Meow

[cheesy]

That's a 1972 Arctic Cat Kitty Kat. My Dad bought that when my oldest daughter was about two hours old. She's 42 now. It has gone through my two kids and my brothers' four kids. There have been times when we've had it out that complete stangers would walk up to me and say "Shut up and take my money." I didn't.

It ended up in Maine with my oldest and her two. And that's where it stayed, not running, for over 10 years. My daughter has some mechanical skills, her hubby, not so much.

I had them bring it back to Illannoy last Sunday so I can see what's what with it. Found out that it has a spark that will knock you on your butt. Pulled the carb and...ICK! Threw that in the ultra sonic cleaner. Pulled the tank and petcock. Double ICK! Solid crud in the tank and the petcock was completely plugged with some soft grey crud.

All cleaned up and back together. Waiting on some fuel filters from Amazon that are supposed to be here today. If I don't have too many Grandpa duties this morning, I'm going to run to Home Depot/Lowes/Menards for a one gallon can of 24:1 pre mix and NAPA for a new NGK spark plug. With the wheel kit on there, it's one more thing the grandkids can ride around on this weekend while I have the whole fam damily here.

It will stay here for the upcoming winter for Owen to play with, then be trucked up to my brothers place next year for his grand kids. He was gifted another one this week. I've lost count but he may be able to field his own baseball team.

[cheesy]

It runs. Not great, but it runs. Starts on one pull but carb adjustments are needed. So that I'm not pissing in the wind, I found a service manual on cd that should get me squared away.

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by cheesy

I found a service manual on cd that should get me squared away.

And the grandkids are asking "What's a CD?" the very same way this generation asked "What's a record?" I have the old 8-track player out of my mom's 1973 Fiat 124 Spyder. The hilarious part is that she has a brother named Tony who was the chief mechanic at the service station in the little town in PA they grew up in. Anyways, I'd be happy to trade the 8-track player for the car! Not too many of them left running around these days...

Glad it's running and the little ones will be able to have some fun with it!

[david3921]

Friend of the family had one and I rode it a few times when I was young. It was a blast as it fell into the "more fun to ride a small bike fast" adage.

Cheesy, what size motor is in these?

[cheesy]

It's a 60cc Kawasaki, David.
My kids ran the snot out of it as I'm sure my brothers kid did. I detuned it for my oldest daredevil granddaughter because she has a tendency 'act now, think later'. Youngest grandson seems to at least think that 'this might hurt' before he acts, so I am undoing that today.

The manual I got wasn't a lot of help with the Kitty Kat as it doesn't cover anything other than specs. It covered the full size machines like the Puma, Lynx, Panther, and Cheetah. If I ever come across a 71-73 Wankel powered sled, I'm covered.

[Magician16]

If it sat for 10 years, the first thing I'd check is mouse houses in either the air box or exhaust. Maybe cracks in intake rubber.

[david3921]

Originally Posted by cheesy

It's a 60cc Kawasaki, David.
My kids ran the snot out of it as I'm sure my brothers kid did. I detuned it for my oldest daredevil granddaughter because she has a tendency 'act now, think later'. Youngest grandson seems to at least think that 'this might hurt' before he acts, so I am undoing that today.

The manual I got wasn't a lot of help with the Kitty Kat as it doesn't cover anything other than specs. It covered the full size machines like the Puma, Lynx, Panther, and Cheetah. If I ever come across a 71-73 Wankel powered sled, I'm covered.

Have you checked here?

https://kittycatparts.com/servicemanuals.html

It's for a later model, but wonder if the site can get you an earlier one.

https://www.kittycatparts.com/

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by david3921

Have you checked here?

https://kittycatparts.com/servicemanuals.html

It's for a later model, but wonder if the site can get you an earlier one.

https://www.kittycatparts.com/

First place I checked.

Magician-No air box, just a basic air filter mounted to the carb. Spark arrester on muffler so no mousies can get in. Carb is mounted to a cast manifold and I replaced the o-ring between the carb and manifold.

[Magician16]

There's a site called snowmobileforum.com There are some really good guys on there that can probably help you out. Only thing I can remember about old Kawy engines were that the internal seals tended to go out.

[cheesy]

Thanks for the info. Seals are almost 50 years old, so just going change those out anyway. Seems like a tired condenser, too. Gets hot, no start.

I have until winter.

[cheesy]

The seal kit and the electronic ignition showed up for the sled a couple weeks ago. I got around to farting around with it yesterday.
I have the engine 99% apart. The JIS head crankcase screws were installed by Godzilla and his kid. Even using my hoity toity Vessel JIS Impact screwdriver and a 3lb thumb buster, those screws haven't budged. I dicked around with the screws for about 20 minutes, until I missed and shared some skin with the hammer. I quit for the day there. Worse comes to worse, I'll drill off the heads and replace them with 21st century Allen head screws.

The engine itself is pretty clean inside and out. After pulling the blower cover, though, it was obvious that the flywheel side shaft seal was leaking. Pulling the flywheel confirmed it. The points, condenser, and coils(there is a lighting coil)were coated with oil. I'm surprised it fired at all with what looked like a .040 point gap.

I was going to replace the points and condenser with new but found that those are unobtainium, so went with the electronic ignition. Over the years of running this old crap, best to move on to more modern stuff to keep it working. I could have probably found an NOS condenser, but that NOS condenser is also 50 years old. Probably work okay. For a while.

[Bruces]

Any chance you could use your fancy induction heater on those screws ?

[cheesy]

I thought about that but three of the four screws are recessed.

[cheesy]

Got 'em out with no drama or heartbreak. Turns out that the Vessel impact screwdriver was too small. The JIS screw heads were the equivalent of Phillps #3. My other fancy scmhancy impact driver set has a long #3 bit. I tapped the bit into the screw head, fit the impact driver socket onto the bit, and used a 1/2 ratchet with a steady pressure until the screws broke loose.

Crankcase is back together. Taking a break before going back to scraping off the gasket that's married to the bottom of the cast iron jug.

[cheesy]

More headaches, albeit minor ones.

The engine is 85% back together. Next issue is the ignition. What I have and what the instructions show for the electronic upgrade are two different things. First time in my life that I've ever seen a condenser with 3 wires coming off of it. One to the coil, one to the points, and one to the kill switch. Easy enough to figure out, but geez, confusing at first glance.
Other minor headache is that the coating on the coil is cracked in several places. I was going to give Flex Seal a try on the coil but the cure time is nuts. I'll probably just do JB Weld but I'll make that decision after a thorough dousing of contact cleaner on the coil.