PHASE 1: The Beginning

This is what I envisioned to be the perfect mountain sled.  Now you know why I call this sled Mountain Madness - Bred From the Dead.  Everyone said I was mad to try and build a sled from this carnage.

It started life as a 1997 MXZ 670.  I bought if from Waterloo Auto Parts, totaled (with the engine in a box).  Somebody tried to rebuild the motor and apparently did not have the know-how to put it back together.  The salvage yard said that it was pushed off the back of a truck doing 50 mph, and then they got it after that.  What a treasure at $300.

It did have some redeeming qualities.  The engine, while in a box in pieces, was all there.  It did also have reverse.  The head was good yet and somebody put 44mm carbs on it at some point and it had Crank Shop twin pipes.  The rear suspension was good with the exception of the slide rails and a couple of wheels.

There were a ton of good parts to sell.  Sometimes the sum of the pieces are worth more than the total of the whole.  That was this case.

The parts that were good off this sled, I sold on various websites and at swap meets.  Granted, I had some parts in my "parts closet" in the garage to help along with the build.  Even Monster Garage gets "Freebies".  My goal was to build a custom mountain sled for under a budget of $4500, and still have a decent machine to show for it.  I wanted to build it for under $4000....but NOTHING ever comes in under budget...so $4500 was the true goal.

This is a list of stuff I sold before I even got started:

Crank Shop pipes            $350.00          Snowest

RAVE assemblies             $175.00          Snowest

44mm carbs                     $225.00          Snowest

Rear Shock & Springs      $ 75.00          Dootalk

Seat                                  $ 40.00           Locally

R Trailing Arm                  $ 50.00           Dootalk

R Arm Support                 $ 20.00           Dootalk

Gas Tank                          $ 40.00           Snowest

Track                                $ 75.00           EBay

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                                     $1050 - $300 for the sled left $750 profit.  Not bad. it's a start.

Around this same time, I landed a 670X motor from EBay that was in pieces:

I got a 670X basket case motor and a complete DPM with airbox for $109.00. Shipped to my house off of EBay.

I sold the pieces of the system on Snowest.  I found that the 670X ignition system and DPM would not support the overbore kit I planned to install, so out the door they went.  The parts went as follows:

Crankcase                      $150.00          

Crank                             $160.00           ($175 - $15 to have checked for true.)

DPM                                $250.00

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                                      $560.00 - $109.00 = $451 profit

That leaves a total profit of $1201

Now it is time to start building.

CLICK PHASE 2 TO CONTINUE.

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