Bolens Diablo Rouge and Hus Ski Discussion Forums

Hi guys.

Well I started it. I am into this 502 complete restore up to my elbows right now.



During the tear-down, I came across a couple of questionable areas. The first one being the engine mount. Somehow the engine looks like it was sitting forward. closer to the secondary. (I suspect it was modified to suit the previous owner) He couldn't find a drive belt maybe, so, He moved the engine to accommodate a shorter one.
see these pictures, and,let me know what you think please:






The second and third areas of concerns will be addressed later. One being the engine piston missing a couple of chips in the exhaust port. The other the loose pins in the Secondary clutch.
I'll get pictures of the tear-down of those and see what we can do.

With this one restore 502, I'll only post the important questions as they happen. I will leave the forum floor for someone else's complete documentations.

Happy spring everyone.

Jesse

Take your time and enjoy the process.

It seems most Diablos I pull apart have a little story to tell. When you look closely, you often see past repairs, modifications or hardware that is not original. It's all signs that people have tried to keep these sleds going over the years and sometimes, they have to get really creative if they were trying to fix them during a time when parts were not available. So I applaud those efforts.

But today, I'm all about encouraging people to put Diablos back together as original as they can within their abilities and budgets.

So to the topic at hand. Jesse, I concur with your belief that this was modified to fit a different belt. At some point, that special long and narrow belt for the Diablos was no longer made and people were getting creative to modify their units to use a belt still in production. The bottom mount looks to have been cut and shortened which would put is closer to the secondary. I can only presume lowering the front mount also helped in some way.

One thing I do notice is your top motor mount is off a Diablo 503. It has the hole for the plug wire to go through and the little hole is where the choke cable would route thru and to the carb. The mount has a different angle than the 502 mount.

Again - it has a story and if only it could talk.....................

Yes I agree Bruce, they say a little story.

OK, I finally got my 502 into a rolling frame. It was challenging doing all those boogie wheels tires, welds and lube. But in the end, They will be "solid" (In fact this frame is much stronger than my 500 was)
Here we can see the new lacers I received from Bruce. They are stainless steel. Very well build. with a tight tollerence in the finger joints. I think these lacers will outlast the machine well beyond another 50 years. You can see the new "AIR LINE BUSHINGS" in the boogie pivot pins mounts on the second picture.





Also here is a couple pics of the noze tins I used to experiment a new painting method. I used TSC Store automotive ENAMEL paint in a can. First I bare the metal completelly, then I applied the Rust-oleum gray primer 2 coats. followed that with the automotive enamel gloss 3 coats. then I finished it with the Engine enamel clear 2 coats. Resist up to 260* Celcius.

This new method is very very durable. I tested it on the nose part, and I will be doing this on the entire body. (I can't afford a professional paint job) But, judge by yourself. It looks pretty good.





As of right now, we have finished with the riding for this winter. No more snow left. I will be putting this 502 aside for the summer and resume in the fall. As we are starting our summer program at work this month. I will be too busy to spend time in the shop. (So) I hope everyone had a good winter, and has lots of good memories. I sure do with my trip to Val-Des-Bois, and my trips to the campground where I rent a property.
I kinda promised my wife (my very patient) wife that I would be preparing the motorcycles for the first ride this season very soon. So Until next time. Have a good summer my friends and we'll get in touch for the 50th this next winter i'm sure.
Cheers
Jesse.