6x6Talk Forum

General Category => HUSTLER: Talk pertaining to Hustler ATV => Topic started by: Dw89xj on May 29, 2020, 03:48:33 PM

Title: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on May 29, 2020, 03:48:33 PM
  I recently bought Duck89s bigfoot project for a pretty amazing deal. It was over 600 mile round trip but it will totally be worth it, plus I git to rude up and see Lake Ontario in person for the first time. Got to meet another 6x6er and came home with a badass machine, well it will be badass. All of the hard work is done. Everything is disassembled, cleaned, and labeled. There is a little work left for me to do but mostly just reassembling, nothing too major.
  Hydromike did a great job of lining up the frame and making the two frames into one good one. I was told it's a 950 frame with the 980 seat riser and other stuff welded to it. The axles seem to line up fine, I just have to finish the welds and may need some tweaks but it looks pretty good to me.
  Dirtdobber has been carrying me I feel like, he hooked me up with some major pieces to help me along to get this beast going again, and giving me great advice and simpler solutions, I have a tendency to try and solve problems that aren't even problems.
  It came with new 26x12-12 swamper tsl. I'm won't be in the water alot and if they are absolute crap I can switch them out and sell these or save them for a dirt only project.
  I need to do some doctoring on all the sprocket tubes, they all have some level of egging in the original holes. The sprockets themselves look decent.
  5 of the axles are pretty good no egging surprisingly and straight. One axle was previously repaired it has a slight wobble and us about an 1/8" shorter than the rest. I am going to just have a pair made for now just to keep things even side to side. No reason other than that, I may never break an axle but have just enough ocd that I can't just put one new axle on one side, I have to do the corresponding on the other to match.
  The t20 needs reassembling, it came with relined bands. Dirtdobber saved me big in the transmission, he hooked me up with everything I needed except the seal kit and a drum, which I may or may not be sourcing from a parts/project hustler 900 I might or might not be bringing home with me next week. It's a complete machine but it's been neglected for awhile. If it's nice enough it will get rebuilt for my wife if it's not it will be parts.
  The opposed twin Briggs seems to have good compression so it will just be getting resealed unless I find anything ugly inside. But the oil looks good no weird knocks or anything when turning by hand, compression feels pretty strong when at that point. Muffler and tins all look nice no mice nests hiding in the tins. There was some mud wasps it something I hucked into the field across the street but otherwise pretty clean considering it's a mid 80s machine.
  I need to build laterals and seat cushions/covers. Buy all new chains and it can go back together. I think I will be running the snap idle tensioners for simplicity and ease of maintenance. Not doing anything too fancy, maybe add a 12v power port to charge my phone. And build some sort of rollover protection I can throw netting over to double as a blind but otherwise I think hustler made it as good as it can be for my use.
  This project came just in time I was really missing my max but thanks to the max I learned enough to be confident in taking in a project like this. And I settled for the max after missing out on a hustler locally. I just some happened to luck into a Bigfoot.
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on May 29, 2020, 04:12:34 PM
For some reason I keep getting error page bit found when I try to add pictures. But I guess you guys can search Google or check out 6x6wirld if you want to see pictures.
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on June 26, 2020, 02:18:32 AM
Got all my braces and gussets cut, laterals cut and halfway bent. T20 rebuilt and reassembled, huge huge thanks to wfo and dirtdobber for making that happen. Found a crack near one of the front seat brace bolt holes, I'm pretty sure I can fix it no problem. I can sum it up real fast but in actuality I was at for over ten hours today and didn't burn any welds in. That's for tomorrow today was all prep, fitting, cutting, refitting. In the morning the frame can come back  out and get loaded up to go burn this metal together.
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: ascaw on June 26, 2020, 10:54:25 AM
Bummer about the crack.  You should be able to stop drill it and plastic weld it.  Making sure everything is prepped and test fitted before welding is a must.  You don't want to have to cut it and do it again.
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on June 26, 2020, 11:43:17 AM
I was thinking the same thing with stop drilling. I'm not sure if I should invest in a hot air welder setup or just use a heat gun or soldering iron technique. I don't know how much I will actually even be in water but it's nice to know I could if I wanted too.
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on June 28, 2020, 11:47:36 AM
Hey guys check out this flop 😂 I guess at least I didn't have the case bolts in haha
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: WFO on June 28, 2020, 02:10:05 PM
your pics are too big try reducing them first and then post.
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on June 28, 2020, 02:38:12 PM
I put the input in the wrong side when I assembled and didn't notice til I was taking measurements to make extra braces to to keep the transmission from walking out of the slots. Luckily I didn't have any bolts in yet and just had a screw driver to keep the halves lined up since I'm buying new bolts because most of the original are MIA. That's what I get for not paying better attention.
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: ascaw on June 28, 2020, 03:46:33 PM
That stinks. :-[  At least you found it before fully assembling it. :)  I bet that is a mistake you will never make again.  whistling
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on June 28, 2020, 03:53:01 PM
I had to laugh at myself, I wish I had taken a picture before I split the halves again, then I thought "ya know what?", I bet the 6x6 guys would get a kick out of this lol.
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: ascaw on June 28, 2020, 07:21:39 PM
Your agony is now a learning experience for everyone.  Thanks for being open about the mistake and sharing.
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on June 28, 2020, 10:29:01 PM
That's what I was thinking, hopefully it will help someone in the future to avoid making that same mistake. Although if I hear of someone else doing this I will get a small chuckle lol.
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: garretttpe on June 30, 2020, 12:36:55 PM
experience comes from screwing up, thanks for sharing
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on July 10, 2020, 08:24:02 PM
Pics of redesigned shifter setup so it's beside my leg instead of jamming into the back of it. And a couple shots of where I need to finish/fill in/ brace up etc. I'm trying to only put it in the tub one more time lol, we will see how that pans out.... whistling
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on July 10, 2020, 08:33:36 PM
I still have the factory shifter, tower, and linkage bar if anyone is in need it's all in decent shape.
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on July 19, 2020, 11:35:46 AM
For some reason my wife likes me enough that she bought me a small shed and a new welder. Now I don't have to make a dozen trips to get all the tools I need and I can weld again. I can't believe I used a HF Chicago welder for over ten years after using this new welder. My sprocket tubes are all repaired. Now to finish my shifter setup and finish weld the frame and this party will really be rolling. Sure beats loading all this heavy shit up and going To my buddies to use his welder Everytime I need to weld, it's a good reason to hang out but it kills my back and is a pain in the rear loading this stuff from a wheelchair trying to wrestle it around and drive. More progress to come soon....
Edit the first couple welds looked like bird poop rofl
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: ascaw on July 19, 2020, 05:33:20 PM
Congrats on the new welder.   banana
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on July 19, 2020, 07:29:08 PM
Congrats on the new welder.   banana

Thank you very much it's been a long time coming. I think my wife got tired of going to my buddies when I needed to weld something since my old welder burnt up
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on July 23, 2020, 10:01:22 AM
Split shift idea
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on July 31, 2020, 09:55:59 PM
Time to paint mount trans and start stabbing axles. A couple holes and cuts for my shift linkage and it's almost time to party. banana dance banana I keep coming across ads for 27hp kohler's and am thinking of getting one to put on the back burner. In the meantime I'm thinking just a quick and dirty reseal and freshening of the opposed Briggs just to be able to use it until the Kohler gets built. I decided my wife's getting the 18 horse vanguard and I think the 27 horse Kohler will give me enough power to gear a little higher so I can hang with my wife on the straights but still plenty of down low grunt for putting along on trails. A quick look at midwest super cubs sight says you can get pretty wild with with a Kohler v. I'm more about reliability but any power increase is always welcome I was just thinking billet rods cam and supporting mods.
Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: Dw89xj on September 01, 2020, 06:18:37 AM
So I did end up getting a Kohler 27hp with a broken cam and crank gear, I guess this is a common problem because the crank gear being powdered metal. But several hundred dollars later and I should be making good reliable hp and big torque. Midwest super cub, who have excellent customer service I might add, Zach Kerber machine and design and Lakota racing have been a big help in the parts department. I got my sprockets and axles all sorted out and in order finally, built my transmission braces, and made my own chain tensioners, I've went off track pretty hard with staying as original as possible but the end result should be much better than the original. I'm going with snap idles tensioners in the front since there is enough room to do so and since I ordered the click style I can just lift the floor out and squeeze it tighter if I need.
I went with 530 chain which required some clearanceing of the original t20 mount under the chain adjuster on the right side. I have a set of smaller main drive sprockets from a regular tub 980, I cannot decide if I should just run them or if I should use the big pizza pans. I think the small sprockets are 31 tooth and the big ones are 41if I remember right. How much of a speed increase should I see with a ten tooth difference? 
Also are the t20 chain adjusters problematic too or just the drive chain adjusters? I have the drive chain adjusters dealt with but if there's an issue with the t20 chains adjusters now's the easiest time to take care of it, they seem alright to me, I replaced the idler sprockets but otherwise they seem simple and solid.
  I'm at the point it would be real easy to start cobbling to get done, but since I'm waiting in engine parts, I'm just taking my time and trying to take care of any possible issues.
  I need to get a 1 1/8"  clutch, not sure which to go with 1195 or 94c they seem to be the most readily available. I haven't checked to see what cvtech has yet. I haven't been around long enough to know any other good clutch options or companies.
I'm still chipping away just taking my time and double triple checking everything trying to do it right once. I'm sure there will still be adjustments and redesigning after it's together but I'm trying to make it minimal. But otherwise I should have it trail worthy in the next couple weeks, then hopefully my wife's 960 will just need the chains, shift linkage and 4 stroke swap done, along with rebuilding and performance goodies on her vanguard, billet rods rev kit cam, and some porting and polishing.
Rifle seasons coming fast and I hope I can get any bugs worked out on both machines before then.

Title: Re: 980 Bigfoot
Post by: ascaw on September 04, 2020, 04:18:38 PM
Sounds like you are making decent progress.  When you get a chance post a couple of pictures of it.