Well, just got back from a 2 day trip to Northern Quebec where the snow and trails were awesome. The trip started out just great. It was me and two friends with the new PRO Xr-ves-abcdefg Polaris 800's. I've been hearing from them how great these sleds were working so when we first lined up for a race on a well travelled hard packed lake, I was pretty intense. The arm dropped, we all hit it, I got the holeshot and didn't look back till I got to the end of the 1300ft race. When I did, I saw that I'd smoked these guys by a mile. The next race I decided to have a little fun with them. I got the holeshot easily then let off the throttle and waited for them both to sail past me, now I punched the throttle again I quickly over took them and still ended up with a 6-7 sled length lead. These Dalton weights, new belt, shim and secondary adjustments are deffinately worth while.

The first day we travelled 185 miles to a town called La Tuque where we spent the night. Then on the way back the second day, about 100 miles into our trip, I came around a corner in a wooded section of trail, but when I went to slowly accelerate the engine reved freely and there was a clunking sound from my driveshaft area. Upon closer inspection we could see that as we turned the secondary clutch by hand that under the sled inside the tunnel, there was a output collar from the diamond drive that was also turning but the actual driveshaft was not. Its like the diamond drive is still OK but the driveshaft is stripped where it slides into the gear box. Great, only 1400 miles on the machine and I get to be towed by a Polaris. We made it to some town called Saint Tit (fitting isn't it) where I managed to find some guy to pay $150 to haul my sled back to my truck in his van. Off to the dealer I go this morning, hope its a quick easy fix. :doh:

Dropped the sled off at the dealer, sounds like I'll be getting a new diamond drive and drive shaft. Arctic cat wants any defective Diamond Drive related stuff returned untouched for them to inspect. No parts can be ordered till Monday and won't probably show up till Wednesday. Great, just when we finally get some snow.

Has anyone else broken one of these things or heard of any reason for the failure? There are three locking balls and a splined driveshaft that transfer the power from the Diamond Drive to the track, somewhere in this conection was the failure.

It almost sounds like the sungear going to the plantary gears has been damaged, I don't know about this sled first the performance issue now these DD are falling apart before 2 thousand miles, good luck pronine keep us posted..

I have a ZR 900 04 same exact problem you have. Only mine has 534 miles. Waiting for sha ft. I hope this dosnt keep happining

Hey DuramaxZR900, sounds like were twins or something. I drive a GMC dually Duramax with the Allison transmission and we broke the same sled. Maybe if you quit breaking stuff, I'll start having better luck too. Good luck with your repair, hope they have lots of driveshafts in stock, sounds like this could become all too common. :banghead: Can you spell RECALL

HAHA same truck here too.. The shaft is on back order but the dealer thought they could get it somehow...will know more monday I will keep you guys posted

Im confused hear. One said he is getting a new unit because AC want to inspect failures.One is getting parts only.Is its because it is only the drive shaft on that machine?

I have a 04 DD also - only 600 miles so far piped, ported, reed,timing and mega bites, guess I should keep my fingers crossed due to the extra power applied to these part----- keep a tow rope handy I guess!!

If you look at that coller that comes off the DD and splines onto the driveshaft, you will see a grease fitting there. Looks to me that it is there to keep the splines lubricated. I pumped mine full before I even rode the sled with synthetic grease and after reading these posts about the splines stripping I think I'll do that again!
I'am an Automotive Transmission Mechanic by trade and I've seen unlubricated splines stripped out with very low mileage from lack of proper lubrication. Could be the problem here IMO.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune Pronine, from what i've seen at this point I think the DD seems super strong. There were 3 04 9's at a local radar run this weekend, my brothers, Bossho's and another friend of ours. The 04's seemed to be spanking the competition. My brother in law has 160 of the 45 deg. carbide ice picks and the damn sled comes of the line like an open mod sled, on ice your totally at the mercy of the sled. In 660 ft. he got 91mph, if the DD was gonna break i think it would of broke this weekend I think after witnessing this Bossho would say the same hehe. Bossho has a pretty sweet running 04 900 as well, if i remember correctly he picked up a good 4-5mph in 660ft with just some secondary adjustments. What was your fastest time Boss, it was upper 80's right?

Allstocks reccomendation to lube the splined driveshaft often might be a good idea, I'd been lubing the regular grease zerks on the rear suspension every 500 miles or so, but it wasn'ty till after the failure that I noticed the one on the driveshaft collar. It certainally can't hurt to keep it full of grease , atleast maybe you can slow down the inevitable.

What are the longest studs that you can run in a ZR? 1.475?

I saw my sled disassembled on Tuesday. The failure was deffinately not due to the Diamond Drive but rather a driveshaft issue. The tubular driveshaft slides over a splined shaft from the diamond drive, then a grease collar goes over this connection. My driveshaft broke into two pieces where the connection is made about one 1 1/2inches from the end of the shaft. Then it looks as though the remaining splined part of the shaft took the torque for a while then strippped, damaging the end of the diamond drive output at the same time. I doubt if more grease would have made any difference,, hopefully it was a faulty shaft from the beginning. I guess we'll know as more of you start getting higher mileage on your sleds. Should be up and running thursday with any luck, fingers crossed.

I would expect a recall on these drivshafts if they keep failing. I'm going on a thousand miles with mine. Pack your tow ropes. :banghead:

Hey Pronine,
What adjustments did you make to your secondary? I have a zr

900 sno pro that doesn't run near as well as it should.