| 10/10/98: Looks in pretty good condition, needs a little paint though. |  |
| "I've got to have it, now how am I going to explain it to the wife?" |  |
| Engine looks good in this one, Ford Industrial 6-cylinder 170 CID. |  |
| Looks like someone has crammed a large hydraulic pump in the back of the engine compartment, that will go, we'll get back a few HP. |  |
| Instrument panel doesn't look like it's been modified too much on this one either. |  |
| The Clarke Transmission looks in good condition, frame looks straight, sprockets are a little worn, but not bad. This will be the first one we work on, all the parts are there and in place for the most part. |  |
| So how do you put a snow cat that doesn't run on a trailer? Easy, you use a fork lift! |  |
| Line it up.... |  |
| Raise it... |  |
| Perfect, now let it down. |  |
| That was easy. Getting it off won't be a problem, the trailer tips and we'll let gravity take it down the ramps. Now if we can only get back for the other cat before it gets dark. (didn't happen, but it wasn't a problem.) |  |
| 10/12/98: Here it is in the shop with the cab and tracks removed. |  |
| Didn't take much to get the engine running, new plugs, distributor cap, rotor, dump out whatever that was that was in the fuel tank, and it fired right up! Oh, did I forget to mention that the previous mechanic had installed the distributor wrong so it took us a day to figure that out and get the firing sequence right! |  |
| 10/30/98: Here's the sowcat in the doorway of the shop as we get ready to put the tracks back on! |  |
| This is the view from the rear looking out. You can see the newly remanufactured sprockets (the yellow things). |  |
| One track is back on, it won't be long now before it's moving on it's own!! Yee Ha! |  |
| Looks cool with those yellow sprocket wheels! |  |
| OK, so it's getting dark. That's the second track laid out on the ground. We're about to drive the cat onto it and join the ends of the tracks. That's King Richard in the drivers seat revving the engine. |  |
| Here's the cat back in the shop for a few minutes of work. It got here under it's own power!!!! Oh, there's about a 30-45 minute gap between this picture and the last. Why? Because we were having too much fun racing up and down the dirt road! Still need to paint this side orange. |  |
| The cat's back outside parked for the night. We set the cab back on top. You can see the difference between the old paint on the cab and the newly painted lower section. |  |
| The name says it all, there's nothing like a Thiokol Spryte snowcat. |  |
| 10/31/98: A little more work on the inside, bolting the cab on, changing the battery cables then we can have some fun. |  |
| Looks pretty good put back together, just needs some paint on the cab section and it will be done on the outside. |  |
| King Richard out for a test spin, OK a fun spin! |  |
| It's a blast to drive even on dirt, it'll be better on the snow! |  |
| Time to change drivers for the next joy ride. |  |
| Off he goes down the road... |  |
| 12/6/98: Out for a test spin, we just replaced the fuel pump with an electric pump and the fuel filter. |  |
| Neighbours yards come in handy, we're stiring up the snow for them to keep it fresh. Yeah, that's our story. |  |
| Actually we're sloshing the fuel around to knock the crude of the sides of the fuel tank. We keep pluging the fuel filter. Might have to flush the tank yet again and/or replace it. |  |
| Speed run, 4th gear on solid ground, yee haaa... |  |
| Time to clean the filter again and stop for the day. |  |
More to come as the saga continues. |
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