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One of the things that I was able to accomplish during one of my short trips was the removal of the handlebars and steering mechanism. The thing I found most interesting was the whole assembly is the same as that of a bicycle. The decision was made to purchase new handlebars (NOS for only $5!) while I took the tube and bearing housing to a friend to be sandblasted and powder coated. A new set of bearings were also purchased as the old set had everything EXCEPT the bearing remaining. It also helped that the main nut was now a standard size instead of "something-ish". |
A little bit of axle grease on the bearings and reassembly quickly took place on a following weekend. Gone was the grinding and general irritability of the old steering mechanism. Also attached was a new throttle control from a Honda ATV, it's cable routed behind everything and leading to the new carb.
| Can't lie about it, but excitement was starting to build. With the new plumbing for the fuel, the new carb, new steering parts, and a much cleaner craft, we were ready to get this thing running! At this point, I had invested about twice as much for new parts as I paid for the Hurricane. What could go wrong? Turns out at least one stupid thing, one not fun thing, and one other thing that scared the bejezzus out of me and made my dad laugh. |  |
With every pull of the handle, the engine quickly turned over but stubbornly refused to start. The decision was made to spray a little starting fluid into the spark plug holes and HA! Ignition! Quickly followed by stopping. After a few more times, the engine would start and run but only on one cylinder and absolutely refused to run more than a minute. A little testing with a multimeter showed that one of the plugs was not receiving spark. A quick check of the coils showed that only one of the two coils was firing.
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Some hunting was done and I found that the coils for these engines are actually rather robust. That's not to say they don't go bad, but the points were the most likely culprits. The fact that the points were MUCH cheaper didn't hurt my decision to go ahead and order them. Having torn automotive engines apart, I wasn't think this would be much more difficult. Unfortunately for me, my dad neglected to inform that the flywheel was spring loaded and I proceeded to jump three feet it decided to fly off. Yeah. Whole lot of fun. I wasn't laughing. Nevertheless, work went ahead and we pulled the stator and points assembly off. |
Replacement looked rather straight forward. There was a little oil on the stator and the one set of points. While that could have prevent the coil from collapsing and firing, we still decided to replace the points anyway. Even if they weren't original, there was little point not to replace them since everything was torn apart.
| And since everything was torn apart, I decided that I was tired of rusty metal, half-eaten nuts and bolts, and silver-turned-grey paint. Finally, having something small enough to transport, I was able to bring a few parts home. Over the next week, with the help of my Dremel, oops, "rotary tool", and more than a few wire brushes and sanding drums, the dull and rusty was replaced with the bright and smooth black. Gone were the unknown-sized bolts, replaced with nice new ones. Nothing turned out perfectly (it is 30+ year old metal) but it looked a damn sight better. |  |
Also during this week, it was decided to replace the rear oil seal for the crankshaft as well (since everything was apart). Unfortunately, the one that was ordered and received was for the opposite side. For the couple bucks I paid for it, I decided to keep it in the event that I would one day be taking the front of the engine apart. Luckily, a quick stop to MJ USA allowed me to get a nice replacement seal after work.
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Having the new points installed and gapped correctly, we carefully put everything back together. The lack of grease and loose rust made everything go back together much smoother. A careful torquing and check of the wiring at the coils showed that everything looked good. Crossing our fingers, we pulled the handle and hoped for the best...and received nothing. A few pushes and pulls on the primer knob yielded nothing. Enough fuel - check. Good plugs - check. A quick check showed both coils were now firing. But why no fuel? After a review of the possibilities, we found the instructions we'd been given with primer kit were wrong. Switching the primer from the exhaust to the feed line produced the result we were looking for Finally, system primed we pulled the handle and SUCCESS! |
Initially, the engine didn't want to idle very well, if at all. A few adjustments were made to the carburetor's needle valves and finally things started working out. On that maiden startup, we proceeded to blow all the dirt, leaves, and anything else that was light and not tied down out of the garage. Joy and celebration followed.
While not fast, and anything but quiet, this proved to be a HUGE step in the right direction. A little more than two years after buying the Hurricane, it felt good to see it moving and hovering across the snow. Taking a lump of faded red fiberglass and rusty metal and turning it into what I was able to record that night gave me a feeling that was well worth the work.
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