My 1983 John deere sprintfire 340 - Snowmobile Forum: Your #1 Snowmobile Forum

lukeduke24 · 09-09-2009, 10:28 PM

this sled is my second. she starts right up on the first pull with the choke off. pretty amazing for how old it is. i got for 150$!!!! WUT A STEAL!!!!

**RJ Gleason** · 09-09-2009, 10:32 PM

Where's the pictures?

lukeduke24 · 09-09-2009, 10:35 PM

**RJ Gleason** · 09-09-2009, 10:50 PM

Looks like it's in excellent condition.

lukeduke24 · 09-09-2009, 11:07 PM

yea, new slides and track. it runs like a champ!! i even got a 100$ cover for free in buying it...

JayC · 09-10-2009, 12:15 AM

Sprintfire? I have never heard of a Sprintfire....do you mean Spitfire? The very first snowmobile I ever rode was an old JD Spitfire...got me hooked, neat old machine. Then the first sled I bought was a John Deere Liquifire 440...heavy as hell and pretty fast. I bought it for $50 at a garage sale and it started up on the first pull. One night, I opened the garage door, started her up and the throttle cable froze wide open....that Deere sprinted out of my mom and dads garage, and smashed so hard into the neighbours tree ...it disintegrated. It was sad

JayC · 09-10-2009, 12:18 AM

...NEVERMIND...I stand corrected! I just saw the badging in your photo...Sprintfire! I love it. Wouldn't it be cool if John Deere got back into the snowmobile business. I read once that they got into building sleds when the company was struggling to sell agricultural equipment...a way to keep the company afloat.

Dbl R · 09-10-2009, 07:40 AM

Sweet looking ride you got and a hell of a deal. My first sled was also a deere. 340 spitfire. When i got that it made my dads 72 ski doo 292 seem like it was standing still. It ran like a champ for two years now looking back should have kept it, the crank seals went out. So the third year you could ride it for like 20 minutes let it sit half hour then 20 more minutes of fun. Of course when i was twelve that was a big job and nobody was volunteering to help so she went bye bye. Anyways have fun with it...

**smallengineguy** · 09-10-2009, 07:42 AM

Good looking sled! They got into it when everyone else did. They used Kawasaki engines in most of them. The Liquifire was their top of the line model.

lukeduke24 · 09-10-2009, 09:25 PM

thanks guys, this is my second and my first was a 1980 Arctic cat panther 440 and that thing had soo many electrical problems. it pissed me off

lukeduke24 · 10-18-2009, 07:42 PM

hey, my deere is acting up...it will start with throttle and then when starts to try and idle, it wont. Does anybody know why? Just cleaned out the carb today and more gas.

**RJ Gleason** · 10-19-2009, 08:46 AM

Will it keep running if you give it choke?

GMdieselman · 10-19-2009, 09:52 AM

That is the only way my Spitfire will run on idle is with choke. Otherwise I have to take it off to rev up. The track bearing just went out a week ago. I too started on a JD Spitfire, but it never ran right, but one time it did and that little kohler could really haul. But since it's a direct drive, it went too slow pretty quick. Now I stepped a great deal up from that with my 87 formula plus I just bought.

lukeduke24 · 10-19-2009, 06:21 PM

nah it wont. it will start up on the first pull, then dies after like 5 seconds of idling.

justmytailights · 10-19-2009, 08:08 PM

good for you,that sled is excellent and will give you years of sledding enjoyment.enjoy her,she a classic

**RJ Gleason** · 10-20-2009, 03:30 AM

Does working the throttle keep it running?

lukeduke24 · 10-20-2009, 10:15 PM

yea, and if i let go of the throttle, it will die.

HrdHededJagFan · 10-21-2009, 10:08 AM

my 81 jag will idle if the throttle trigger is pushed in just a hair... if it backs off all the way it kills the motor.. i think it has to do with what they call a "throttle ignition kill switch.." you might want to look more into that..

**RJ Gleason** · 10-21-2009, 06:38 PM

If the cable is too tight, that will happen.