Recently picked up a 2000 ZR 440 Sno Pro that was an ice oval race sled owned by Dan Devault which has been confirmed by him.  I don't know it's full racing history but it's sister sled is in the museum in Eagle River.  

https://www.worldsnowmobilehq.com/hq_snowmobile/2001-arctic-cat-zr-440-ed-devault-29/

Sled was trail ridden after being purchased from Devault Racing and had sat a few years recently.  Wouldn't start without pouring a little fuel down the cylinders and the choke on.  Compression tested good.  Brake was stuck.  Has an updated Cross Country CDI, V-Force reeds but other than that bone stock as they raced in the stock class.  Sled was fully intact with very minimal issues, the snow flap is f'ng mint... and I just could not walk away from it.  

Today was the first day really tearing into it.  Pulled the carbs which smelled like Assoline, got a really good look inside the tank and found some stank and debris in it I wasn't comfortable with so off came the seat, cowl and tank and everything in the fuel system is getting cleaned/replaced.  There was also a bit of water in the fuel.  Found the master cylinder a bit dirty, cracked open the bleeder and some foul crap came out.  Already ordered a new master and caliper seal kit from Wilwood to rebuild the caliper and if necessary replace the entire master.  Found a 2002 green tinted windshield on FB marketplace for a great price and nabbed it.  Not sure which shield we'll run on it yet but it didn't come with the original.  Will pull and check the reeds next week and address the utterly moronic recoil rope routing which has rubbed into (but not through) the fuel tank and oil tank.

I'm going to talk to Joe about adding a Tempaflow because I honestly hate fiddling with jets.  Down the road it's going to need the shocks gone through by Carver, go through the skid, maybe a little blasting and powder coating of the A-arms, handlebars and rails.  Just simple stuff to make it ridable and reliable as a 23 year old race sled can be.

This is going to be a project sled between my brother, his sons and I... which my brother doesn't know yet.  I'm giving it to him on his birthday.  So, at this point I'm going to make sure it's got go and whoa, then off to the east coast it's going to go for a family project.  My part of the deal will be... he just has to bring it back home to WI once a winter for me to ride with him and/or my nephews. 

Will add pics... 

  

Edited January 15, 20232 yr by Crnr2Crnr

 

@racinfarmer , I found an original windshield through a bit of networking. 

Needs a good cleaning and two repairs. 

Edited February 1, 20232 yr by Crnr2Crnr

Pretty clean for a racer. I have three of those snow flaps brand new. It's too bad you can't get them with the white letters anymore.  

Edited January 17, 20232 yr by joe_zrt

Removed this nasty bugger from the tank, cleaned/dried the tank.  Now it's on to disassembling the caliper to check and reseal.

Cool project!

8 hours ago, p51mstg said:

Cool project!

thanks  

i'm very much enjoying bringing it back to proper reliable running condition, not rushing anything and doing things properly.  same will be expected of my brother and nephews.  

one of the young guns in our shop has been a major helping hand in this project and has impeccable attention to detail which I very much appreciate.  we're going to meet at work in the morning, fiddle around for a few hours and then i'm taking him riding on the SP's.  he hasn't ridden for ages but has taken test hits on both sleds while testing/tuning clutch work.  should be fun... and he's going to get a great lunch. 

 

fwiw, a bit jealous of your Catalyst experience as mine has yet to come to fruition thus far. 

 

 

today's special finds... 

inboard caliper piston was stuck as f@ck, but cleaned up 

someone used silicone instead of the proper gasket on the VForce reed's (wtf man?)

a mouse invaded the air intake plenum... which explains what I found in the carbs and reed cages. 

then we went riding normal sleds to feel better

 

after yesterday's session, may as well order some power valve and y pipe gaskets to address a bit of weepage on the front side and fully check the exhaust for further mouse habitation.  

cleaning 🐭 nest debris from the 👽 head tonight... 💩 and debris was everywhere... 

getting closer to crunch time, need to get it up and running and test it within a week.

no, I didn't use the flat tip on the discontinued perfect condition carb boots.  😂

Cool project! I bought a 96 1/2 580 zr from Dan when i was a kid back in 97 or 98. It was my 1st experience with efi and the black magic "chips". Thing was a pretty good runner on the lake xc races

5 hours ago, Cat45 said:

Cool project! I bought a 96 1/2 580 zr from Dan when i was a kid back in 97 or 98. It was my 1st experience with efi and the black magic "chips". Thing was a pretty good runner on the lake xc races

I had a 97 ZR 580 EFI as well, fantastic little sled. 

My little 440 project from a couple years back. Love bringing these "old" sleds back to life.

49 minutes ago, joe_zrt said:

My little 440 project from a couple years back. Love bringing these "old" sleds back to life.

Damn nice job!  97?  What shape was it in before you started?

1997 yes. It was in decent shape. But everything was redone. The alluminum bulkhead helped. I even found a brand new belly pan and skid plate. I have a brand new hood in the box too. I had SledPrinter do the graphics. 

5 hours ago, joe_zrt said:

1997 yes. It was in decent shape. But everything was redone. The alluminum bulkhead helped. I even found a brand new belly pan and skid plate. I have a brand new hood in the box too. I had SledPrinter do the graphics. 

I had that exact same sled.  Really quick for a 440.  

On 1/24/2023 at 8:14 PM, joe_zrt said:

My little 440 project from a couple years back. Love bringing these "old" sleds back to life.

Wow, that's very very nice 👍

IDK that we're going to do a showroom quality restoration but we're definitely going to give it some love.  

Got extremely lucky to find a new fuel tank pickup fitting.  Even while being extremely cautious fitting a new hose for the in tank pickup I managed to break the 23 year old piece of plastic.  Thank you eBay lady from Tennessee!!! 

And... the new parts pile on my desk gets a little smaller each day.  

and... this just landed.  

 

waiting on one more reed gasket so, took the entire exhaust off from jugs to the outlet.  fresh y-pipe gaskets, donuts and most of the springs.  

then... came up with a creative solution to an issue @Not greg b warned me about.  apparently the recoil rope rubs on the fuel tank and oil tank.  fortunately for me it hadn't fully rubbed through yet so I came up with 1/2" id pex tubing from the handle hole all the way to the recoil.  the recoil rope was also cutting into the fuel pump pulse line.  not pretty but it is effective.  if it rubs through the pex, no biggie as that stick cost about $5 and I still have another four feet of it... unlike the oil or fuel tank.  

Edited February 6, 20232 yr by Crnr2Crnr

Damn kid does some fine work, bet the carbs haven't been this clean inside or out since it left the factory.  Yamaha combustion cleaner was magical for the jets even before brushing and cleaning.  Good stuff.  

assuming this means we're getting closer to firing it up... 

onwards to the fuel filter, adding shutoff valve, fuel lines, pump, carbs and 63 race dept approved zip ties.   

Edited January 30, 20232 yr by Crnr2Crnr

Master cylinder was also shit, so it's getting a new one.  

it's alive... started second pull... idle speed is dialed in, won't rev over 6k but was able to take a couple laps around the parking lot.  Need to pull power valves in the morning and sort things out.  Will be passing the buck to my brother Monday and if i can't get it spot on it's going to our friend in PA to get sorted out @Not greg band @hayward

my ass dragging has been limited to 5800 rpm for now. 

 

after several hours of thought and deliberation... I'm down to the coil and wiring which I did move that were touching the muffer, OR the power valves which I haven't torn apart YET.  based upon what I saw with a borescope the pistons have excess carbon build-up which means not enough spark or not enough exhaust getting out.  compression is solid on both jugs.  y, pipe and muffler are clear... checked them immediately after finding the mouse nest in the airbox.

this needs to see max rpm before I load it onto his truck next week... bit frustrated atm.