Jim Solberg's Vintage Snowmobiles
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~ Latest Additions To The Site~
I've transferred the site over to a different hosting service. This one offers ten times the bandwidth for half the price, and should mean that I won't have to shut down the audio/video page during peak months like I did last season.
Here's a great example of why not to use aftermarket point sets when you rebuild your engine. I rebuilt my 400 CCW in 2002 using mostly new parts, including aftermarket points. Since one set did not work right out of the box, I put one old set back in. Late last season the CCW started backfiring something fierce. I tore it down recently and found the aftermarket points to be the problem. The rivet holding the contact to the pivot arm loosened so the contact was just flopping around. The arm was also bent. In went a salvaged point set and the CCW is purring once again.
Jim Solberg's 2008/2009 snowmobile season in review slide show
Information about Grose-Jet.
The Grose-Jet is a replacement for the carburetor inlet needle and seat, and the Grose-E-Jet is a replacement for the Tillotson main jet. This information is in the Literature - Carburetor Manuals section and was provided by Tom Snell and Dan Tomlanovich. Thanks Tom and Dan!
www.vintagesnowmobile.com
2007/2008 Season Slide Show
2006/2007 Season Slide Show
(1.5 meg or better internet connection recommended)
My Vintage Sled Collection
1972 Scorpion Stinger II 400
1970 Arctic Cat Panther 440J
1971 Arctic Cat Panther 440A
1970 Scorpion Stinger 340
Jim Solberg's Vintage Snowmobile Web Log
May 25, 2009I attended the St. Germain show (Snowmobile Hall of Fame Classic Sled Round-up) on May 24. I took no photos. I guess I'm becoming less and less enchanted with the "show" side of things. The swap meet was huge compared to past shows. I picked up a few needed parts for my 290 Stinger from Dennis "Scorpsrus" Kutz, but nothing else. After completing a few pre-arranged part sales, I actually left the place with more cash in my pocket than when I arrived. Kind of a nice change. Dale Hoffman was swapping so I got to talk to him a bit and many of the guys who go on his yearly vintage ride. I saw Earlham and Copperfield (Tom and Patty Reilly), Skiwizzer, Sparcat, and Demo. I had nice long story swapping sessions with SnowmoBoyle (Gary and Larry Boyle) and Jeff "banished member" Haugen. |
March 21, 2009Season 2008-2009 Wrap UpI blew last years record mileage total clear out of the water, racking up 917 total miles on my three sleds. The '71 Panther lead the way at 395 miles, followed by the '70 Panther at 289 miles, and the '72 Scorpion at 233 miles.The highlight of the season was getting my daughter Jennifer involved in driving, mostly with me on the back, but she rode solo at the Fish Lake ride. Next season I hope to get her certified so she can ride solo in Wisconsin.This summer's projects include engine work on the '71 Panther and '72 Scorpion, and installing the rear suspension and track from a '73 Panther in my '70. I also want to get my '74 Panther VIP moving and possibly get it in shape to use as a rider. I may end up selling it though, time will tell.
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February 15, 2009Today was a wrenching day. I knew I would jinx myself sooner or later.I felt the '70 Panther may have been shifting up too soon, so I installed a secondary spring from a '71 Puma 440. My test ride today was very encouraging. The Panther was up to 50 mph, about 10 faster than it's ever ran, then bang, bang, bang under the sled. I stopped and looked undeneath, couldn't see anything wrong, so I backtracked and found a cleat lying right in my tracks. Tipped the sled up and sure enough I threw a cleat.I neglected to do my usual annual track maintenance on this sled and it came back to bite me. I spent the afternoon going through the track, replacing the cleat, 28 rivets, and a half dozen guide clips. This should last me the season, but will give me added impetus to replace the entire running gear with that from a '73 Panther. Luckily, I found no damage to the tunnel.
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February 14, 2009How things can change in a short time. Like many areas of the snowbelt we suffered through warm weather and rain the early part of the week. The trails around these parts were decimated. Today I loaded the Scorpion and drove up to Long Lake to assess the situation there. As usual there is plenty of snow in the higher elevations of the Bayfield peninsula. I rode from Long Lake to Herbster and back, a 58 mile round trip. The trails are actually in very good condition, but the closer you get to the lake the thinner the snow and the rougher the trails. The forest roads have a lot of base snow, most are rutted however from sleds running on them when the snow was soft. The ruts are now frozen hard.Lenawee trail is in very good shape.
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February 7, 2009Had a nice ride Saturday with local vintage sledders Tim Lupa, Dale Hoffman, Tim Compton and others. We trailered to Delta Diner, had breakfast, then ran a 40 mile loop through Iron River and back. Nine sleds and no breakdowns or any other kind of trouble to speak of.At the Flying Eagle
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January 25, 2008The good times keep a rolling! The temps were real cold all weekend. Both Saturday and Sunday I waited until mid-afternoon for the mercury to rise to the single digits above zero and took short rides. Still, I managed to put on about 70 miles total and did some much enjoyed off trail exploring.Just north of Marengo along trail 13.
Creek crossing between Marengo and Sanborn.
When the sled's running good, and it's a nice day, I spend a lot of the ride time pondering something or other. Today I was noticing how well the Walbro carburetor on my '72 Stinger works. The Walbro is much maligned in vintage sled circles. Maybe I'm lucky, or have a certain touch with them, but mine works flawlessly ( there, I've jinxed myself). Cold starts are easy, with a primer, and when warmed up starting is exceptionally easy, requiring just a short tug on the recoil. After cold startup it takes just 30 seconds or so of choke manipulation before it settles into a nice idle. When warm it will sit and idle indefinitely. There is no bog anywhere in the power band. I can hammer on the throttle from idle or any throttle position while running and it responds smoothly.
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January 18, 2008Another good weekend of riding. Saturday was my first long ride of the season on the '72 Scorpion, "Big Red". I rode from home to Washburn, then to Pub & Grub/Valhalla, Moquah, and back home. A 60 mile trip. On Sunday, Jennifer (drove the whole way) and I ran out to Pine Creek Pit Stop on the corridor. We met up there with Tim Lupa and Dale Hoffman and had a good BS session.No breakdowns this weekend except for new spark plug caps required on the Scorpion after the run.At the trail junction in Washburn
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January 11, 2008Wow, a great riding weekend! Saturday I piloted Goldie to the Hurley Wisconsin Relic Ride (link to the photo page at the top of this page). With some extra riding I did to and from that event it made for a 60 mile day. Then on Sunday my daughter Jennifer and I ran the Sanborn-Marengo loop and stopped at the Welcome Home in Sanborn for burgers. Jennifer has not been that interested in snowmobiling the past couple of years. When I asked at Marengo if she wanted to drive, she said "sure". I though maybe she would for a mile or so. The darn kid drove the '71 Panther all the way back home, more than ten miles. I think she's hooked!And the great thing is, no breakdowns! I don't have to wrench on any of the sleds this week.Moon rise over Iron County
The old man
Jennifer at Welcome Home
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January 4, 2008My first venture into the Chequamegon National Forest this season occurred on New Years Day. Goldie and I spent the afternoon traveling from Long Lake to Cornucopia and back. This is some territory I have not covered since back in the day. Trails 40, 41, 1, 51, & 33. Goldie performed well the entire trip, but not my camera. The batteries went south on the first shot!On Saturday, January 3, I took my '71 Panther up to Long Lake again and attempted to make it to Herbster. I ran into a plowed road, right down to the gravel and decided to turn back. Looking at the map now, it would only have been about a half mile of ditch riding, so I should have stuck with it. I'll try again another day. I doubled back and went up to Old Baldy, but a snow squall obscured the view. On the way back to Long Lake I noticed I once again broke motor mounts on the '71. Grrrr. I've got to find a better solution for these mounts.Sunday, January 4, was mostly taken up with church and snow removal chores. I took out the '72 Scorpion for a short 14 mile shakedown ride, the first of the season. All went well.While riding on Sunday, I got to thinking about the distinct differences in my sleds. The '70 Panther is like a family sedan. Large and comfortable, not much power or speed. Easy electric start, good running and docile. Fun to cruise along the trails and enjoy the scenery. The '71 Panther is like a 60's muscle car. Big and powerful, fun to ride in a straight line on a good trail, or play around with in fields of deep snow, terrible handling on twisty or rough trails. The '72 Scorpion is like a British sports car. Light and responsive handling, a blast to put my feet in the stirrups and play around with. Fine running, free revving engine, not real powerful, but enough. It's hard to tell which sled rides the best overall, but the Scorpion certainly is the quietest, ride wise. The Cats with their slide suspension and steel cleated tracks bang and clank over every bump.On the Lenawee Trail (40) |
December 28, 2008I was looking forward to a long weekend of riding. I had Wednesday thru Sunday off. Wednesday was a good day, too much happening Christmas day to get out, then high temps and drizzle Friday and Saturday so no riding except for a brief one on Goldie late Friday afternoon. The trails south of town are pretty brown, so I'll have to trailer out now and I just didn't have the ambition to do that Sunday.Here are a couple photos from Christmas eve.At the east-west trail junction just south of Ashland.
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December 21, 2008The first weekend of riding for the season, and what a busy one it was!After a full morning of snow blowing Saturday I started up the '71 Panther in the afternoon and headed out. About ten miles into the ride one of the rear suspension springs broke, so I turned around and headed home. It took a half hour to replace that and I was off again.On Sunday I ran the Sanborn & Marengo loop. I was disappointed that the Welcome Home in Sanborn was not open. I pressed on to Marengo and had some delicious (not) c-store fare there. On the way into Sanborn I saw a group of seven wild turkeys... what an awesome sight! On returning to Ashland, I put the '71 Panther away and took out the '70 Panther for a short trip.Other than the broken spring and a case of hard starting (a new set of plugs cured that) at Marengo, the '71 Panther ran great. The set of new pistons installed this fall may be the final piece of the puzzle in getting the Kawasaki back to it's reliable ways.The '70 Panther ran fine at slow speeds, but would die out when I tried to accelerate. After mulling over any number or dire scenarios, as I often do, I found the problem was the pulse line had fallen off of the crankcase nipple. Tomorrow I will run in to NAPA and get a clamp and fix this once and for all with some heavy black fuel line. I was puzzled for a while as to how it could run at all with the line disconnected. The best I can come up with is that on the Panther the full fuel level is above the carburetor and it must have been running on gravity feed alone.Breaking trail on the pipeline heading south out of Ashland...
Snowy woods just before White River on trail 13...
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December 7, 2008Some interesting statistics from the site. It's getting to be that time of year when I average more than 100 unique visits a day. That usually lasts through March and then tapers off to about 50 visits per day in mid-summer.For several years the spark plug cross references and heat range charts have been the most visited pages. That has shifted over the past few months. In November the most visited page was the Mikuni conversion specs at 854 hits, followed by the Snowmobile Song at 500 hits. The Bosch information and Tillotson carb manuals follow and then the spark plug cross reference at 321 hits.Tech info in general is very popular, no surprise really as that's my main interest and I consciously or sub consciously steer the site in that direction. The music and radio spots are pretty popular which kind of surprises me.You folks wind up here from all different directions! About 19% get here by directly typing in the address or clicking on a link in your list of favorites. The rest come from a variety of links and searches, most (1-2%) from Vintagesnowmobiles.com. Whenever there is a mention of my site on Vintagesleds.com there is a big spike for a couple of days.As I write this, our first real snowfall of the season is coming down. Very pretty, light and fluffy with no wind. Maybe a couple of inches on the ground so far. Won't be long now... I hope! |
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