A brief background of myself and my love for JD sleds. ... I'm a new member of this forum, however I've been a visiting here for a long time. Back in high school (2002) I found a '73 John Deere 400 sled buried under a bunch of junk in a barn at a farm I worked on. My boss gave it to me. My friends and I cleaned it up and got it running. I really enjoyed tinkering with it and cruising it around our rural community. My friends and I all had nice new sleds but we found ourselves playing around on the vintage sleds as much or more than our newer sleds. At the time I didn't appreciate the vintage JD as much as I do now so I rode it too hard and abused it until it was basically a piece of scrap metal. When I moved out my dad took the old JD to the dump.
Recently I've gotten the itch to start collecting and tinkering with some vintage toys again. I picked up a couple of 3-wheelers and a Honda CT70 that I am in the middle of restoring. I have been keeping my eye out in our local classifieds hoping to find another John Deere snowmobile that I can fix up and actually take care of this time:) Here's what I found for $300:
A one owner '76 Liquifire 440 in very good condition. This guy bought it new and rode it for 10-15 years and then parked it in his barn covered up until now. It shows 1400 miles. So far I've only found a few minor things wrong with it (besides needing a good cleaning). The choke lever was broken, the seat doesn't stay on because the wood strips on bottom are rotten, and there are a couple small cracks in the seat cover on the back. There are also a few misc thing's that are aged that I'd like to replace.
I took the carbs apart and cleaned them out, replaced the fuel lines, got a new choke lever, and replaced the spark plugs. I also dropped the seat off to have the wood strips replaced and to have the back reupholstered. I just finished putting the carbs and stuff back together this morning and it fired right up. I can't believe how good it sounds and runs! I was really surprised at how much power this old sled actually has. I am so excited about my new sled!!! My wife is tired of me talking about it and spending all my free time online reading up on these vintage JDs.
This picture was taken the night I brought it home. After I wash it up and get the seat back I'll take more pics to show y'all the progress. I don't plan to completely restore it to perfect condition but I'd like to at least replace any parts that are missing and get it as nice as I can without spending a bunch of money. Also I don't know much about this particular model. Is there anything they are notorious for that I should watch out for? I hope I made a good purchase with this one. Thanks for looking!
It was nice talking to ya on the phone the other day. Hope that this forum can answer all your questions and help you find any parts that you'll need. The vintage JD thing is a good time. 
I looked up the Parts Unlimited # for the "passenger handles" that you asked me about, it's 13-250. That's out of an older book,but I believe it's still a good #. Good Luck! 
Tom