Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Throttle Body Cleaning - ZR 600 EFI

I have the throttle body completely removed.  It was not too difficult.  Remove a few cables, and it was done. Especially since I had already removed the feul lines. I am going to remove the fuel injectors next as I imagine they are pretty gummed up after all this time.  Then I will get down to cleaning.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Happy Holidays

Well thanks to the holiday I haven't done anything.   Been riding the phaze a bit...Seafoam has helped clean some gunk out of the carbs and make it run a bit cleaner, but it dies as low-end.  Either the pilot jets, or even the pulse line.....We will find out tomorrow as things get back to normal, and hopefully back to the cat on Wednesday,

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Wednesday 12/23/2009 - Project Arctic Cat / Yamaha Phazer

Whew...I managed to get the Phazer to where it now has spark when it should.   Now I have to figure out why there is no fuel.   The fuel pump, I believe, on these machines are vacuum driven, so there should not be any electric involved.  I am surmising then that the vermin chewed through one of these hoses.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Tuesday 12/22/2009 - Project Arctic Cat derailed again

Psuhed aside again....I went to get our other snowmobile, a 1995 Yamaha Phazer, ready to go for the impending snow, but alas, my intentions were foiled by vermin, mice to be exact.  I lifted the hood to check the fluids, and was surprised to see mice condos, everywhere, albeit full of vacancies.   After cleaning out the old nests I discovered that the mice had been feasting on a few of the wires and hoses.   Hopefully all it will take is a quick patch job to get this one going.   It's too bad, while this machine is not pretty, it has always been a good runner for us, starting on the 2 or 3 pull.  Let's hope I can get it back to that status!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Monday 12/21/2009 - Project Arctic Cat ZR 600 - Removing the throttle body

The two main fuels lines were replaced. Not as hard as I thought it would be.   I connected the engine side of the old supply hose with a barbed fitting to the end of the new fuel line spool (about 10 feet of it) and just pulled it on through from the fuel pump side!  I suspected the hose clamps may get snagged, but not an issue.  I did this with the fuel pressure line with the same ease.




Now, during this and the fuel pump test I noticed traces of corrosion in the throttle body openings.  That will be my next task, remove the throttle body the rest of the way and clean it thoroughly.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Fuel Lines - Project Arctic Cat ZR 600

Who would have thought it would be difficult to swap fuel lines?  With minor effort I was able to pull them off the throttle body for the fuel pump test, but pulling them off the fuel pump was a bit more challenging.  I ended up carefully cutting the hoses with a box knife right at the ends, and then they easily slipped off.  If you do this just be careful not to scour the metal nipples that the hoses slip on to.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Project Arctic Cat ZR 600 - Lost a day

So much for today, between my real job and things to do around the house I never had a chance to touch the machine...and it's frigid out in the garage right now.  Hopefully tomorrow will see some more work performed on the machine.  Good night all!

Project Arctic Cat ZR 600 on pause

Not much happening at the moment, and it won't unless it gets a little warmer, or until I can at least locate my space heater!  Besides, need to get ready for the holidays over the next few days.   Maybe there will be an update later today...

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Successful Fuel Pump Test!! A Minor milestone for the Project Arctic Cat ZR 600

Yes!  Just came in from the garage after a successful test of the Cat's fuel pump.   I took the supply fuel line off of the throttle body, and to my surprise old fuel came squirting out....didn't think that would happen.  After I wiped up that mess I put the end of the hose in to a clean clear plastic bottle, and then hooked two jumper wires to the fuel pump connection (remove the plastic lid off the tank, just under the handle bars and you will find the wires.)  I then connected it to a 12 volt DC source....make sure the battery is at least 12 volts...I had one that registered 11.92, and it wouldn't work. As soon as I made the final connection the pump ran, squirting out some more old fuel....then came the new stuff, albeit a little green from the Sea Foam, but clean none the less - no slime, crud, gunk or otherwise!  Now it's time to replace the fuel hoses, and from the way it looked, a good cleaning for the throttle body.

Step 1. Continued....Draining old gasoline from the Project Arctic Cat ZR 600 tank

...After fashioning my siphon I was able to drain the fuel.   Wait! I forgot to mention that a day before siphoning out the fuel I added 2 ounces of Sea Foam to the fuel.  The brainstorm behind this was to help break up any sludge in the tank.  I read quite a bit about Sea Foam and thought I would give it a try.....

OK, back to draining the fuel.  The tank was finally drained so I took another peek in to the tank.  It didn't look too bad, just some minor slime.  At this point I decided not to pull the pump, but poured about a 1 1/2 gallons of fresh fuel to cover the bottom of the tank as well as the two fuel pickups.   I then added another 2 ounces of Sea Foam, and let it sit for a few days.  Which brings us up to the present day....testing the fuel pump, then replacing the fuel lines.  I figured before I install the engine it would be easy to replace the fuel lines, and I wanted to make sure the fuel pump was still working OK.  That way if the engine wouldn't start, and there was not any fuel delivery, I would know the actual pump was not to blame. 

As for the fuel lines, to me the fuel line that runs underneath the steering post would be a bear to change if the engine was installed.  I could be wrong but why take any chances?  So the next post will be my Step 2.  Pulling the fuel lines off of the throttle body and then testing the fuel pump, followed by replacing all the fuel related lines.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Step 1. Draining old gasoline from the Project Arctic Cat ZR 600 tank

The picture you see on the title of this blog isn't the actual beginning...some work was performed before I decided to start this blog.   What you won't have the pleasure of is bearing witness to me pulling this machine out of the brush and lifting it on to the trailer myself.   No small feat as my aching back could have attested to.   Then came dumping the machine in to the garage.....and cleaning all the leaves and crud out from the machine....yes, crud, despite the machine having a tarp over it.   It's amazing what two years of sitting around can do for a machine.

Yes, two years at this current residence, a new home we had built out in the boonies....for 4 years before that it sat on a trailer at our old house, a bit better protected.   However it, and it's cousin, a 1995 Yahama Phazer, were dumped off so we could use the snowmobile trailer to move brush and rocks at the new house.

Anyway, I digress,  I cleaned out the crud, only to discover, to my chagrin, that there was still about 5 gallons of fuel in the machine!   Many of you know that gas begins to break down in just a matter of months....and we're talking 6 years with this tank, holy cow!   To my surprise though it wasn't a shivering glob of goo, but a somewhat varnish colored liquid.  At least that's what I could see when peering through the fuel filler neck with a maglite.   A quick check with a nice clean stick didn't bring up any goo either.  Must be I had put Sta-bil in before loading it on the trailer ( I go nuts with Sta-bil when storing gasoline equipment)  Good stuff!  Obviously the gas is not usable, but at least it wasn't all a blob.

I needed to get that old fuel out, so I went to my local department store and bought a $4 siphon hose.   Have you ever tried to siphon anything out with one of these?  Not easy!  The hose that goes in the tank kept curling on me.   So after much swearing and thought, I came up with this:  1/2 PVC water pipe cut to a length about 1 inche taller than the fuel opening.  This allowed me to stick the hose in the pipe, and then the pipe in to the tank, allowing the hose to reach the bottom of the tank. Added: 12/16/2009 - Picture of the siphon and pipe.

Let it begin - Project Arctic Cat, or Installing an engine in a ZR 600 EFI chassis

And so the beginning of the end, an end to the nightmare that is!  A little background is necessary, I believe.

6 years or so ago the beast herself, a 1998 Arctic Cat ZR600 EFI, took a major dump.  She started to cough and sputter, with a backfire or two thrown in, just to let us know she was ailing.  Lucky for my son and I we were right in front of the house so I shut her down.   The hood was lifted, then a quick glance around....hey it looks OK to me, must have been a fluke!     Closed the hood, and proceeded to start her back up, only to nearly dislocate my arm from my shoulder socket....OK, obviously looks were deceiving, she was not well.

To make a long story short....bad bearings on the magneto side (Don't know what the magneto side is? Too bad, I will explain it later) caused the crankshaft to vibrate, which in turn caused the flywheel to smash the stator (again, I will explain all this as we get in to the project!) to pieces, freezing everything up.

A lot happened after that, but that's not important, let's just jump ahead to present day, which brings us to this blog....my first stab at the blog world, documenting my attempt to resurrect the beast, hopefully before the snow vanishes for the season.   Let the fun begin!