1970 Max II Restoration...

[brunpup]

Well guys, I figured it was finally time to start my restoration thread on my early Max.. It's number 2101 from RI.. Originally came with a 297 JLO engine in it, but I decided that since I'm not a 2 stroke person, to swap in a GX610 (18 HP) Honda engine I had laying around.. It was in really rough shape when I got it, but I looked past all of that to the potential of it after doing some research on this forum before I bought it.. As far as I've managed to trace the history on it, it was bought new by an oil field company about 12 miles from me, and then was sold to a local farmer who used it for a while before giving up on it due to issues with it and he got tired of it messing with it.. His son, one of my buddies then sold it to another one of our buddies who didn't really do anything with it besides cut the rotted original tires off the rims(not really sure what he was thinking there).. Anyways now on to me, I was looking for a project and asked my buddy if he still had it and if he'd wanna get rid of it, so I bought it for 50 bucks.. Yeah, according to my buddies, I'm the king of good deals around here.. I know, tires and such are expensive, but I've got good enough connections around I can get good used ones for cheap.. Sorry I don't really have more or better pictures of the before, but I always have sucked at taking before pics of my projects.. Other than the lateral linkages and the outer half of the axles being black, I'm putting it all back to original colors...
Easily the worst crack on the entire project..

Nice hole in the bottom tub.. I think its from the sprocket coming loose.. Anyone else seen damage like this?

Test fitting the Honda that's massive compared to the JLO

Masking off to paint in the grill..

Finally set the frame back in the fixed tub.. Very nice feeling to be going back together..

First axle back in..

[flippy]

good job.

[Nubs]

[riotwarrior]

Realy nice...very nice, keep us updated and thanks for sharing!

[jeffery9076]

Nice machine great price. I did a lot of work in the kitchen on my first 6x6. Good luck

[akcrawler]

Looks like it's going nicely. Hard to beat the price. I'm sure the replacement parts are costing more than the cost of the machine. It is nice that you had an engine on hand, though.

Thank you for sharing.

[brunpup]

Thank for all the kind words so far guys.. And actually, so far I haven't had to replace any parts... I don't think the machine ever had many hours on it, or it was really well maintained... Not even the bearings need replacing... There's no wear whatsoever on the inner bushings on the axles, and peering inside the trans, the bands look like original thickness still... I think the reason the farmer quit using it was because of the two stroke giving him fits... It even still has great compression and all, and the only thing I found wrong there was the carb was outta whack tuning wise... Hard to say.. Either way I've still had a really fun, yet frustrating at times build so far.. Mocked up the engine a couple hours ago, and trying to figure out exactly where it needs to be... I found on here that center to center should be about 13 inches on the clutches.. Can anyone chime in and tell me if that's right for a four stroke machine with Comet 780's? Thanks again guys..

[ARGOJIM]

12.5-13 sounds correct, the belt for the 297 was shorter though so you may want to get the 4 stroke belt before any bolting in to be safe.

[brunpup]

Well guys, since it's been a few months since the last update I gave you guys, I figure its about time for me to provide you all with some more restoration pics. I got all of the axles put in, sealed up, and the chains all ran. I ended up deciding to replace all the axle chains since I had it apart. Since I was buying the chain in boxes with 10 ft lengths in each box from Orschelns (13.99 a box, good chain) I was able to only have to buy 3 boxes and will be able to have a spare chain with me at all times on the machine. I got the transmission adjusted, bolted in, and connected to the laterals. Since I had accidentally broken the original throttle cable inside its casing, I bought some more throttle cable to feed through the casing and replaced it. Started drawing up wiring diagrams, and finally decided on a design that I liked, and put it in my binder of everything for my 6x6 build. Merging the Honda harness that I bought from Nubs on here, and the original harness that I got with my machine with some minor modifications.

Here I have everything all put in as I said above, just need to cut and weld up my motor mounts, and bolt in the engine, and it will be done finally.. I bought special "push mount" zip ties from Napa, and used them to mount the harness just like the factory did.


Here I have the regulator all mounted, and you can see part of the wiring harness that I made. If anyone needs help with figuring out the wiring for a Honda conversion, I can upload the wiring diagram that I made.


Here is a good overhead shot showing how I have my harness routed and mounted from the tub to the frame. I used the original holes the harness was mounted to from the factory, and ran the harness between the battery and frame, to just past the Forward/Reverse lever, over to the regulator, and then back to the engine, running under the transmission and battery. A 25 amp fuse protects the entire circuit. As you can tell by some of the wiring tools still sitting on the tub, I just got the wiring all figured out before I took the pictures.


Here's just my nice little touch that I made to the harness, so I can pull the engine out a lot quicker and simpler. I used a connector kit that I got with a project truck, but it can be bought from radio shack. This connector contains all of the wires going to the engine, and still has enough open spots that I can add more wires to it for other things if needed.

[Rusty-Gunn]

Nice rebuild. Looking good. Can you share a bit of info on the chain? Brand? Tensile strength? 530 O-ring?

[brunpup]

Sorry, I can't remember the specs on the chain at this time... But it's for #40 chain... They offer the bigger chain, but I haven't paid attention to it.. Thanks for the kind words on the rebuild..

[Mike]

I'm enjoying your build. I also put in a plug/connector when I wired the motors in my machines. It takes a little more planning on the front end but it definitely saves time down the road. Nice touch.

[tattooman]

Hi Brunpup, Tattooman here. I am also rebuilding a 1970 maxll! I was wondering if you plan on changing your driven clutch to a four stroke clutch or do you plan on changing the spring to a red one. I think I am going to change mine to a comet 780 series with a 28 degree ramp! MFG supply sells them for around $160. I really like that plug you installed! I will be going to Radio shack soon to purchase one as well. Do you plan on splitting the T-20 while you have things apart? Well anyway, thanks for sharing!

[brunpup]

Hi Tattooman, it's nice to see more people taking on the task of rebuilding such an early machine... As for the clutch, my clutch is still in pretty good shape, and I haven't messed with the spring yet... At this time, I'm trying to get it all put together so I can make sure everything works... Then I'll pull the transmission back out and change the spring out for the red one... And as for splitting the transmission, since my machine didn't seem to have much runtime on it, I simply did some inspections on it... Looking into the trans through the fill and drain plugs, that gave me a good view of the drums and bands... Mine still looks practically new! After I saw that, I talked to my friends dad that had it the longest of all the owners, and he told me that he only ran it for a few hours, because the old balloon tires were causing too many problems for him... And Mike, thank you! It may seem odd, but it's sort of an honor to me to hear that the founder of this amazing forum is enjoying my build.. My tally so far in my binder of the build, I only have 360 dollars invested into this entire thing...

[brunpup]

A little update on my restoration/build, I've gotten it much more put together. Got wheels and tires for it from a local junkyard, 22-11-8 inch, all 6 for 50 bucks.. Granted a couple of the tires are trashed, I figure it will at least get me rolling for now. I had my buddy that works in his families machine shop here in town make me adapters to go from the factory 3 lug to 100 mm 4 lug bolt pattern using the CAD templates off of here. Loc-tited on the adapters and just had to trim the rims a little in the center to get them to clear the flange nuts on the adapters. Also, to make it legal to drive around in my town, I had to add on complete taillights with park, turn, and brake lights.. I've been working on that recently, and almost have that part done.. Pictures to come soon, but made my own quick little sheet metal brackets to bolt through the rear two bolts that hold the upper and lower halves together.. That way if I decide to remove the lights for any reason, I can very easily. Also, I didn't want to permanently mount them to the body, due to the age of my machine.. I plan on adding some little orange flatbed style marker lights to the front to complete the whole turn signal thing.. I'm using an old GM brake light switch from a squarebody (I have over 50 of them) on the emergency brake for the brake light signal, and mounted a on-off-on toggle switch on the dash for the turn signal wiring.. As for the park light side of things, I'm just going to run that off of the headlight circuit.. Still need to get my plate cut out to bolt my engine to and weld it to the engine slider assembly I made up for it, but that's coming soon. As of right now, I still have under 500 dollars in this entire build, and just need to get the engine bolted in, and make up all of the exhaust pieces.. I started welding up my header for my Honda engine, and just need to have the engine in place to finish it off. My goal is to have this at least driveable by the 9th of July, so just short of 2 weeks from now, so I can run around in it during the tri-county fair that goes on here in my hometown.. I can easily say that I'm getting really excited to run it for the first time, and experience my very first 6x6 and get all of the odd questions that you guys talk about, and that I've even already gotten just from it sitting on my front porch.. About a month ago I finally got asked for the first time if it was a boat or a four wheeler.. I've been asked several times since then the exact same question.. My response everytime is "sort of, yes", and explain it to them.. This forum has been of unexplainable help to me in this entire adventure of rebuilding my first 6x6. Just from the fun that I've had rebuilding this one, I want to get more.