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1977 Tucker 542A Restoration Project

Also forgot to mention, we installed the MSD Digital 6AL Ignition system, polished the aluminum heat shields, NOS cast mopar valve covers and intake. New throttle cruise cable, new kickdown cable (there was not one installed to begin with - makes me cringe wondering how long it was ran that way). New deep cast aluminum transmission pan. Timing adjusted and it wings right over and purrs like it should
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Took the cat out on its maiden voyage! Must say, it was quite the enjoyable experience for us Davis boys.

Only issue we encountered was two lost rollers, and stopping about 10 miles in to adjust the slack out of the tracks. Luckily we brought plenty of spare grousers, rollers, pins, etc. just in case as well as a full set of tools. Other than that, everything worked and operated just as it should with zero issues.

Was about 57 degrees out and the 440 actually managed to stay cool! Our new hour meter that we installed after the restoration was just shy of 4 hours by the time we wrapped things up today.
 
How tight do you guys run your tracks? Is there such a thing as too tight? Seems like ours quieted down significantly once we took the slack out.
 
they need to be tight, lifting about 3/8 inch off the rail on the front side of the pontoon, mph speed really is 7 mph, faster just causes rapid wear and breakage, lots of inside baseball stuff when it comes to pontoons and grouser set up. when done correctly the track system is fairly quiet, with long life of service
DavisTranslite said:
How tight do you guys run your tracks? Is there such a thing as too tight? Seems like ours quieted down significantly once we took the slack out.
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We’re back!

Purchased this 1973 Tucker from David Zeller over at Zeller Ski and Sports in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They used it as a show piece at their store!

I have attached the original FB ad below.. to be honest we thought it was a fake at first since posted in Portland but machine located in Wisconsin.


We were able to truck it back over here for a reasonable cost. Haven’t started the teardown process yet, but hoping to start in September. Waiting for Clyde to send us some info regarding the build and customer in the meantime.

If anyone has any history on this cat feel free to share!

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Welcome to the /6 club. Cool motor. My cat is a 73 1443 serial ending in 36 yours is 49.

What else is interesting is your cat has AC stamped on the model number which generally says it was built as A heavy duty annd C Chasis ( open no roof doors but dash and windscreen) Around this time it would have been built as a 340AC which was pontoon. Then converted at the factory to rubber adding a 1. Really that is a 1342 once they were built rubber so makes sense.

Mine was built as a 443 then converted at factory added stamp making it a 1443.
 
welcome back!

intersting purchase, hope you guys post a bunch of progress photos like you did of the 542 build, which was a great series of photos and info, really good project with the new frame and all

fyi, how was the truck show at Brooks?


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Ok guys, quick update! It’s been awhile since our last purchase and we’ve been slowly chipping way at the 442. Most of the time we’ve spent working on it has been in between our daily operations and seasonal projects. I’ve done a poor job of documenting each repair with before and after pics - the opposite of how we did our last restoration.

So far we’ve done the following:

  1. Remove all unnecessary parts, hardware, hoses, trail fix scabs, etc.
  2. Remove windows and replace all with new glass and rubber
  3. Remove ALL wiring and re-wire, new switches, relays panels, etc.
  4. Remove all gauges from dash, replace with new from ISSPRO in Portland, paint dash, new sending units
  5. New bearings, seals, water pump, gaskets, plugs, filters, carb rebuild, belts, alternator
  6. New radiator, new hoses, new hydraulic lines, new hydraulic filter
  7. Install headlight buckets and visionx headlights that match our other cat
  8. Custom stainless exhaust using v bands and flex and stainless hangers that match the exhaust on our other cat
  9. Remove beat up aluminum side panels and replace with new
  10. Fabricate new aluminum fuel tank that matches angle of side panels
  11. Remove fifth wheel plates, repair damage from springs, loose bolts, abuse, etc.(should have used brass bushings from mcmaster Carr in the fifth wheel plates but didn’t think about it until Clyde mentioned and these were already bolted back up)
  12. Install electric fuel pump
  13. Remove old grill mesh and install new polished stainless material
  14. Gutted old axles, carriers, etc (these will be available for sale if anyone wants them)
  15. Re-ratio’d 2 Dana 60’s from a 78 ford with 3.70’s
  16. Cut off all mounting perches, brackets, etc so just bare axle, installed arb diff covers
  17. New bearings, races, seals, etc in hubs
  18. Cut old mirror brackets off, installed new west coast style semi brackets and mirrors that are heated
  19. All new tie rod ends, had to replace one threaded ended on front arm that previous owner had welded to the tie rod end itself
And for the kicker - we are going to try some of the American Track Dominator XL tracks on this cat. For the purist this is a big no-no, but we are hoping to be able to get a lot of speed out of this cat and it looks like these will allow us to do that. They are surprisingly well built and with the cat being light, it should provide enough flotation.

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Also, we purchased a new set of Tucker terra tracks from Clyde and Dan down at the factory for our 542. Got the full tour while we were there and got to meet the team - very thankful they took the time out of their day to show us around.

Paint matched to our House of Colors paint code - we are slowly working on installing these. We’ve got a small crack in the front steel fifth wheel plate that we will need to remove from the cat and create a new one before we can finish up.

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Track Addict said:
Welcome to the /6 club. Cool motor. My cat is a 73 1443 serial ending in 36 yours is 49.

What else is interesting is your cat has AC stamped on the model number which generally says it was built as A heavy duty annd C Chasis ( open no roof doors but dash and windscreen) Around this time it would have been built as a 340AC which was pontoon. Then converted at the factory to rubber adding a 1. Really that is a 1342 once they were built rubber so makes sense.

Mine was built as a 443 then converted at factory added stamp making it a 1443.
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Thank you! That’s pretty interesting - that makes these pretty close in production and I am a bit shocked they produced that many (probably more) in 1973.

Also even more interesting that they both had a rubber conversion done at the factory.. if only those pontoons were still stashed away somewhere, they’d be worth a ton! Thanks for the info Track Addict
 
Big fan of your work and Tucker Sno Cat OG’s.

Terra tracks are an extreme load on the system barely designed for steel roller grouser and then further stressed early steel rubber grousers and carrier conversion.

How many aluminum table terra tracks exist and perform today?

Use case can make or break on those based on sno conditions. If it doesn’t work out west steep and deep i’ll take it east with least sno!

That gear ratio on the mighty /6 at sea level would struggle to get out of first or reverse on ice in the east but performed sick on the trailer or shop floor.

Not a hater just have learned the hard way….
 
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It would be interesting to see now fast it will go with the Dominator XL tracks. Those tracks will handle quite a bit of snow.
I also have the 727 with original low ratio gears (can’t remember 4.88?) and could just about rap the Speedo around to zero on good snow. It is really not as fast as it sounds as I could not find a speedo drive for the 727 and used the manual gear speedo drive. But at that it was also on the verge of control.
In deep snow (I was pulling a drag) it rarely hit 3rd gear with 318 EFI at 3,500 ft.
The snow
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I’m thinking you will find a 440 for that cool rig.
 
Comment on the grill. Mine had the 1975 expanded metal grill and I had cooling issues because it would ice over. I installed vertical retro look grill and got much better (longer) cooling before in iced up. Also on the hood I prop up the hood a bit to allow hot air onto the windshield to reduce the ice buildup.
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This week we were able to get the front fifth wheel table unbolted off our 542 and repaired. We rooted out the crack, drilled a hole, welded up, cut out two 1/2” thick steel circle plates to fill in the factory cut outs to add some strength. We also fixed the cracking out at the tie rod socket, as well as added some additional 1/2” wings to prevent it from happening again.

Then cleaned up, prepped and painted and installed back onto the cat. We then bolted up the new terra tracks and welded the spring perches once we set our pinion angle. The front is now complete so we can move on to the rear. Of course the u joints are different (1310 vs 1350) between the pontoon axles and the Terra axles.

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YamaDooPolCat said:
Comment on the grill. Mine had the 1975 expanded metal grill and I had cooling issues because it would ice over. I installed vertical retro look grill and got much better (longer) cooling before in iced up. Also on the hood I prop up the hood a bit to allow hot air onto the windshield to reduce the ice buildup.
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Definitely like your conversion - the classic vertical grille looks much better than the expanded mesh and definitely doesn’t restrict air flow.

We thought about doing that on the 442, but wanted to make it match our other cat. If we have cooling issues (which I don’t think we will since the 440 in the 542 didn’t get hot) it’ll be the first thing we do.

Side note - is that omaha orange in the single stage activator spray cans? We tried these out with our color combo (pearl tangelo mixed with Omaha) when we just repainted our fifth wheel plates and springs. I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome! Still had to spray some clear down after but paint matched pretty well
 
Track Addict said:
Big fan of your work and Tucker Sno Cat OG’s.

Terra tracks are an extreme load on the system barely designed for steel roller grouser and then further stressed early steel rubber grousers and carrier conversion.

How many aluminum table terra tracks exist and perform today?

Use case can make or break on those based on sno conditions. If it doesn’t work out west steep and deep i’ll take it east with least sno!

That gear ratio on the mighty /6 at sea level would struggle to get out of first or reverse on ice in the east but performed sick on the trailer or shop floor.

Not a hater just have learned the hard way….
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Thanks Track Addict! Have been following your impressive builds for quite some time now as well - you’ve got quite the collection.

Regarding the Terra tracks - those are for our 542A. Luckily we’ve got steel plates, a thick healthy frame, and schedule 80 tie rods. Did some reinforcing this week so don’t anticipate any issues moving forward.

As far as the dominator xl tracks for the 442A - I think they are the perfect size and footprint for the aluminum tables. Definitely much smaller than a 400 series pontoon, which is going to cause an entirely different issue when it comes to flotation. I could be wrong but won’t know until we get it out in the snow and same goes for the ratio. If I remember correctly you put some Eaton e-lockers in yours right? We put Detroit’s in these and I’m not sure if that was the way to go.
 
Nice work. I misunderstood thought you were putting the terra tracks on the slant cat in this thread.

This makes much better sense now on the 542. Steel tables beefed up and should have plenty of power.

Great setup and now you have another set of nice 500 pontoons and tracks for a worthy cat project…..
 
YamaDooPolCat said:
It would be interesting to see now fast it will go with the Dominator XL tracks. Those tracks will handle quite a bit of snow.
I also have the 727 with original low ratio gears (can’t remember 4.88?) and could just about rap the Speedo around to zero on good snow. It is really not as fast as it sounds as I could not find a speedo drive for the 727 and used the manual gear speedo drive. But at that it was also on the verge of control.
In deep snow (I was pulling a drag) it rarely hit 3rd gear with 318 EFI at 3,500 ft.
The snow
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I’m thinking you will find a 440 for that cool rig.
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Do you have any experience with the Dominators? We are excited to test them out - especially in similar conditions
 
Clyde had an older 542? with terra’s out in McCall Idaho one year.

Was with another cat last winter that had them as well.

They don’t float or climb like the pontoon system. Also the contact area and bite on them takes a lot of effort to steer especially at slow speeds.

Perfect for our ice our east but heavy wet and fresh snow adds a lot of stress to the early tucker designs.
 
I love everything thats going on with these builds.

Rubber tracks are the answer many cats enthusiasts need.

The detroit lockers will be ok if you are driving your cat and understand how detroits work. I feel the key is to not to stay in a sustained turn too long.

I run arb air lockers with no trouble. However we tore up two terra tracks when we borrowed a machine to a snomo club. They flipped them off as instructed but multiple times they did not un couple (its a thing) during all the turning of pushing snow about and the drive sprockets begin to skip or ratchet. As you know tracks are not cheap. So keep an ear out for sprocket skips. Tightening the tracks is not the answer
 
DavisTranslite said:
Do you have any experience with the Dominators? We are excited to test them out - especially in similar conditions
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So yes we do.
A) check out any of the clowder threads. There is a 343 that has been perfecting snow mobile track based systems going on 7 years. Many R and D hours, research, designs and most all results are favorable. Unlike terra tracks. Snow mobile tracks need to be very tight, all the idlers need extreme duty bearings and tensioners reinforced.

B) FLOATION is an issue. Get the longest you can get
 
DavisTranslite said:
Side note - is that omaha orange in the single stage activator spray cans? We tried these out with our color combo (pearl tangelo mixed with Omaha) when we just repainted our fifth wheel plates and springs. I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome! Still had to spray some clear down after but paint matched pretty well
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The spray can I used was a paint match effort with computer camera at the local parts store Lordco.
It is a single use can with an activator you push in on the bottom of the can when
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ready to paint, then you have 3 hours or so to gitter done!
The blade and frame took 3 cans at $45 per can. It is supposed to a very hard paint.
 
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