American Machine and Foundry Corporation (AMF) had their fingers in a lot of different businesses in the 1970s, including the bowling industry which many of you know AMF from, but they also owned Harley-Davidson. This rare 1973 Harley-Davidson Y440 snowmobile can be found here on eBay in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and the current bid price is $960 but the reserve isn’t met.
I wrote about a similar Harley-Davidson snowmobile five years here on Barn Finds and I was surprised to see one for sale back then. I’m even more surprised to see this one, given how nice it appears to be. This one has been at least partially restored and the seller shows us a few photos of before and during restoration. In case you were wondering, Wisconsin is the historic and spiritual home of Harley-Davidson, no matter where they end up in the future. Maybe they’ll be an offshoot of Amazon at some point as most things probably will be (I hope not), but they’ll always be tied to the Dairy State, at least in my brain.
H-D’s future parent company, AMF, made snowmobiles several years before purchasing (“merging with”) Harley-Davidson and offering the snowmobile that you see here. For anyone who didn’t grow up in the 1960s and 1970s, it was an era of outdoor activity. Think of it as 100% the opposite of today where technology – i.e. cell phones – are the biggest thing and have been for well over a decade. A few decades ago, it was minibikes, campers, motorhomes, and, of course, snowmobiles. Fun fact: Willie G. Davidson himself designed the new Harley-Davidson snowmobile in 1971, although it was based on an AMF Ski-Daddler.
The Harley-Davidson snowmobile came out in 1971, two years after the company was acquired by AMF. A few snowmobiles were made in 1971 but 1972 was the first full year of production. Most of you remember that Harley owned 50% of Aermacchi at the time and there were several small Harley-Davidson motorcycles based on Aermacchi bikes and/or using their engines, and these snowmobiles started off using those engines. AMF continued to offer their own snowmobiles until the end of the 1972 model year along with Harley-Davidson snowmobiles. In 1975, Harley-Davidson got out of the snowmobile business and it’s a crying shame, they were really sleek and beautiful sleds and are very collectible today.
The 433 cc two-cylinder engine looks good and that’s the gas cap sitting on the snow for some reason. The seller doesn’t mention how it runs but they have a video of it running for anyone who is interested. Back when a lot of us had old round-hood Ski-Doos, we dreamed of having a Harley-Davidson snowmobile. Have any of you owned one?
You have to remove the gas cap to remove the hood, Scotty.
You’re right, Boatman, but I would always immediately put it back on. I guess not everyone does that.
Brilliant engineering,bet they sold lots of gas caps:-)
Hell, We sell gas caps weekly for the HD touring models as guys leave them at the pump. :-)
They really set that engine back in the bay. I don’t remember any of the old sleds we had being that far back. Wonder if it helped it to float on the snow a bit better?
Anyway I’ll always take an Interceptor over a Harley any day of the week. 120 mph out of the box. My dad’s best friend owned one. Dad had a Yamaha 440 at the time and the had a few beers one day and decided to see if the could make the 440 faster than the interceptor. Cranked up the timing, leaned out the carb, messed with the plug gaps, and did some other things and the 440 still was just a little slower with my dad driving. That’s when they looked at me and realized I was only 60 lbs….
Blew the engine at 100 but I was in front of the interceptor and pulling away.
They had the engine rebuilt the very next day. Back then they were simple machines. I dare say superior to today’s stuff. Sure not efficient. Kinda ugly in comparison but with a basic tool set and a can of carb cleaner you could almost always get them running again.
I had a new one in 73….
Suffice to say.. It was the first snowmobile I wanted to burn to the ground after one weekend on the trail….
Mostly broke down….
I’ve had 22 sleds from 72- 2018.
Good accurate story Scotty. I have a junk yard full of sleds. One of them is a 74 Harley sled with 300 miles. But it sat outside 25 years, not on my watch, and is junk. For the guy who said he does not remember engines that far back in the belly pan. Ski Doo had their engines almost in your lap until the mid 70s, except the 72 Blizzard racers. My current daily rider is a 77 Arctic Cat Pantera 5000. Please list more vintage snowmobiles on Barn Finds. Thank you.
Thank you, sir! I love this era of snowmobiles, the 60s and 70s, even the 50s and 80s…
Back in those days I had a HD 45 rigid holding a Honda 750-4. MA State Police provided an expensive certification that the scooter would do 108 MPH. At the time a common joke was at a stop light the Bimmer rider saying ‘Bad Man’s Wheels’ while the HD rider simply said ‘Adios MF.’
lol….a single carb fancooled 440 wouldnt come within 35 mph of hitting 100 mph…i lived them days, rode those sleds….i can see why it would burn down tho, lean it out an crank up the timing….recipe for disaster
That part of Wisconsin gets a lot of lake effect snow, so snowmobiles belong there.
I recall AMF being in boats Crestliner
When I was a teenager I came home from school one day and my dad said he bought an old Harley it’s in the back yard ,you can take it for a ride ,it was an AMF golf cart.
Just when I’m about to pull the plug on BarnFinds, Scotty submits this,,,sigh, okay, one more. The HD snowmobile, was the pride of Beer City, just like Horicon, Wis. had the JD snowmobiles, also finicky in nature, but good sleds. Snowmobiling in the upper midwest was gargantuan. Anyone willing to dabble in snowmobiles, probably could count on selling a few. It was just that popular, and new 2 sleds for $995 (including a trailer) families could have fun on a budget,,,as long as it snowed, and unlike these days, it snowed a LOT back then, or at least it seemed to a kid, it did. As Scotty mentioned, the HD snowmobile was actually an AMF Ski Daddler, which used Hirth and JLO engines, supposedly the “Porsche” of snowmobiles, a hefty claim, but Willie G. did indeed buy them out, and updating them with better motors and slide suspension, made them a veritable contender, even though, makes like Mercury, A-C, SkiDoo and Polaris were still the “biggies”. And for the record, I believe there was enough clearance to remove the hood without taking the gas cap off. This may be the wrong cap, but great sleds. And the motor was “a midship” for better balance and get weight off the skis. From a time when this was all you needed for winter fun,,,that I miss more than anything.
Howard, wait, John Deere snowmobiles were from Wisconsin? I did not know that, I assumed they were from Moline, IL. Now that’s good trivia!
http://www.jdsleds.com/jdsleds/models/models.html
I had a chance to buy a 440 Liquifire, JD’s 1st attempt at a liquid cooled sled. I went with the Yamaha 440 SRX also their 1st liquid cooled, and nothing but problems. I ditched the “liquid cooled” thing, and had fan cooled sleds with a lot less hassle.
Most of the non Ag JD equipment was made by contracts with other manufactures.
We were an AMF Ski Daddler dealer back then. They were good machines. Unfortunately, there were more than 50 manufactures that made great machines. Much like the auto industry they hit a saturation point and 90% of the manufactures sold or died. In Snowmobiles as in cars what won on Sunday sold on Monday.
Purchase price includes 6 quarts of oil to pour under sled to replicate its motorcycle brethren of this period.
that srx is highly collectable today. 90+ hp 440 unheard of in the mid 70s. pretty much unbeatable until skidoo came along with a rotary valve 440. the srx was a poor trail sled due to its 9000rpm high strung nature…the average person would have needed a degree in clutching and tuning to keep it a top performer……
Mine was a 1980, I think, it had a nasty habit of puking water pumps at the most inopportune time. It had plenty of steam, once I ran it on premix, that is. The oil injection couldn’t be leaned out enough and would foul the plugs, until someone told me to run it on Bel-Ray premix. Boy howdy, that did the trick and would keep up with all the big boys and their heavy 540 Ski-doos. All the liquid cooling jazz, made it front heavy, and non-IFS and short travel rear slide, made it a handful on the trails. After that sled, I vowed never to have a liquid cooled sled again. https://snowgoer.com/top-stories/flashback-the-1980-yamaha-srx/27632/
Auction update: this one ended at $1,525 and no sale.