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Trac-Master Project

J

John - Canada

Member
Hi all
So the fun begins! I have owned this old girl for 7 years and have finally decided to restore her. She is a 1968 ST4 B Trac-Master serial # 0990. I have some questions and I am hoping to find answers please.

Handbrake cables, are these standards VW? Also brake cylinders and shoes?

Speedo cable, mine is vanished!

Rubber belting for tracks, I am in Manitoba Canada, anyone not of a source here or in the US?

I have read some where about filling the wheels with foam to avoid flats. Where do I go for that?

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She runs well, although not amphibious! I dropped her through the ice on the Assiniboine river once, completely flooded the front end including engine, when the water reached by seat I abandon ship. The only casualty was my digital camera so no pictures.

I would be pleased to here from anyone, thanks.

I have added my e-mail address because I had one hell of a time logging in here. I haven't been on this site for a few years and I am much better with wrenches than key boards.

John - Canada

John@wolverinesupplies.com
 
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the park brake cables are snow trac only parts and the brakes are mixed mached vw parts this link should give you all the info you need to get your brake parts thank teladawg for the info http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?p=315568&highlight=snow+trac+brake+parts#post315568 i would also consider getting rid of that header system go back to the j box heaters and muffler heat kills the snow trac and that system is going to keep alot of heat under the hood also the j box heaters work great when the system is tight and leak free i run mine at -20 in a t- shirt now is the time to do it right now would be a good time to do the necessary transmission mods before you wind up like me replacing a burned up transmission if you go back to the j box heaters you will have to modify the outlets to clear the varriator but its easy to do with a sawzall and mig welder good luck and before any one says any thing they like lots of pictures
 
I'm just a girl, an Artist, I know nothing about mechanics, I can't help you at all with advice, or info, but I think she's beautiful, I think it's gonna be a labor of love, and I can't wait to see the end product. Yeahhhh!
 
forgot to add member boggie is casting an all new style boggie road wheel for snow tracs they ar a urathane compound with a sealed bearing
that might be a better idea than foam filling them mey road wheels aer solid and sometimes i get to wishing they were pnumatic if you have good tires and tubes you should have no problems the one problem i have had with my solid tires have been the rim cracking out.
 
going back a few pics it looks like the j pipes aer still as origional these pipes come the rear 2 cylinders and have a heat exchanger molded around them with an outer housing around them to direct air through the heat exchangers and out the back where its directed in to the cabin as long as the out side duct is tight you should have minimal losses of air and get good flow through your heat and defrost ducts those 2 silver pipes coming off the fan housing go into the heater boxes should be 2 other pips coming out the back going to your cabin.also there are some luvers inside the fan tower they have to be there for the engine to cool right vw had a thermostat attached to a rod to open and close them to aid in warm up the best thing is to leave them in place and open.
 
forgot to add in you don't need a speedometer replace it with something more useful like a tach your not going much faster than 15 mph in a trackmaster
 
dds said:
forgot to add in you don't need a speedometer replace it with something more useful like a tach your not going much faster than 15 mph in a trackmaster
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Yes, I know my dog can run as fast as this machine, but I already have a tach, it would just be good to have as much working as possible. There is a mass of wiring I shall be cutting out anyway, the wiring is so old the outer is cracking and I don't need turn signals and side lights. I shall have a lot of empty holes in the dash if I am not carefull.
 
dds said:
going back a few pics it looks like the j pipes aer still as origional these pipes come the rear 2 cylinders and have a heat exchanger molded around them with an outer housing around them to direct air through the heat exchangers and out the back where its directed in to the cabin as long as the out side duct is tight you should have minimal losses of air and get good flow through your heat and defrost ducts those 2 silver pipes coming off the fan housing go into the heater boxes should be 2 other pips coming out the back going to your cabin.also there are some luvers inside the fan tower they have to be there for the engine to cool right vw had a thermostat attached to a rod to open and close them to aid in warm up the best thing is to leave them in place and open.
Click to expand...

This girl always ran with plenty of heat coming to the cabin. I wanted to close up the grill under the front bumper to keep the snow out of the engine (distributor!) but with no temp guage I have been a little nervous to do that. The engine oil temp light works but I would much prever a engine temp guage. Our winters can easily get down to -40 C but we can also have days of + 10 C or better so she has to operate in a wide temp range.
 
This is what I have right now.

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One of my biggest problems is the body work. She came to me with the fuel tank, heavy batteries and tool bins on the deck racks, This weight has caused a lot of cracks in the panels, add a repair on repair on repair and a little corrosion for good measure and we have a problem. I plan to run an angle iron support from the front bumper to the rear of the body on both sides. Then drill and plate it vertical. The front top corners as in the photo below are the worse areas.

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i have some of the same cracks the best way to deal with them is to buy a case of molson's and go to your local airport find a sheet metal worker that will come over and give you a hand when doing structural work like that you want good solid rivets not pop rivets i would get a good aluminum tank built up to go back under the seat and ditch the fender mounted model i know mine is that way now but it's just temporary with the tank above the engine it your nedel and seat leak in your card the siphon effect will fill yur crank case full of gas and possobly hydro staticly lock the motor. you do apear to have your heater boxes get some scat tube to replace the tin pipe and hose clamp it down it will work greatcheck out some of my postesalso do plan on getting rid of that header and muffler go back to stock and replace all missing heat shields.
 
OK............checked out your website......that's only an hour drive from where we're moving to. I'll have to stop in and check out the project sometime.
 
John - Canada said:
Just look up Wolverine Supplies on the web. I run a firearms buisness, we are only 10 mins from the trans-Canada highway.
John
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How is it that firearms and snowcats seem to always go hand in hand...hmmmm


nice project you have here John! Keep us posted with lots of pictures!
 
my thaughts ,my ex bitched about my growing gun collection i told her chill guns are like diamonds you can never have too many and they can never be too big.now lets get back on track more snow cat pics and don't forget chicks in swim suits with there favorite fire arms next to the snow cats.
 
Don
Your are a "Red neck" bordering on pervert, guns, snow cats, chicks in swim suits, what ever next? I have just finished ripping out 2 miles of excess wiring, all I can think about is a large scotch!

John
 
John - Canada said:
Don
Your are a "Red neck" bordering on pervert, guns, snow cats, chicks in swim suits, what ever next? I have just finished ripping out 2 miles of excess wiring, all I can think about is a large scotch!

John
Click to expand...
you are right im the only person in western alaska who wears a cowboy hat and one of the few who enjoys the sound of western music
 
Here is a question for all you who have rebuilt these machines. Having gone this far would you take the engine out? I think I probable should, but this is going to be a longer job than I thought. It looks like it is only 4 bolts holding the engine in? Any tips from anyone who has taken an engine out.

The poor old girl has been ridden hard and put away wet, when I got behind the dash I found half the wiring was fried. I think I will have to invest in a large air compressor so I can sand blast all the old paint off


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yes i would and also change th eclutch the engine in stock form takes me about 15 minuts to remove you have 4 bolts at the rear the 2 top ones should be 3/8 with 9/16 heads the bottom ones are a 10mm and will have a head size between 15mm and 17mm after that all you need to do is disconect wiring,control cables and get a buddy to help lift it out only weighs in at around 200 lbs. while it is out torque heads adjust valves add a hughvolume oil pump with an oil filter check your push rod tubes and seals the tubes will rust out when not being used on a regular basis check that the airflow shields on the bottom sidess of the cylinders are in place if these are missing you are going to have over heating problems or hot spots the trans is a bi$%^ to pull now is a good time to have it gone through and have up dates done to itevery one says its a bus trans but its actualy a bug trans with a bus shift housing on it im looking now at how to seal it up so it won't leak as these housings are hard to come by if you are on the west coast i can recomend a good place to get the trans done along with other aircooled needs.see my post vw parts
 
Looks like you have a big project ahead of you John,but this forum should be of great help. Keep the pics coming!
J5 Bombardier [one of your customers]
 
John here is some more trans axle info while replacing my transmission i found one of the output seals at the sprokets was hard and falling apart i got 2 new seals comming looks like the only way to change them is to remove the trans axle varriator assy the cr number for the seal is 17754
 
Engine Removal: Which is easier forward and down or forward and up? I assume you have to unbolt the steering coloum before she will come out? we are talking about the complete enine, gearbox variator assembly?
 
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