This listing is for only one of the 1974 AMF Harley-Davidson Snowmobiles shown in this first photo, so don’t think this is a two-for-one sale. I’m assuming the one for sale is the one closest to the camera (phone). The seller’s photos aren’t the best (mostly verticals), and this photo is the one that shows the most of a front 3/4 view. This AMF-era, Aermacchi-powered sled can be found listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Appleton, Wisconsin, and they’re asking $800 or best offer. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Lothar… of the Hill People for the tip!

The photos are a shame, but Harley-Davidson snowmobiles don’t come up for sale that often – we’ve only seen three of them here on Barn Finds over the last decade or so. The seller says this 398 is a barn find, and it sure looks like it is. Not just that, but they say it was sitting in a barn for 50 years, presumably untouched, but we don’t know that for sure. Since the mid-1960s, Harley-Davidson had considered entering the burgeoning snowmobile market, but the popularity of motorcycles kept it on the back burner. Buckle up for this one.

In 1964, Bangor and Aroostook Railroad out of Maine, and Punta and Alegre Sugar and Railroad Company of Cuba merged to form Bangor Punta Corporation. By 1969, the new company wanted to add Harley-Davidson to its mix of recreational businesses, which included Ranger Yachts, Smith & Wesson, and Piper Aircraft, among others. Harley, which was cash poor at the time, didn’t have the means to fight off this buyout, so they merged with American Machine and Foundry: AMF. Hence, the AMF Harley-Davidson era from 1969 through 1981. Between 1971 and 1975, AMF Harley-Davidson made snowmobiles, and even at most vintage snowmobile shows and events, they’re fairly rare to see.

This example is sometimes seen as a Harley-Davidson 398 and sometimes as a Y-400. There was a 440 model with a black hood/cowl, and the 400 has a white cowl as seen here. It’s old-school snowmobile technology here, nothing earth-shattering and not much thinking outside the box, with bogie wheels rather than slides for a suspension (I believe slides were optional), and everything else is pretty standard for the era. The engines came from another of Harley’s partnerships; this is an Aermacchi 398-cc air-cooled, two-stroke twin with 34 horsepower, and unless something catastrophic happened while it was in storage, most of us should be able to get it running again. While the 1974 models had a new aluminum frame that reduced the weight by 50 pounds, you can see a lot of rust on this one. Restoring this Y400/398 back to showroom condition will be a lot of work, sadly, but hopefully it’s complete, so someone can tackle it in their garage.