Was just finishing up a 1971 SS 433 this past winter for a guy not too far from me, Bernie Turi, when he stopped in my shop one day to drop something off for the SS. I had my 72 SR 643 in there I was just putting finishing touches on also and he seemed to be pretty taken back by it. He mentioned how he sold a very nice original 73 SR 433 a few years back. I think within a week after that visit he bought this 73 SR project for me to do for him, from Terry Beards collection. Pretty straight roller that was originally a 292 but later had a triple put in it I think. Came with a mostly complete 73 SR 643 engine that was in good shape.
Motor mount came with it also, very nice shape and was drilled out for the update bearing holder/brace.
I had just gotten the sled/engine stripped and was starting to send stuff out for plating/chrome when I had a conversation with Bob Weaver about a sled. During the conversation I think he mentioned he had a NOS 73 SR belly pan and a decent hood. I knew he had a NOS chassis on his list of sleds he was selling but didn't know at the time the glass was attached to it. So I gave the lead to Bernie for the glass as his belly pan was just about crumbling and the hood was cut out etc. Bernie ended up buying the whole thing as Bob had it, chassis, glass, tank, NOS? front bumper, nice seat. Very cool piece, only NOS SR chassis i'd ever heard of. So the project then turned into building a brand new 73 SR 643 around the NOS chassis, using everything needed off the 292 roller.
NOS chassis after I stripped the parts off it
Didn't really get too deep into the project much till it warmed up, which around here was May.
Here's the parts I stripped off the 292
Very straight skis with original shocks/saddles and hardware
Suspension in very nice shape, nothing bent or broken.
Chassis/suspension/ski parts stripped out to get cleaned/painted
Engine stripped down
Ended up finding a very nice set of original 73 SR 643 pipes
Was fortunate to locate a nice pair of the original keihin fuel pumps we were missing, made a new bracket for them to mount to the chassis.
Most of the SR specific hardware back from plating Had the brake disc done also but didn't come out great, some light pitting. So i had that machined to clean up the pits and sent it out again, came out beautiful the 2nd time.
Chrome back. Shocks came out great, with good damping action still. I had to do some welding on the bars, those came back great as well.
Tach brackets, steering arms, hood guides and ski shock bolts back from dark green/iridescent plating. Had the NOS spindles done later on also.
Suspension parts cleaned and painted, new bearings and all 4 springs NOS
Suspension, front axle, and chaincase assembled and ready to go. NOS cogs on the front axle, new bearings/seals in the chaincase.
Bernie wanted all the aluminum polished that could be done, including the chassis. I'd never polished much of anything other than some small parts here and there and a kitty cat tunnel, so it was a relatively new experience for me. Skis were the straightest SR skis i'd ever seen, some scratches to clean up on top and a ton on the bottom.
Chassis after being cleaned, and a few rounds of wet sanding. Then polished.
Ski hardware/parts, skis assembled, front bumper smoothed out and polished.
Pipes cleaned/painted.
Fuel tank/strap cleaned and polished. Original cap was badly faded. I ended up painting it the correct color black and hand painted the white lettering back on where it once was.
Engine parts cleaned, going back together with new gaskets, seals, pistons, rings, coils. Recoil and clutch rebuilt. Cylinders with new nikasil. One head had a fin busted off and missing, I shaped a new one and welded it on/cleaned it up. Found a nice bearing support to replace the busted one that came with the engine. Ended up brazing and having that one machined to use with a different engine. Crank was like new and has the updated tapered PTO end with the integrated pin. Originally these motors came with a long splined pto end with a clutch to match but most I've seen were updated like this one was with the new pto end and bearing housing/support brace. Carbs cleaned and rebuilt with all NOS yamaha parts, re-pop stacks from Scott Stoll.
Belly pan was NOS but had some small chips and scratches in the paint from being moved around through the years, so we had it re-painted. New re-pop pods from Mike Rust, he also provided re-pop throttle cables and a new snowflap, makes very nice quality parts for these sleds.
NOS CDI, wiring harness and tether we found.
Brand new reproduction track from Don Soukop. The original we had would not have lasted long under this 643.
Bernie had found a pretty nice tach. However, the needle was sticking, glass was dirty inside and the case had a bad paint job on it. So I took it apart and fixed the needle and cleaned/painted the pieces.
Sled coming together. I've stripped around 80 1970's yamahas and probably more engines, saving all the original hardware I could. Just started getting everything re-plated within the past few years. Nice luxury to have when building a sled like this that was missing alot of the original hardware.
Was waiting on the hyfax to get the suspension in. Had a nice set of original hyfax coming but ended up getting an empty tube with one end cap missing
So i had to make a new set from some that was the same color and close in dimensions, copied the one good original piece I had to a T.
Here's the hood. The one that came on the NOS chassis was nearly covered in spider cracks, and cut out for the update brake cooling scoop. The one that came on the roller was in good shape but cut out for a triple to fit. So he ended up having his buddy cut out the center of the one and fit it into the center of the other, to use the best of both hoods. I did the remaining glass/body work and ground out all the spider cracks and filled them. His buddy skim coated it and layed down the paint. Came out very nice. Bernie preferred the look of the engine sticking out of the hood vs. the scoop, so that's the route we went, looks nice and is something different. Could always put a scoop on later if decides to. Had the sled done for a couple months pretty much, just waiting for the hood to get back from paint.
Here's the sled all done, assembled, running and cleaned up.
Few pics next to my Factory 72 SR 643, quite a leap they made in one year.
And finally a few pics of it in it's new home, Bernie's shop.
Link to a video of it running:
https://vimeo.com/285936857Thanks to:
Bob Weaver
Mike Rust (re-pop pods, snow flap, rubber tach mounts, throttle cables and decal kit)
John Haley
Don Soukop (re-pop track)
Tom Kilts (hood cutting/grafting)
Craig George (hood paint)
Mark Elwell
Rick Penoyer
Scott Stoll (re-pop velocity stacks)
And especially to Bernie Turi for entrusting me with this project.
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