The Argo, an exploratory mission, with pictures

[rodp]

As said on other posts, I took the top off the new Argo (new to me). I found a wonderful assortment of interesting oddities such as seat upholstery stapled to the fuel tank, alternator welded to the front deck support and tensioned by a spring and jamming it on the wheel well (see pics). It's good to see how the other half work

Anyway, I found it was suffering terrible wheel well droop (see pics with straight edge across them) so I tried to rectify one side to start with. Clamped a length of steel down the outer edge, Jacked it straight with high lifts and got the bend hot with hot air gun. Worked lovely, just got the other side to do then fit a bracing frame to stop it happening again (someone mentioned this method in another thread, thanks whoever it was (can't remember and can't go and look while posting this ))

I found all the chains loose to the extent they almost touch the cross members running through the frame, funny thing is they don't look or feel worn ??? They look almost new and the seller did say it had new chains recently ?? Too many links from new possibly ?? How many should there be, anyone know ? On a brighter note, all but the front axles are splined and the brakes are hydraulic, there doesn't appear to be any cracks in the frame, But one pan is rotten and the others are badly repaired.

All in all it's not too bad. I'm not going to do a rebuild at the moment as I have only run it about 10 minutes. I shall do what's required to get it usable then give it a few hours use, pull it back in and then do a better job on it. At the moment it's still an unknown quantity. And it's taking up production space in the factory, need to get rid of the quad etc first.

http://s924.photobucket.com/user/rod-p/library/Argo?page=1

Oh, and I still have to get rid of that awful snot green paint

[rapidroy]

rodp, nice project you have there buddy. I noticed in your picture where you have the uni-strut across the tub and the gas tank located in the brakets, that there are no vertical supports for the seat frame. There should be one on each side just in front of the gas(petrol?) tank and behind it as well, these are generally about 3/4"(20mm) square tubing. On top of these you need more tubing to span across from one side to the other reaching to the edge inside the tub on each side. The lower body section then is bolted through from the outside( bottom up) to this tubing and this is what supports the weight of the operator and the upper body section. This then is the frame for your upholstery and also the support for the gas tank.
I see this is an older machine and what i have just described is how it is done on most newer argo's but it would be a terrific upgrade. It also provides some storage space under the seat section. You could use that unistrut for the cross pieces to provide extra space for storage.
I hope I have described this properly so you can imagine what you may be able to do to lift the sag from your machine. Good luck //RR

[rodp]

Hi Roy, thanks for the reply. On this one there is just the one seat support at the rear of the seat / tank, the front of the seat sat on the tank !! I had removed this along with it's vertical supports (I use the term supports loosely in this case, two pieces of 3/4" x 1/8" rusty flat). What you suggest is exactly the plan, along with another frame at the rear with another seat on. I shall then run longitudinal's up both outside edges (between top and bottom) and tie these in to the seat frames. That will then mean it's supported rear and centre by the seat frame verticals, the front will be tied in to the winch mounts. This should cure it on a permanent basis hopefully.
Heating the bend in the wheel wells with a hot air gun whilst attacking it with a high lifts and steel section clamped to the outer edge cured 90% of it, although there was still some droop when the high lifts were removed.
I need to have a go at the other side now, then drop the top on and check for clearance between top and bottom before making a support frame. No point in doing it all then finding I can't get the top on !!! Measure twice, cut once !