Snopro 74
Hi guys. It was a pleasure to have met you both and to have you at the Nationals in Springfield. I had a good time at the show and hope to do some shows out your way in the future. I spoke with Tom Ishe the other night and he told me you guys were building an 81 Cat snopro for you to race. I would like to see the sled run when you get it done.
I thought I would put something together that you could use if you choose to publish an article on the 74 Cat snopro. I was just in your magazine with the “playroom”, so I don’t want to be over bearing. Use your own judgment. Here’s what I can tell you, use what ever you want from it or rewrite it, whatever works.
Approximately fifteen years ago I happened to discover the whereabouts of what was believed to be a real 1974 Arctic Cat 650cc snopro in the Minnesota area… Not having seen the sled, nor did I have a picture of it, caused me to be skeptical that this was in fact a real 74 Cat snopro. I have been on so many excursions thinking I was going after a pot of gold only to find a pot of coal. I knew that the factory made every effort to destroy these sleds after the 74 season ended, so I had my doubts that this was in fact a real 74 Cat snopro. Once I received the owner’s name, I contacted him and got a description of the sled over the phone. The description given to me was dead accurate to that of a 74 snopro. I couldn’t believe what he was describing. I was given the description, condition and the price and immediately made arrangements to go pick up the sled without even receiving a photo of it… My wife and I loaded up the truck and took the northern route through Canada on route from Massachusetts to Minnesota. What a fun road trip.
Twenty-three hours later and we were there. I met the man just outside of his garage and we began to speak. I couldn’t wait to see the sled, even though I still possessed some degree of disbelief that it was in fact a real 74 Cat snopro. We finally walked into his garage and there in the corner sat a real 74 Cat snopro. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This excursion lead to a real pot of gold. It definitely needed a total restoration, but it didn’t matter. What it was became more important to me than what it needed. Both my wife and I stayed with the man for dinner, went to a hotel for the night and headed for home the next morning. The skepticism was gone and pure joy and satisfaction replaced it.
When we got home I unloaded the sled and placed it on one of the work tables. I began to survey the sled in great detail. I found that these 74 snopro sleds were unlike anything else Cat had made in the past. It was radically different from any other race or trail sled that Cat ever built. Even the serial number was different from all other Cats. On the original Arctic Enterprises tag read the number 4X00039. The bulkhead is so different that it is easily identifiable from 30 yards away. Made from all aluminum, the front axle uses different size tubes. A small connector tube is used between the frame rails and larger cone shaped tubes run from the frame rails and dramatically taper toward the spindles. The driven clutch housing has four stamped holes from top to bottom. Also, to my surprise, the driven clutch-jack shaft-chain case assembly is leaned more forward than all other Cats that used that drive system. This changes the compatibility of using these drive train components on the other Cat race sleds. The bulkhead was in very good shape. Often the curved portion of the bulkhead behind the steering post is usually ripped or dented from broken cleats. This one was perfect. What was an issue was the bends the rails took from the torque of the motor. It was decided that we build a steel table that we called a traction table. This table was dead on true so we could secure the chassis to it tightly. We then proceeded to make all the adjustments necessary to bring the chassis back to straight. It worked perfectly.
The motors in the 74 Cat snopro sleds were liquid cooled Kawasaki’s. Obviously earlier years of racing lead to heating and cooling issues and Cat decided to go with a liquid motor for the 73-74 race season. The motors all had dual ignition which sported two plugs per cylinder. The carburetors were 44mm Mikunis. The magneto housing was different in order to accommodate a water pump mounted on top of it. Aluminum coolant passage tubes ran both on top of the motor and down in front. The heads had the coil brackets cast into them to support the coils at the top of the motor. Special sheaves bolted to the magneto supported the water pump belt resulting in a special recoil cup. I was learning that this sled was so significantly different that very few components on this sled were actually used on production Arctic Cats.
The suspension was very different as well. Cat eliminated the steel cage style suspensions used on the prior EXT sleds and replaced it with aluminum slid rails. These rails were two aluminum halves riveted together to make one rail. An aluminum rear suspension arm was mounted in the rear and a small steel suspension arm was used in the front. Three idler wheels were used in the rear.
In order to keep the snopro sled cool, Cat used a small radiator mounted just in front of the motor. It was positioned at an angle so as to clear the exhaust pipes and the hood. A tin expansion tank was mounted to the steering post stanchion that directed flow of coolants to the water pump and radiator.
It took a long time to restore this sled, but it was very satisfying in the end. The sled is so different from the more standard theme of Cat racers built prior to that date. Due to the sled’s different make up has made it my favorite sled by far.
Andy Avelis
You will see some pictures of the chassis having been just painted and the bulkhead and tunnel riveted together. Another picture shows the suspension complete prior to being installed into the sled. The welds on the suspension rails are factory, indicating that they had done some modifications to the rails in order to make them fit. The motor is a liquid Kawasaki, the only liquid of the time used by Arctic Cat and Kawasaki.
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