1976 Ski Doo Elan Restoration

L. New Project

2010-08-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

Have not posted for a while, the Elan ran good last year until I adjusted the air screw on the mikuni carb, leaned it out to much and and over heated it, lost the top ring, no problem, piston is okay and I got a new ring coming from Bones in Canada so should be on the snow on time this year. Now the time I should spring my next project on you guys, I got a 1967 Alpine that I will restore here is a shot.

K. More work done

2009-02-01T12:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry have not posted for a while I've seen some comments, people wanting parts, recoils and gas tanks, I've seen both on ebay in the last week. Finished the Elan and it's up at the mountains now, got some work next year just to keep me busy, front drive axel and secondary clutch needs attention,

I like to ice fish and the Elan is not really stock with the 292, my hip did not like the low seat so I added a trapper box, now I got a place for some tools and ice auger, it's more comfy to ride but more tippy.

Some more shots of the Elan finish hood new decal and seat cover, I'm happy and think it looks good for 33 years old.

J. Not finished but ready for the snow

2008-02-13T23:01:00.000-08:00

Put the Elan together, repaired and painted the hood, used a product called Polyfix, this stuff is great bonds well and sands great, here is the link if you are interested http://www.eos.net/redam/polyfix.htm. Mechanically the sled is 100% but cosmetic it's about 50%, didn't put the decals or the good windsheild from Cannon, from a distance it look s okay, but up close not so good, had it up in the mountains ran real good, 292 really screams, not quite used to riding yet, seems to want to go straight all the time, Here are some shots

I. To the finish line

2008-02-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

I have'nt been updating my blog, but that does'nt mean I've not been working, I'm alittle behind, there is 5 feet of snow up in the mountains and the sled is still in the garage, after I set the timing, I mounted the motor in the sled and hooked up the batery, It started so fast in scared me.

Still see the blue smoke in the air, smells like victory.

I've now been doing the wiring, the Elan was manual start when I bought it, but lucked out because in 1976 the was the last year they offerd the Elan with electric start, so it had the ring gear in. All I had to do was get a starter motor and a wiring harness for thr "E" type 250. Member BP6 had what I needed, Again this was a job I never done before, but with the wiring diagram with the colour code of the wires, it was'nt so hard. I amazed myself turned the key all the lights worked and the motor turn ed over, have to make a mount for the brake light switch, not enough room around the clutch.

I'll finish it next weekend and test drive it up in the mountains and post some pictures, I'm taking shortcuts on the cosmetics, won't change the seat cover and won't apply the decals, it will be something to do this summer, nows the time to ride!!!!

H. Set the timming

2007-12-30T10:02:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted for a while, the Christmas season and just plain laziness is to blame. I received some kind words about my blog from members of the Old Ski Doo Forum and it's motivated me to update my progress.

Really close to finishing, good thing because there's a ton of snow and I seem to be the only one not on it.

Set the timing today, I was worried about this because I thought it would be to technical for me, I was wrong, Bones on the forum held my hand all the way through it and I realized that it's not so scary.
Here you can see the stator plate with the lighting, brake and generator coils, the funnel shape on the crank shaft is the breaker cam, this is what opens and closes the points, to set the point gap, take the fly wheel and breaker cam spring off, slip the cam back on the shaft, now spin the cam on the crank until you see the points open, continue spinning the cam by hand until you see the points close, now spin the cam to the position approx. in the middle between start open and close when the points are fully opened. this is where you set point gap.

Now to set the gap on the points, in this picture I have the feeler gauge in the point between the contacts, just to the right there is a screw, loosen this screw then tighten it when the correct gap is set, on mine and most single rotaxes it's .16 of an inch.

Now your ready to put the flywheel back on, In the above picture I've place the breaker cam where it should be located, the 2 small tabs on the cam must fit into the advance lever, this is the lever with the large screw attached to the flywheel, this lever is spring loaded and will advance the timing when spinning at high revolutions centrifugally,

Once you've installed the fly wheel back on it's time for the timing, I bought a tone tester but found it useless the best and easiest way is to take a light bulb, this case my head light, attach one wire to the wire comming from the points to the ingnition coil, mine was blue, the othe wire from the light bulb to the positive post on the battery, then ground the battery to the motor. When you do this the light will work, spin the motor, when the light is dull the points are opening when the light is bright the points are closed. To set the timming You must have the piston at Before Top Dead Center (BTDC), for my motor with the 1971 TNT 292 cylinder and piston it's between 3.55 and 4.06 mm, with the points beginning to open.

I bought this dial gauge and magnetic stand, first find the highest the piston will go up or top of the stroke, this is called Top Dead Center (TDC).

Then spin the motor with you finger pushing down on the timing advance lever through the inspection holes on the flywheel so the timing is fully advanced. Pictured above (not so clearly) is me moving the lever to advance timing with a screwdriver, if you look into the large sloted hole to the left you can see the lever to push down. While pressing against the lever spin the motor, when the light goes dim and the points begin to open check the dial gauge. If it is not within the timing spec, mine are 3.55 to 4.06 adjust the stator plate, There are 3 set screws on the plate in sloted holes if the light dims before your within your spec turn the stator plate to the right to advance the timing, if the points open after or late, turn the stator plate to the left to retard the timing. Make sure you measure the BTDC while holding down the advance timing lever. I lost a few hours scratching my head over why I coulded get the timing right until I realized I wasn't advancing the timing.

After tighten the set screws on the stator plate, you should have a correctly timed motor, I was really pround of myself until I realized I had to pull the flywhell again to get the fan shroud on, No big deal, only 1/2 hour wasted. But the motor is timed!!

G. Get er done

2007-09-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated the blog as much as I've should, but the project is still moving forward. I ran into a few stumbling blocks but as you will see all came out right in the end. Started to get worried about finishing the project before the snow comes, been hunting down parts and trying to solve problems

As you know I'm swapping the cylinder and piston from the 247 to the 292 tnt, since the motors share the same stoke you can use all the bottom end and just change the cylinder and piston, a machinist at work match the combustion area in the 247 head to the 292 head so I can use the head with the spark plug hole in the middle of the head. Above is he motor completely disassembled all parts that can be seen externally have been glass beaded, I think it looks great!! But I very knowledgeable member "Bones on the old ski doo forum see this picture and told me that the jug is from a 69/70 TnT and won't match my crank case.

Of coarse "Bones"was right, maybe you can't see it on this picture, but there are small differences that meant the cylinder would not seal on the crank case, I was devastated to say the least.

But Old ski doo forum to the rescue once more. One member "Elanmen" had a 70/71 jug that was right for me, and he needed a 69/70 jug so we did a swap, also my good friend "Goose" who sold me the first jug but didn't know that you had to have that particular year made me a good deal on another jug and piston, Unfortunately the jug and rings got damaged during shipping, top fin on the jug broke off, but the welder welded it up good as new and I' waiting for a replacement ring now.

I have painted up the frame skies and other small parts satin black to hide the small dents, did it outside with spray cans, came out ok I think.

I will start to put the track on the frame, I have got all new rubber wheels and bearings, need to de-grease sand and paint the chain case and secondary clutch, by then I hope the pistone will be back from glass beading and I can start putting the motor together.

GOT TO GET ER DONE!!!

F. More engine work

2007-06-23T06:56:00.001-07:00

Been working on the yard and waiting on some tools to remove the fan and the shaft on the clutch side, got the machinist to make up the puller here below, worked like a charm, pop off came the fan.

Under the fan is where the lighting and brake coils and points, just 4 caps screws and the plate comes off easy, there a spring some washers and a key so pay attention when you remove them. Once the plate was removes, wrapped it in clean rags and removed back of fan shroud.

Once the back of the fan shroud was off, I could get at the head of the 247 jug, but before I could remove head and cylinder I had to remove a shaft on the clutch side, I learned if you stuff a 1/4" piece of rope down the spark plug hole it will stop the motor from spinning so you can put some pressure on the shaft.

I have heard that sometimes these can be a bear to get off, the tool I made had a big nut on one side to put a pipe wrench on and a socket at the other end to put a impact gun on if the shaft gives you a hard time, I was told by forum member Bones to keep close to the bearing because you could bend crank shaft, I was lucky, just with a little pressure it came off easy.

Then the 4 nuts on the top of the head, just tapped with a piece of wood and it came off, taped the cylinder and it lifted off, graped the studs near the bottom where they threads go in the crank case with a pair of pliers and they came out easy, don't know if that was the right method, but it worked for me. On the piston where the wrist pin goes in there are 2 spring clips that hold the wrist pin in on either side. There is a small groove in the hole where you can put a small screw driver in to pry out the clips, once there out I used a brass shaft and tapped out the wrist pin, bearing in the connecting rod that rides on wrist pin was in good shape.

Here is the crankcase ready for the 292 cylinder piston and head, First I thought to split the case and inspect the crank so I could glass bead the cases, but with some WD40 and some clean rags, it cleaned up pretty good, put a post on the forum to see what the guys says about splitting the crank case.

E. 292 cylinder swap

2007-06-05T02:25:00.000-07:00

With the last post I showed the 292 cylinder head and piston, I planned to change it from the 247 for some additional HP. I have been struggling with the problem the spark plug hole on the 292 head, because the hole is in the back and angled, it would come in contact with the handle bar support. Again a member on the forum had the answers.

Elanmen, who has lately, been very helpful, said if I just put another piece of flatbar under the front motor mount to tip the motor back a little, the spark plug will not contact the handle bar support.

Here is a better shot of what he meant by adding an additional flat bar on the front motor mount.

And here you can see the results, spark plug clears the handlebar support. This is good for me, now I can keep my 247 piston, cylinder and head. I may want to put it back to original one day, my next vintage sled will be a little stronger so I can pull the family up to the cottage, But 3 things about my next sled are certain.

It will be vintage
It will be a Ski Doo
It will be yellow this time.

Still waiting for the tools to get the motor apart, and some parts have not arrived from Canada and the States. The back yard and garden this time of year is using my time, so not much work done on the Elan, got to get my butt into gear soon or the snow will be here and the Elan will still be scattered around my garage.

D. Motor work

2007-06-04T03:45:00.000-07:00

Got the cylinder head and piston from the 1971 Ski Doo TNT 292 from member goose, thanks goose. After I change it, I'll double the Hp to 22. If you notice the spark plug hole on the head is facing back at an angle, this could cause a problem. I have heard that it could hit the steering support. I'll have to wait and see after I put the motor back in if there is not enough room.

Here is the picture of the original 247 Rotax that came with the Elan, ran great, but I felt I needed a little more HP, that the reason for getting the 292 TNT jug. But here on the head the spark plug hole on the head is in the middle straight up. People have said that this would result in better combustion. Since the stroke is length is the same for both the 247 and the 292 and the studs are in the same position on both motors I can use the original crank case. I want to try to use the 247 head on the 292 jug, so I would not have the problem with the position of the spark plug. Where I work we have a very modern machine shop with some very talented machinist. once I can get the 247 head off I will bring both heads to work to see if they can match the combustion areas.

I want to glass bead the motor and to do this I must remove crank from case. To do this I need some special tools, in order to remove the crank on the clutch side, you need a sleeve that fits over the crank with hole at the end so you can put a bolt through. Once that's on you can put a pipe wrench on the sleeve to turn the crank in order not to bend it, if it's too hard to turn you can weld a 1/2 drive socket on the end and use a impact gun with some heat and it should com off.

To get the head and cylinder off I have to remove the fan and the back of the fan shroud. The front of the fan shroud with the recoil started came off easy, but to remove the fan I need a pipe to thread on the area I circled on this picture then weld a cap on the end put a bolt there and tighten the bolt to the end of the crank until fan pops off. Waiting for these 2 tools before I can continue on the motor, should get them this week

C. Proud owners of Elan's

2007-06-03T23:58:00.000-07:00

I have been on sick leave from work for about 7 months now, all is good now, almost 100%. But because I have a lot of time on my hands my lap top is my best friend!! As I have mentioned earlier I have join a vintage ski doo forum, this is a must for anyone that is involved in snowmobiling no matter age or make of sled, Snowmobilers tend to be all around good guys, eager to lend a hand and help out with information and parts, down to earth and love nature ( because there out there all the time) don't go south for the winter, celebrate snow, never complain about it.
This particular forum has a thread dedicated for Elan owners called "Elan Chat" a place for guys to talk about a great little sled, spread a little B.S and have fun doing it.
The other day I got the courage to start a topic, Called "Members with Elans". I asked members to post pictures of there sleds to see how many there was in our forum. Results were amazing over 35 replies in 277 views , Lot of proud Elan owners out there. Here are some of the pictures.
It seems I'm adding pictures everyday!!!!

Here is member 775's, 1975 300 SS, clean sled
775 just added this sweet 1973, man that's clean!!

Member Luckyketch 1971 first year production

Luckyketch's 1977

Luckyketches 1978, all nice sleds!!

Member elanmen, he's got it bad, and he admits it.

Elanmen on the road, he just told me he has 90 sleds, 75% are Elans, and he will pick 10 more Elans soon.

Elanmen sent some more pictures, not knowledgeable enough to tell you what year they are but they are all nice, I've asked him to please send years of the pictures but they are all pre 80's for sure!!

I like this 76, it's the same as mine. Elanmen Dad in the saddle.

This is a 77

This is Elanmen Monster Elan, you know I'm new to this game, so at first I thought when people talked about monster Elans they were stock sleds sold by Ski Doo. Man was I wrong!! Elanmen took this 73 SS and drop a 503 FA in it!! He's told me the skis are new because they never touch the snow. Oh by the way, the console, he made that, Ski doo don't have a 503 emblem so he used a 440. The man is magic with fiberglass, repairs boats for a living.

Another angle of Elanmen's monster, not much room left under that hood, he said he would like to put a liquid cooled motor next time. This is like putting a hemi in a VW Beatle.

This is members goose's 1973 Elan SS Nice machine!! Goose got me the 292 cylinder, piston and head for my Elan, he's always happy to help out with parts or information,

Member OlyGab 1971 first year Elan, He paid 50 bucks for it!!! Goes to show that deals are out there.

Member Ski doo man's 73 twin, work in progress, if he's like me he'll have a blast cleaning that one up!! Ski doo man has made a comment about how these beauties cut the trail for the fast guys, first up the hill with 2 feet of powder wins!!

Skidooman said...
My Pic in your Blog there of the Elan beside a Polaris and two Skidoos in the back is a good one. The Elan made it up the beast of a hill very slowly while the other three just powered ahead. But I had to break trail for the two skidoos.

Here is member Sledder Al's pack, he's doing an 74 ( I think that's the year ) for his wife. Al is the guy that got me started with my Elan, he's the reason why I'm on paypal and ebays Christmas card list.

Member Vintage Elan Guy's from left to right 1973 Elan 250, 1975 Elan 340F/A, 1975 Elan 300SS, real quality there!!

Member Vintage Elan Guy's 1972, 292 with turf wheels, sweet!! I got to get a set of those wheels.

Member Hermit's really clean 1974 Elan

Hermit's 1974 Elan 247 Rotax, The one lung thumpers do it for me, this is a fine example of how a stock clean 247 should look like.

This is Vincent's beautiful Elan.

Vincent's motor, nice chrome. Note that Vincent's Elan has the 73 SS secondary with disc brake. Only year for that

Members 1970 TNT's, 1973 twin Elan

1970 TNT's 1974 single, looks all original, really like the look of a untouched barn find.

Member Banoe's 1972 Elan he uses for ice fishing, I love fishing so this unique paint job really touches a soft spot.

And if you want to see some more check out Poidy's site here.

http://www.poidyselanpage.50megs.com/

Another award winning site dedicated to the Elan, made by Swedish member Elanmanen.

http://www.geocities.com/elanmannen/indexE.html

Member EricR 1971, the is a member that lives in Savannah Georgia, I don't think they get much snow there. He plans to put a wheel kit on and have some fun!

This is member 86 Elaner, 1986 Elan. This is the youngest sled on this post, very rare to find any Elans for sale above 1980, their owners won't let them go, because they never stop!!!!

86 Elaner is a hunter, fisherman that uses this sled the way it was meant to be used, bushwhacking off the groomed trails where those big lugs that go 60 mph can't go. Thanks for sharing!!

Member Jax's 1978 Elan, sweet!!

I don't know if it's Jax showing everyone what these rugged little machines can do. Kids and everyone in general, safety first, wear a helmet!!!

Member 73ss tribute to the Dukes of Hazard's General Lee. Some guys have got great imaginations.

Member lowtekrednek, new project, a monster Elan with a 44o F/A in it, clean engine, notice shop made tuned pipes. Nice job!!!

Member Zooman's 1981 250 single, That style has not change much in 36 years, but if it aint broke why fix it.
Zooman's 78 twin, sweet!

Member Vintage Elan Guy, (VEG for short ) just to make me envious has sent me a picture of his monster, I'm not Kidding, when I find the money, time and motor (in that order) I'm making one. And I know the guys that will help with the know how, they all got there monsters on the blog, Nothings free guys!!!

Many thanks to the members of the forum for letting me share these pictures of their Elans, thanks guy's!!!

I don't have to much to report on the progress of my project, thought I needed a little more Hp because I will use my Elan to pull a sled and I'm not so concerned with keeping it original, so I bought a cylinder, piston and head from a 1971 ski doo TNT. Stroke and studs are same as the 247, so I can use the original crank case. Boost Hp from 12 to 22. I think that will be enough to get the job done. Parts have not got here yet but I started tearing down the original 247, to remove fan and cam shaft on clutch side you need specialty puller and tools, got the guys at work making them form me. When They get here I'll post some pictures.

B. IN THE BEGINING

2007-06-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

This is where it all happens, my little single car garage, made a work bench and finally had a reason to organise my tools. No air tools just arm strong. Wife parks her car in the driveway now, not happy when she has to scrape the ice of the windshield in the morning.

The Elan was all there, but showing it's age, I had to ship it from northern Norway about 1500 KLM away.

First thing was clean gas tank change spark plug, had a hard time at first trying to start it, but it wasn't the rotax fault, it was my inexperience with this motor, I flooded it all the time. Cleaned the carburetor and spark plug cable and it started with 3 pulls.

Sent a picture to the forum, one member said that this sled had a mikuni carburetor conversion, I should send the previous owner a thank you card. Heard both sides of the story when it comes to tilly vs. mik carburetors, some say tillys are gas spitting plug fouling junk, and some say if a tilly carb is set up correctly these old rotaxes love them. I have no experience with either, so I'll pass judgement in a few years.

The wife and kids wanted to ride the sled too, but had a hard time with the pull starter, hunted down a electric starter through I guy I met surfing the web, his name is Rich Halh, another good fella, restores 60's ski doo's. Does quality work, you can check it out here http://www.antiquesnowmobile.com/. Installed the starter as you can see on the picture above there is a ring gear behind the fan, so all I did is bolt the starter on buy a battery and a switch, now the 247 one lunger fires up when you touch the key. Battery won't charge, need to find a correct rectifier for this year Elan to be able to convert AC current from lighting coil to DC to charge battery. The fan and the starter cup was trashed so I got a starter cup from Kimpex and Sledder Al sent me a good fan.

Had a hard time with removing the ski legs, they were bent badly, another good fella on the forum had a set of good ones with top and bottom bushings and sent them to me from Canada.

Things went pretty smooth with disassemble until I got to the front and rear drive axles secondary clutch and chain case. There was a lot of head scratching and pestering forum members but managed to get track, clutch, front and rear axles, chain case and boggy assemblies off.This sled is a mish mash of different year parts, as you can see with this secondary clutch 2 halves are different colours. What I've been told is the gold half is from a 71 Elan and the orange could be original, not real important, it works, bought some red/orange chevy engine enamel, which I learned is a good match, so I'll clean and paint before I put it back

The stationary pulley on the secondary clutch needed some work, the splines that the top chain sprocket mounts on needed a little filing so the sprocket could slip on and off.

Next job was boggy wheel assemblies, all bearings needed to be replaced and 15 of the 16 rubber wheels were cracked and needed replacing, used a puller to remove bearings, not that hard to do. I will sand blast and paint the assemblies before I put them back on.

Well with help from the forum guys, I got down to the frame, belly pan is a little dented, nothing some heat a hammer and a lot of patience won't fix, I'll cut off the old cargo carrier, got a new chrome one for some bling.

One thing I want to stress, that this is my first attempt with this kind of project, never own a snowmobile, and by no means a mechanic. Went at this with no experience. But with help from friends, I'm starting to feel like I can get it done.

Learning something every day and meeting lots of good people.

A. About me

2007-06-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

Name is Bill Bula, originally from Southern Ont. Canada. For the last 8 years I have lived with my wife of 15 years Lisbeth, kids Kristi 15 Carly 12 and our Labrador Emma in Norway.

It's a small town population of around 4000 called Rjukan. There is a historical significance here in this town concerning heavy water and German occupation that I will not get into now, but if you are curious about the facts just Google the towns name and all will be answerd.

I'm a baby boomer born in 55, work as a sales engineer here in town, a good job that allows me to travel the world. Wife is a school teacher, so we enjoy all the comforts of a middle class family.

Love nature, fishing of any form gets me excited!! Fly, worm, spinner or on the ice, I do it all. My wife is Norwegian and we live in the town she grew up in. Her mother has a cottage up in the mountains, 30 minute drive from our home. No running water and an outhouse but every minute spent there is a gift. In the summer you can drive within 200 meters of the cabin and hike the rest. Winter is a different story, 2 meters of snow and a cross country ski trip of 4 klm. pulling a sled with food and drink for the weekend or longer.

Last October I was involved in a bad car crash and resulted with 14 screws and 2 plates in my left hip. Recovery has been slow, but I hope to be back to work by the end of summer.This brings me to the point of beginning this blog, with the injury I decided that cross country skiing would be put on hold for a few years, and to be able to get to the cabin in winter I would use a snowmobile. I love all things vintage, cars, motorcycles, cameras, watches and radios. I can sit and watch discovery channel where the guy rebuilds an old car or bike and be completely entertained. Wishing for such a project myself I decided a vintage snowmobile would be a practical and inexpensive project. But which one would I use?

I went to the Internet and googled vintage snowmobiles and was amazed at the hits. Just by luck the first one I opened was Sledder Al's Vintage Snowmobile page http://home.cogeco.ca/~alamore1/SNOWMOBILES/SNOWMOBILES.htmlhe turns out to be the one that starts me up. I send him an email telling him of my plan and ask him what sled would be reliable and good in deep snow. He replied the next day you should look for an Elan. Ask around some more and get the same answer, Elan.So I went to the Norwegian equivalent of eBay and found a 1976 Elan 250E white hood with penguins, paid too much, but that's okay.Being the age I am, my computer use was always work related or fact finding on the Internet, forums were unknown to me. But on Al's page there is a link to oldski-doosled forum, joined that and I have been pestering all the members for information ever since. I would like at this time to thank each and every member that has helped this green as grass Ski Doo owner start and continue this project. They are too many to mention but they know who they are. Thanks from 75 Elan.I have never had negative comments only great information, I'm no mechanic by any means, only have a little experience with 2-stroke outboard motors with my father who collected them when he was alive. I have some tools and not afraid to use them. I can ask the most fundamental questions on this forums, and always get help, never a snicker or "you got to be kidding". Some of the technical discussions on this forum are way over my head, guys like goose, 1970TnT, Bones and Poidy continuously amaze me with there knowledge I sit there slacked jawed at there technical jargon. I only hope I can learn half of what they forgot.So now I have started my project, I have started about 2 weeks ago and have spent many hour out in the garage with my sled. Enjoying every minute.