SWAMP THING

Well it looks like I may be getting SWAMP THING up and running sooner than I thought. My goal for her is to get her running. She has a new engine and rebuilt OC-4 but the Yahoo truck driver cramed it in 2nd gear and popped the clutch out when he started sliding off the delivery truck top ramp. Not sure why he didnt pull on the brakes? Maybe he wasnt used to a snowcat. It was kinds scary and I was about as far away as you could get when she started going. Thankfully it stopped but apparently his actions caused the shifting shaft to dislodge from the stick shift assembly inside the case. I think I can fix it now but I cant see what Im doing and relying on feel alone to align all the gears. I will post some pics when I have it fixed. BUT for now its a start. Worse comes to worse I will have to pull the rear diff. BUT so far so good. I can now get her into reverse and put her in nuetral. Before she was just stuck in 2nd gear.

Sounds like it may be a simple fix . I know your had the "Creature from the Black Lagoon" parked for quite a while now .

Do you plan to sell it when you get it operation ? I know it can cross water .

How Fast will it move on water ?

Does it have a prop ?

Mike,

I took a few pictures of my shifting mechanism when I had it apart for inspection. Everything works great, so they might be a good reference for you. I love that machine!

Excellent pics. I can feel all those gears in there and can pretty much move them in side to side no problem. Same with the forks except reverse. I need a little force to get her to go. Not sure if that normal. Is that a homemade gasket?

BIGAL it doesnt have a prop. The tracks propel it through the water. I'm told she can do 3 knots. I will either sell her or trade her off when shes all finished up. I should be able to get a pretty penny for her.

I have a test lake waiting for her to show up. I need to get her rear diff fixed first then I need to replace the rear aluminum plate thats missing and the install a new bilge pump or two. After that I will give her a test run and see how she does before Rhino lining the inside and painting the outside. Of course new seats are in the the works. The top comes off pretty easily. I think she will make for a fun all year cat for an east coaster.

I'm thinking an airbrush green swamp weed theme with a nice full-length image of Adrienne draped over the front hood/bow, maybe with a few green leaves placed for a PG rating, maybe not.

Gotta go find that link PG sent me a week or so ago...be right back.


OK, found it. Your new paint scheme...

You back yet?

Look up. Paint the swamp thing in swamp leaves and vines like Mr SW on the right, then have Adrienne draped over the front in 'some portion' of the slip. Or maybe have her down the length of the swamp things bed/body. Ah, hell. Screw the whole swamp theme, just get her airbrushed on...

She sure would give it some extra flotation!

I made the gasket using the housing as a template, just layed the gasket sheet up to casting and tapped all the way around with a hammer just hard enough to cut the gasket. Used the shifting yoke to do the same with the bolt holes.

I think reverse is supposed to be harder to shift into so that you don't accidentally do so. The shifting forks have a ball system between then so that both forks cannot engage a gear at the same time.