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Picked up another sled recently. So it Begins

3K views 26 replies 13 participants last post by  zr7cat26 
#1 ·
I have been talking with Seanod76 about his 97 T-cat for some time now. You guys probable remember he had a piston failure and had me check it out. Well making a long story short who ever built his 1000 big bore just bored the cylinders and plated them. They did not re-port the cylinders to bring the port timing back in to specs and worse then never touched the heads. Well 160+lbs of compression on pump gas wont last and unfortunately for Sean he paid the price.

The sled has been sitting for a while and with his little ones needing medical help a while ago he did not have the finances to fix his T-cat and he could not see fixing it in the near future. He was thinking about parting it out and I asked him if he would be wiling to sell it AS IS because it was such a Clean sled to start with. We ended up coming to a price we both were happy with and now his former T-cat is in my garage. I know Sean will miss his T-cat and at the same time be glad to see it back on the snow this year. If you want to see more pics of the sled check out Seans garage.

seanod76's Garage :: 1997 Arctic Cat Thundercat

I decided not to hunt this weekend and my boy was anxious to get started on this sled so last night we pulled the engine out so we can rinse the bottom end out several times. As long as the bottom end is out we are going to put the AGLT on it as well. So this morning we took the spindles and a-arms off the sled.

It turned out to be a little different than planned as the 97 T-cat does not use a 1 piece bolt through the upper a-arm and I will have to cut off a couple tabs that are welded on the bulk head.

I will update with more pics as we progress on this project.
 

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#5 ·
Yes Sean and his kids are doing great now. Praise God on that.

Al, looks like the engine coolant drain plug is missing the o-ring. Great looking sled! Needs a 1004 Clap.
Good Catch Auggie. I did not under stand that set up and never thought about the O-ring. Thanks.

I like your thinking Auggie. But this one is a 992cc and staying that way. Now my Zrt8 will have a 1004 this yearCat happy Stay tuned for that build thread as it will be a Major make over.Rockerdude

The plan for this year is a pare of modded 1000's and a Modded Zrt6 for a back up sled. Its been way to long sense I put some cash into my sleds and this is the year.Clap
 
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#6 · (Edited)
sp4132, I wish I would have seen your post before. I just cut them off with a 1/4 die grinder that has a .030" cut off wheel. It was pretty clean though and just needs a touch up of paint now.
 

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#7 · (Edited)
We (My boy and I) have all the front end and steering parts out of the sled now and we rinsed the bottom end out 4 times with 32-1 premix rec 90 fuel. Next is to paint the A-arms and make some shims to bolt the A-arms back on. I need to send 1 cylinder out for replating as well.

And Yes I make him do most of the grunt work:lol: Yes the garage needs to be cleaned as well as there is still dirt bikes & parts in there. lol
 

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#8 ·
Good job Al!! That's a win-win-win:

1. You got another nice sled
2. A nice old triple was saved
3. Hopefully Sean got something to help his family

Did he give you the pair of sunglasses needed to look at that sled and all its bright colors??? Hadn't heard from him for a while, now we know why. Hopefully he and his family are doing well.
 
#9 ·
Hadn't heard from him for a while. Hopefully he and his family are doing well.
I'll second that.

Miss seeing him on here. Ya know Sean, you can still come on here even if you don't have the sled. LOL :lol:
 
#10 · (Edited)
Thanks Jim & Jeff. When we picked up the sled Sean and family were doing great and he was working a lot of OT. I am sure he will be on this before long as he has a couple more sleds in his garage and both are Cats. One being a Zrt600, The other I don't recall what it was.

And No on the Sunglasses. We brought our own. LOL. Any one who is on this site and rides in my area will recognize the sled for sure.
 
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#12 ·
I have a Grandson like that now. lol. I cherish builds like this with my boy. This is the 4th one we have done together (Z370, ZL440, Zrt6 and now a T-cat) and he does more wrenching every time. This time he is doing 70% of the wrenchingCat happy.

He is also going to get his hands in the engine assemble, carb tuning & clutching this time around. I will help him out when he needs it but when we are done with this one he will know how to do every thing to a sled.
 
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#15 ·
Yes it has been a busy year. With kids it never stops. If I sold all of our toys I could probable buy another house. lol. Then one of the kids would move in and I would have to maintain that to.:Bangin:

That's how I learned, we had an old beat up Olympique and a parts sled for it. Spent an hour fixing for every hour riding. Looking back I honestly think I enjoyed standing beside it handing my dad the tools more than I add actually riding the thing. One of the best "presents" I ever got was when we popped the motor in it. Dad put the spare one in and handed me the other and some wrenches. Said "here, figure out how it works."
Sound like you had a great time back then. I remember those days and they were great. I started on a 65 Moto-ski. lol. My dad bought it new and it blew up every 3 gallons of gas. After the 3rd rebuild Moto-ski gave us a new engine. All with in 1 month of ownership!!! My dad traded it in on a Polaris shortly afterwards.
 
#16 ·
Ahhh glad to see life being put back into the old girl::) the empty spot in the garage is filled with memories and battery powered 4 wheelers for the boys and a fridge for all the milk these two fellas drink. Al you and your son are class acts. Was my pleasure meeting you two. Glad the sled left with you and in one piece. Thanks for the updates????

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk
 
#18 ·
I machined up a couple sets of AGLT spindles today. 1 set for the T-cat and one set for the Zrt800.
 

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#20 · (Edited)
Sorry guys I have not updated this for a while.

The AGLT is Installed on the front end and Im have some spindle decals being made for it. I will show pics of those as soon as I get them.
 

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#21 · (Edited)
Yesterday the boy and I tore out the rear suspension, Track and Drivers. The 97 T-cat did not use a TSL rear suspension so that has to go. It did use the same rails by the looks of it though and I will compare them today.

We pressed off the 8T drivers yesterday and pressed on new 8T anti Ratchet drivers. Next I need to install the track and drivers to double check every thing is in alignment but from my calculations it should be spot on. But better to check then tear up a track. Speaking of which the top bolt on the rear suspension was falling out.

FYI, I printed off the instructions off of Wahl Bros information page.

http://wahlracing.com/No_Slip_Drive_Sprocket_Installation_Instructions.pdf

http://www.wahlracing.com/tech-support.html
 

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#22 ·
Off with the old and on with the new Anti ratchet drive sprockets.

Note, When pressing on the new sprockets i pressed them on from the speedometer drive side. The reason for this is the gear side has a sharp edge and it will broach your new drivers where as the speedometer side is tapered up on to the hex and will have more press on the drive shaft.

Also, Before pressing them on align sprockets to make sure they will be in time with each other.
 

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#23 · (Edited)
A few more pics of the Anti Ratchets drive sprockets installed on the drive shaft.
 

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#24 ·
I hadn't seen this thread until today but I remember Sean's sled with the eye catching overdose of color too. Good to see it was not parted out and went to another good home. I'm still searching for a 98 T-cat to bring home, starting to think I will have to pay a pretty penny for one if I really want one.

Can't wait to see the finished pictures Al, looking good!
 
#26 ·
Well it would have been but noticed some thing I did not like in the bottom end. Someone had the bottom end apart and installed the Counter Balancer plug in Backwards in the end of the case so the end CB bearing wont get any oil. Im glad I noticed it or I would be doing this again shortly when the bearing went bad.


As for the top end. The heads are recut for pump gas, The cylinders have been re-ported to the correct height and new nicasal on them.Clap

It's to bad the person who originally built this engine did not have clue as to what they were doing.:Bangin:

I have the TSL ready to install but I need to drill new holes in the front and then add plates in the back as the TSL rear mounting holes are further forward than the original plate will reach.
 
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