Bought my viper last year with 1300 miles on it and gave it a $300 pre-season check up and rode a hard 1000 miles last year. This was my first powerful sled (always rode polaris 440 sports) so I was impressed by the viper and yamaha in general. Then I raced a new Skidoo rev 600HP just after the chip had burnt out of it and he took me! There was some circumstances where I could have won but I thought I was going to annilate him since I read that vipers could somtimes knock off 800's. So I found this site and started reseaching performance options, and just sled maintence in general. Also the cosmetic of the sled were very poor, I previous owner crash hid some damage to the plastic hood and shrould, I had a damage trailing arm and a coolant leak at the end of last year. So this summer I have been working on my viper off and on. Here is what I had planned:
New trailing arm
New C&A pro razors skies
New Bergstrom skegs
re-stud 192 studs
align the sled track and front
check wire rub thru
fix coolant leak
add a rear heat exchanger for safety sake
Paint the hood (bad scratch on it)
Here is what is done so far:
New trailing arm is on
New skies are on
new studs in track are done (THIS WAS A B*TCH!!!)
Hood is painted
ALL new fairings
All new plastic shroud where speedo mounts
Rear heat exhanger is on as of today
I'm making progress and moving slower then most because I have never worked on a sled. Ironically the 440 sports although slow never required any maint (or we just didn't do it anyway) always lube, gas, oil and go. The carbs were never opened, no PV's to clean, etc. It was to be expected with a less sophisticated sled I guess.
My next plan tomm is to clean the carbs so it will idle again, and track down that coolant leak. I'm hoping its the Wp seal that seems like a common problem, otherwise its the front heat exchanger which would suck!
After that leak is found I'm ready to start playing!
I got SLP ceramic pipes in the mail, a CPR modded head in the mail, clutch kit, etc all ready to go. This will be my first time working on sleds and I'm excited, familiar with modern fuel injected cars but not carbs so its a learning experiance.
I'll post some picts when shes done, time to starting painting and polishing! Hopefully I'll be ready when the snow flies!
New trailing arm
New C&A pro razors skies
New Bergstrom skegs
re-stud 192 studs
align the sled track and front
check wire rub thru
fix coolant leak
add a rear heat exchanger for safety sake
Paint the hood (bad scratch on it)
Here is what is done so far:
New trailing arm is on
New skies are on
new studs in track are done (THIS WAS A B*TCH!!!)
Hood is painted
ALL new fairings
All new plastic shroud where speedo mounts
Rear heat exhanger is on as of today
I'm making progress and moving slower then most because I have never worked on a sled. Ironically the 440 sports although slow never required any maint (or we just didn't do it anyway) always lube, gas, oil and go. The carbs were never opened, no PV's to clean, etc. It was to be expected with a less sophisticated sled I guess.
My next plan tomm is to clean the carbs so it will idle again, and track down that coolant leak. I'm hoping its the Wp seal that seems like a common problem, otherwise its the front heat exchanger which would suck!
After that leak is found I'm ready to start playing!
I got SLP ceramic pipes in the mail, a CPR modded head in the mail, clutch kit, etc all ready to go. This will be my first time working on sleds and I'm excited, familiar with modern fuel injected cars but not carbs so its a learning experiance.
I'll post some picts when shes done, time to starting painting and polishing! Hopefully I'll be ready when the snow flies!
I also have a kit ready to go in with the pipes that is supposed to really make her fly. Should be a monster compared to what I'm used to! 
