrapped up earlier this spring and hopefully it’ll help turn up another sled I’ve been looking for. Without getting too crazy into the long story of finding this sled it was found in Alaska after being sold by a family member, unfortunately it had been parted out to the point where it was almost unrecognizable.View attachment 353657View attachment 353660View attachment 353662

I REMEMBER THAT SLED.
I KNOW I downloaded pics of it onto my hard drive back in the day.

 

[gp800]

I REMEMBER THAT SLED.
I KNOW I downloaded pics of it onto my hard drive back in the day.

Awesome! If you ever run across them feel free to post them up! I love seeing the old photos!

 

[gp800]

Here’s a little bit of what I have been working on since my last update. The motor mounts directly to the chassis using very old style Polaris rubber isolators. Only issue was the isolator themselves and the center bushings have been discontinued. After a few days I was lucky enough to track down the rubbers in Canada, (thank you elk island sales.) I needed 12 and they had 13. I didn’t have much luck with the center bushing however and rather than paying $6 a piece for them I bought a whole chunk of tubing that met the same specs from McMaster-Carr for $4.50 and whipped up my own.

 

[gp800]

Now that I had the isolators I could set the engine height. Starting with a cardboard template and measurements from the 800. There was a lot of trial and error in the beginning but finally I was able to nail it. 3 Identical mounts ready for the next step which is engine placement.

 

[gp800]

I had a friend machine me up these cool little slugs that were the same specs as the rubber isolators and caps the hope was to allow me to get the motor perfectly placed without battling the movement of rubber parts.

 

[gp800]

Using the old skidoo racers guide I was able to align the clutches to spec. I’m very happy with the results. I wish I would have taken more pictures during the process but I was focused on getting it just right. Only a few minor tabs and mounts left and all of the Chromaloy fabrication will be done and ready for final welding.

 

[gp800]

Quick update. After building the motor mounts I ran into two issues right off the bat, first being the drag link was contacting the mag side motor mount before reaching full lock. A little massaging with a grinder and rebuilding a new bell crank with a longer arm I was able to turn lock to lock. Then after sorting that issue I found my steering post would hit the mag side carb. Instead of rebuilding or modifying the post I opted for a set of TMX flat slides. I now have plenty of clearance between the carb and steering post.

 

[gp800]

Quick update. Finally tore down the engine to see why it was locked up. It didn’t take me too long to find the issue.

 

[StolenNolan]

We want more! We want more! ?

 

[xc_rider08]

agree!!!! we need more. awesome thread. very cool

 

[Clarke673]

We want more! We want more! ?

hey just incase you don't see my reply to your question in the chat box, find a chain case from an 06 rmk. they are the longest cc case built that i know of. Besides newer skidoos i would guess but screw those guys lol. Ice age / AVID make extended cases for pro and axys. $999 is a damn good price and it adds a lot of square, high quality strength to build your sled from. There is some hints in that last sentence. @StolenNolan

 

[xpturbo600]

Any update?

 

[gp800]

Any update?

Progress has been slow but there has been some pretty big steps made. The motor was sent to my good friend Wayde Johnson of T8RZ porting and performance whom has a great reputation of building some serious horsepower engines that last. I only gave him 2 requests I wanted 10,000+ RPM and I wanted it to make power all the way to that point, the rest he was given free reign. After doing some measuring of the port heights he concluded we would need to add a shim under the cylinders to get the port area large enough for what we were asking it to do. This also required custom domes to be cut that would protrude into the bore of the cylinder to gain back the compression lost by shimming the cylinders up. The head was sent to the Crankshop back in February and was finished at the end of march. Another Major issue was the bent rod, being we were going to be turning some serious RPM out of this thing I wanted the crankshaft to be built to the task. It was also sent out in February to Northern Crankshaft, they had some difficulty sourcing a new rod but eventually they were able to get everything together and shipped back to Wayde in late June. The chassis itself was dropped off at a friends shop to have all of the tubing repairs final welded. He also has an awesome 14' CNC press brake so I believe the plan will be to have him fabricate the aluminum inner tunnel liner/skin. He is very busy with contracted business and will likely only be able to get to it after hours or when his schedule permits. In the meantime I've also made some progress in finding the one sled that is still missing. I spoke with the potential current owners daughter who confirmed he owned a tube chassis snowmobile that matches the area, timeframe and description of the one I am looking for but unfortunately once asking for photos to confirm whether or not it is in fact that sled, all communication ended and my messages were no longer being answered. I was able to get a phone number for the suspected owner whom I did leave a voicemail for some time ago. I just do not want to be overly pushy on the subject. In the meantime I'll upload some more photos of the missing sled I was able to turn up.

 

[gp800]

 

[gp800]

Today I was finally able to talk to the gentleman who I was told might own the missing sled and while it turned out to not be the sled I was hunting for it was something cool/rare in its own right. https://www.snowest.com/forum/threads/whatever-happened-to-goat-highmark-sleds.151856/

 

[Reeb]

You found Travis' sled?

 

[gp800]

You found Travis' sled?

Two of them actually. The blue one that is complete and the yellow one in progress were both his. It just so happens the missing one pictured above was as well.

 

[chickenstixx]

Are you the guy spamming the KSL sled section for tube hillclimb sleds?

Cool builds. Did you grow up watching these guys and this era of HC sleds or what is your passion about them from?