hi,
i'm gonna tell you a little story about what happen to my sled this autumn.
i was doing some electrical work on it, the handwarmers didn't work neither this the thumb warmer or the brake lights, so obviuosly i had to make the engine idle, with outise temperature at around 70 degree F/ 20 degrees celsius.Yes i was in shorts and enjoying a cold one.since my garage was not heated at the moment it was better to do this now than in the middle of winter at -40. anyways i was doing some electrical debugging and everything came through, next step was adding a temperature gauge. i hate those idito lights that come on when the cooking is done. it lights up and the engine is at about the same red color as the light. anyway my seld is an '89 so i didn't trust that little temp sensor so i bought my self a car temperture gauge for 30$ at can.tire wit lighting and all the fitings needed.
So i take out the old sensor and found the right fitting for the new sensor,took the dash apart, then used a dremel to cut out a hole for the gauge which worked out perfectly.i installed the whole thing and even got my volt meter to find some 12 volts for the gauge lighting. then passed the whole gauge-sensor assembly through the gauge hole and got it to the cylinders and used some good pink telfon tape, the kind thats impossible to fuel oil, ect ect, to keep the sensor not to leak coolant, the normal procedure
)
then i cranked it up and everything was ok, so i got the track up on a small wooden bench i got to keep the hide up to make it rev a little faster and see if all this work would be worth it. everything was perfect, i got the temp to 120 degrees and lighting in th gauge was ok! i was a happy camper
so i speed it up again to about 6-7K and let it drop to idle and then it happened.. it was idle on 1 piston, more 1 and half piston so i press on the kill switch and remove one spark plug wire at a time and recranking it to see which side is doin that.. it was left.
hmm so i start it up again and this time i really lost the left side..so i let it idle and then it died by it self..and when i was about to crank it up again it felt hard to crank..i was not able to crank it.. it was too hard!! now i 6 feet tall and weight 220 so if i cant crank it MUST be hard. i thought to myself OMFG i blew my engine !!! i check the temp gauge, 120 degrees, touched the radiator (old panteras have radiators in the cab and coooler underneath as well) it was somewhat warm and the cinlerds too.. so it did NOT overheat. i thought ti was the mileage maybe, or fate..i droped everything tool on the floor,closed the garage and left.
a few months later, i saw the first snowfall,i was outside and looked up at the sky and then at the garage with a somewhat glitter in my eye. you know thats funny feeling you get when you own a sled and the firt snow comes? i had BIG time.. i was in middle of my yard and looking at my broken toy wich putting a 500$ engine in a 500$ sled is iilogical.
but i was overcome to open up the engine and and atleast go see WTF happened.
which i did. i started up with carbs, got every wire and cable disconnected and then got the right carb out and then the left..it was THE revelation..something pink was going from the aribox to inside the cylinder.. now what is that ? i thought.. so i cutted it and got the carbs out and then the engine and started to dismantle it from the top down and i stopped at the crankcase. i saw wghat happened there.. it was impossible but it did, it's the kind oif thing that can only happen to me.
the teflon tape roll fell accidently into the intake and when i speeded the engine it unroll and wioth the sucksion it wrapped around the crankshaft,right beside the rod melting there and wrappin the whole 100 feet ( it was a new teflon roll) of it,making the rod thrust and rub on the crank but not quite rubbing since there was teflon EVERYWHERE. this is what made the engine hard to crank up. i thought to myself, "this is worst than the chaos theory" as what i learned there are NO airfilters in 1989 panteras.
anyway i got one of my neibors to help me out , he's about 70 years old and has patience and the expertise to repair any sled, he saw them all so heck i had nothing to lose.. although he did laugh at the situation , i did too he and i cleaned the whole me out without even getting the crank out, and we put back the piston and rings which were ok.
it costed me 2 days work getting that engine in and out , some gaskets and i gave him a torque wrench as a present for his very good work.
)
and now the sled is at it was, and im sledding again.i was scare it would blow up for the first miles but i had mixed the gaz and went easy on her...she an old one but gets me anywhere, until i get my self a bigger one next year
))
just thought i'd share this misfortune with you guys, you see, it seemed alot worst than it was actually.
oh for those who want to install a temperature gauge on yer sleds, this is not a procedure of how to do it ..
Fr0sT
Linear Mode
