Bolens Diablo Rouge and Hus Ski Discussion Forums

I have already cut the cleats out of hard maple ( 3/4 x 1-1/2 x 12 inches long) I had enough material for 60. A couple extra for repairs if needed.
After the holes are drilled, a couple coats of exterior polyurethane and ready for track assembly.

Parts are all painted and upholstery work complete.

I put my dad to work applying the exterior polyurethane on the grousers. He is retired and always looking for something to do. He went to work and made a special rack for drying.Good thing he has a lot of time on his hands.

I needed to repair the motor mounts. It looked like if I could replace the rubber portion of the mount, they could be usable. There was a web site on the forum that you could purchase center bonded mounts and they listed a part number but what I found is that they wanted a $85.00 min order. Instead I found an alternative repair. It looks like it should work fine.
I purchased a drain plug from Menards which had the perfect size rubber pc. in it for less than $4.00 a package. (4X) Then I removed the rubber portion and started to rebuild the mounts.

Here are a couple of finished pictures of the mounts. This is my 1st go around with something like this, but I think it turned out well.

My parts are finally coming back from the paint shop.This took longer than I expected, but they did a beautiful job. Unfortunately I am not going to get the 444 done for the big 50th Anniversary Party. I will be there with my brother Mark and his 600.Look forward to meeting the Hus-ski / Diablo crowd.

The original tracks were in pretty rough shape. When I got the 444 home I couldn't even roll the tracks over the wheels. This machine is getting a new pair of shoes.
Here are a few pics. of the old tracks and also the new. My belting supplier was able to pierce in the hole pattern for the cleats, this sped up the assembly process.
The belt material I bought was 2 ply 220 1/8 x1/16, 5.0" wide and 101" long. It is about .300 thick.

I have seen different methods used for track assembly. I decided to use stainless 1/4 button head bolts and "t" nuts for the cleats and rivets for the lacing.
I wasn't set up for doing alot of riveting so the bolts seemed to be a good alterative. Being my 1st set of tracks, I'm happy the way they turned out.
Cost wise I am sure rivets would be cheaper than all the bolts and t-nuts.
For the laces I lined them up in position, marked them, removed them and took a hole punch to pierce the 8 holes/ end. Finally reassembled with the rivets, made sure everything was down tight and clinched them over.
The T-nuts I set into the track 1st using a piece of 1" round stock and hammer. I then put my wife to work assembling the ice cleats and grousers with the S.S. bolts. From there I took the assembly and installed on belting using blue locktite. Went together good and we are done.

BEE - A - UTIFUL!

Everything looks fantastic!

444 mufflers are notorious for falling apart. Vibrations from the motor probably do this. The motor is on rubber to absorb the vibrations while the muffler is bolted tight to the motor then bolted tight to the motor support. To avoid this problem I attach the 444 muffler with a support strap to one of the head bolts, eliminating the motor mount brackets.