1978 ARGO Questions

[crawfish]

Hello,

I recently purchased what I am told is a 1978 ARGO. It is a 6X6 and the previous owner did a motor swap as when he got it there was no motor. Right now it has a 18 HP Briggs and Stratton engine from a lawn tractor. The Dive clutch was replaced with a primary clutch from a skidoo. I am not sure what the model of the Skidoo was. I have a couple of concerns now. There is no drive belt and I am trying to locate one. I measure it and it appears to be approximatly 48" long and 1 3/16" wide. I can probably adjust the position of the motor to accomodate a slightly different size. Does anyone have suggestions as to the best place to get a belt?

I was also told that the skidoo clutch will most likely engage at a higher RPM then the current motor. When running the motor without a belt it seems to engage...

I also notice that the low gear appears to be strippe din the transmission, and I am not sure if this can be rebuilt or would I be better of buying another transmission.??

If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Thanks.

[Mike]

Welcome to the site and congratulations on your Argo. For the belt you should be able to purchase one at your local auto parts store. Tell them the measurements and let them look it up for you or if you look in the manual section on the home page of this site there are two pages showing Dayco Belt sizes and numbers. Maybe one of them will fit: Dayco Drive Belts

Typically the clutches for the four stroke engines will be different from a two stroke clutch and usually don't interchange due to one being tapered and one not. That's just a general rule. If you could post a picture of the clutch in question or the model number of the clutch someone smarter than I am may be able to help you.

For the transmission you may be able to find parts for it. You may want to try posting a wanted ad here on the site in the classified forums. Someone may have just what you need. You never know.

[crawfish]

Thanks FOr the information Mike. I will checkout the Dayco Belts.

As for the clutch, you are correct the shaft on the motor is straight while the bore of the clutch is tapered, however a tapered sleeve was made 0.001 " Smaller then the shaft and sweated on on. There is no model number on the clutch, but I will try to post some pics soon.

Thanks.

[Mike]

Well, if they went to that much trouble to fit the clutch then they may have changed out the weights in the clutch too. So perhaps you will be fine. If all it needs is a belt I would go ahead and try it out as-is. Did the previous owner say how it drove?

[crawfish]

Hi Mike,

He actually had another type of clutch on it before that took a standard fan belt that would be on a lawn tractor, but he kept burning up belts. He had this other clutch put on and has not drove it since. If I by pass the govenor on the engine the clutch will engage, but the engine is almost at max RPM. Is there a way of reducing the engagement RPM of this clutch or should I just buy the 4 cycle clutch for that is made for a 1" shaft? I am also wondering if 1 3/36" is the correct width for the belt? I measure the inside edges of the secondary clutch on the transmission and thats what it looks like the measurement is. I was having a hard time finding a belt locally that width, so I am going to order one online.

Thanks again.

[Paquette]

Sounds to me like a comet clutch. They slam into gear at a high RPM. They were common on snowmachines. (is it orange and silver by chance ?) If you could find one from an older model Skidoo Olympic it might just solve your problem. When I say older I'm talking pre 1965 when the sleds were 18 HP single lung engines.