ZR 900 problems?

fourbarrel

fourbarrel

VIP Lifetime Member
Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
2,767
Location
St George,New Brunswick,Canada
I was going to post this in the lounge but figured I'd get more looks here so anyway I have a bud that's going to buy an 03 ( I think ) ZR 900 and don't know how well he's looked into these sleds as far as problems.Can anyone here give some areas of concern to look at when we go to get this sled?We are located in New Brunswick Canada and the sled is in New Hampshire roughly 4.5 - 5 hrs away so it's not like we can drive down the road to see and scrutinize it so we have to get all the info before hand.It has carbs on it and supposedly very low miles like less than 2000 that I do know and is not diamond drive but other than that I'm not sure what my buds knows about it.Any help would be great as I think we're going down to NH this weekend to pick it up.
 
other than vibrating your hands numb my friends zr was pretty good.that zr chassis is tried and true.not as fast as you might think though!or he might think i should say.he rode his 4500 miles almost problem free with the exception of blowing the chain.but that was a direct result of poor maintence.he would just put stable in it and call it done,i had to twist his arm to have him grease the thing!
 
Ive also heard the zr9 has been a decent trouble free machine.If i were ever to cross over to the dark side that would be the only machine from a/c that i would want.I'd look for a clean 03 without the diamond drive though.
 
Thanks for the replies so far guys.
My bud is a Cat guy so I'm assuming he knows these sleds because he specifically told me that this has carbs vs efi which is supposed to be faster,carbs that is,and no diamond drive so he is pretty psyched he found this one.Now the trick is going to be hiding the purchase from his snake of a wife :die: .
Oh I guess she's not THAT bad she just doesn't see the logic in my bud selling his ZRT 600 and getting the ZR.
 
try hardcoresledder.com and go to the zr section, there are a bunch of guys on there that can help. One more thing my bro has a 06 zr 900 and it is a very nice sled. Are sleds are very close on speed. If I get him out of the hole I dont see him but if gets me out of the hole its takes awhile before I catch him. all-in-all very nice sled, fun to drive.
 
I dont think the carbed version is any faster stock than the efi one, but the carbed zr allows cheap easy hp additions with no remap.

I recall snowtech reviewing these sleds and they said that unless you plan on modding them quite a bit, that the efi is the one to get because it will perform spot on all the time, unlike a carbed sled.

Why would the non Diamond drive be preferable? Isn't the diamond drives best feature that there is no jackshaft, hence less hp lost in the drivetrain?

Or is the diamond drives complexity not worth the hassle?
 
fourbarrel said:
No reverse option on the original d-d sleds.
Click to expand...


They came out with a mechanical and an electronic version that runs the motor in reverse like the polaris and doo sleds. I am sure one of those can be adapted to the original diamond drive, right?
 
horkn said:
They came out with a mechanical and an electronic version that runs the motor in reverse like the polaris and doo sleds. I am sure one of those can be adapted to the original diamond drive, right?
Click to expand...
Possibly but my bud is looking at a conventional reverse on Ebay for this sled.
 
a friend of mine cooked his last year trail riding in the county, luckily the cat dealer fixed it quickly since he was on a week long trip.
 
i would freshen up engine new pistons and rings if rebuilt 4 that the rings turnd and caught exhaust ports then you know what happens.as far as diomond drive the problem they had was in the secondary it was binding you can get a flat bearing kit from dd racing then put lots of weight to it.But these sled are a torque monster
 
if it's piped or clutched, they are very hard to manage - there is no in between most of the time. look at the motor mounts, on the clutch side they tend to crack and break. look at the bolt holes where the suspension mounts to the tunnel, they get egg shaped. my son ran his zr600 for 8500 miles (with 2 blowups), i spent a lot of time tuning for weather as it was piped and clutch. if you dont mind working on them, they are good sleds.
 
The exhaust valves run REAL close to the pistons and have been known to actually make contact causing the piston to fail. It's an easy fix with exhaust valve shims (do a search on HCS or Arctichat), I have a set if you need them. If you remove the coupling blocks on the rear skid you can get the sled to hook up much better (way to much track spin with the blocks).
The 04' & 05' Diamond drives are weak. They tend to strip the drive shafts or the bearings fail at about 2000-2500 miles. The DD clutches are also impossible to tune....the belt will slip in the secondary on a good holeshot causing the sheaves to "chatter". It will run good to about 105 mph then the belt starts slipping again.
They do have plenty of grunt though!
 

Attachments

  • zr pic 3.jpg
    zr pic 3.jpg
    33.3 KB · Views: 29
Last edited:
List of things to check
- engine mounts
- suspension mounts
- clutch condition(bushings -obtained this info from HCS)
- obvious stuff like track,skis,seat,various bolts for tightness
- compression



Apparently AC has had durability issues with their bushings in the clutches from what info I have been able to get from HCS,something to do with the vendor they used.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top