10.  After a whole Summer of work and a few rips around the yard, today I took my first real ride in the Argo in a very long time! Project 6x6 is the story buying back and rebuilding our families 1989 Argo which Dad bought new and later sold back in 2014.

9.   Today's ride would not be anything fancy, difficult nor long, just a quick shake down run so I could return to the house and give everything a thorough inspection.

8.   I left from the house and rode the airport fence which gave me some opportunity to test speed, performance, reliability, listen for noises, etc. I wouldn't take on anything tangly as the old Goodyear Run Amucks were nearly bald, and the two centre pair do not hold air.

7.  With that said, the machine is looking absolutely awesome!

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3.   All in all the machine ran great, the ride revealed a few slack bolts in the engine tins which I fixed right away. The ride was long enough to break in the Idler Chains so I was able to set the chain tension to factory spec. The engine is running decent, I still have to play with setting the air idle adjustment when the engine is hot. Everything else seemed great!

2.   I did forget to install the drain plugs on this run which let a cup or so of water into the bottom of the machine. I cleaned that out and reinstalled the plugs to prevent that from re-occurring.

1.   All in all it was a very successful first ride, new tires have been ordered and should arrive next week which will pretty well finish the bulk of the project at least for now.  Looks like I have a pretty decent machine for the upcoming moose hunting season!

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith