salmon_slayer06

First mod I would do is upgrade the suspension. Second I would port the stock cylinders. Many claim that a piped, stock stroke, ported banshee with correct jetting will do some damage at the drags.

I have had a similar problem with my stator. It seemed I was getting water inside the stator cover after I washed it. I had a stator go bad on me from that happening while riding.... this happened over the fourth of july. I replaced the stator with a good OEM used one and used RTV on the cover, the gasket and the case to seal it for good. When I tore the motor down this past weekend no water in the stator. When I put the parts back on I'll be using a new stator cover gasket and black RTV on all mating surfaces. I replaced the black philips head screws for the stainless allen screws with small washers and lock washers. I used RTV on the threads too, and harness grommet.

I have the original Turf Tamers in the same wheel and tire size as what you are looking for. They are great for trail riding. The tires that come on the Honda 400exs are known to be a great tire for the banshees. These are made by Ohtsu I believe and are a soft rubber. The tamers hook okay and let you slide in the turns if you wish. I ride loose sand to hard pack dirt and sand mix. I believe STI makes a new MX tire ones with a hollow center lug, they claim to be good in all terrain. They are affordable too. Those might be my next tires. Some of the guys on here customize there tires by taking every other row of knobbies off the tire. Seems the hill cimbers do this more. The 4 snow tire is a great tire for loose sand and drag racing.

Before the reeds there wasn't an issue. I'll do a leak down once its back together. Where can I get one of these? And the rubber plugs? I don't know of anyone that would carry something like that around here. Autozone? O'reillys?

I chose to skip air leak test and tear it down. If I was building or was working on a project bike yes that would have been done. The left piston was dimpled in the middle and the exhaust side of cylinder was built up with aluminum and the top of piston on the front side was rounded. The exhaust pipe where it meets the exhaust port was built up inside with melted aluminum. The coolant had a darkish color to it. When I pulled the head off all the orings were in place, head nuts were tight. The boots looked to be in good shape I try to avoid putting any srain on those knowing they are 25 years old now. Soooo, cylinder walls on the bad one are scored. I'm at 65.5. hoping they are less than a .25mm deep to go to a 66 piston. I'm sending them to FAST since they did the port work. Hoping I get them back and on the trails for this fall. Its been a wet summer here with this weekend being the nicest one we had all summer.... go figure. Think the cases are staying together. It will be hard to sleep at night. Learned a lesson here with regards to jetting. It was a well built motor and never had issues till I dropped the new reeds in. Its good to know they flow that much more air. I will be jetting with a 170 main, 58 or 60 pilot for this fall. Tonight I plan on cleaning up my wire harness. Question, do I need the TORS installed even after the delete has been done? That weekend I was upnorth and got caught in a cold front moving in is what did her in. I had never rode that bike so hard, so fast and for so long plus the air temp dropped on top of it. Knowing the carbs were probably going to run dry I would occasionally back off, let them fill and proceed to rip. I'm going to check the impeller because something tells me it went to crap. I'll drop in one of those billet ones like I should have done before. Live and learn and work more overtime. I'll post pics of the piston....

This is a good thread, very informative and interesting. I used to work in a shop and had access to bridgeports and lathes. I did my trans mods here and worked out great. Sand blasting and so on. But when I needed my gears modded I payed a guy I knew that was a machinist for a auto company. When he wasn't busy he programmed a machine to cut all the gears on its own. I was very impressed and was done using tools that they use for designing our cars. Might be something you may want to look into. Might be a neighbor or a friend who could have a little government job at work. And I bet it will be done to utmost precision cause it will be done the easiest way possible and will likely be done on the right machine to do it.

Like i said before I checked compression on both sides. The non running side was at 30 about 7 kicks, the running/ firing side was 120 around 3 kicks done at WOT.

No tear down yet. Air leaks? WTF I used the crappy paper gaskets that came with the V4s and lightly coated them with gray rtv. I used one between cage and cylinder and cage and intake boot. I did check those screws about three times now to make sure they were still tight. Where else would the leaks be? I don't have more than 24 hours on this motor.

Installed the new V4's few weeks ago. I had the boyesen reeds and they needed to be replaced. Motor was jetted on the rich side after I built this current motor and though I'd be safe to drop main one size as well as pilot. I wanted to clean my carbs when i installed the new 4's so I did it than. So I did and noticed that she was leaner on the pilot jet on the original 1.5 air screw turns out. I had to turn it to .5 turn out to get a good rip on the throttle without there being a hesitation. I didn't think dropping the pilot one size would make it that much leaner. I figure well its good even checked plugs a few times and even when I was out on the trails. Rode great. Last trip up bike ran funny so I adjusted air screw but ended up going back to .5 turn out. Weather was much warmer than previous trip so I assumed its safe to say it should be running richer than before. I put the tools away and off I went. Not even 2 minutes down the trail I realized something was wrong. Just runniing like crap. I turned around to head back and she bogged way down, opened her up and done. Either I was plagued with the infamous melted water impeller or I ran it too lean. Coolant level didn't change and yet there was some coolant coming out of over flow hose but not spraying everywhere. One cylinder was out. At the time I figured clogged jet or bad plug connection. Swapped wires same issue. Loaded up quad and a 3 hour ride back home. Tuesday cleaned carbs, went up one on the pilot and reinstalled on wednesday. With confidence I kicked motor over with weekend plans to go riding all coming together. Nothing. Pulled plug on dead side and did the thumb over holes test.... it did blow it off. Got a compression tester and bingo..... 7 kicks no more than 30 psi. Checked other 120 ish in like 3. Motor never seized and no weird engine noises. In just the cylinder porting I have over 500 in that. Crank 400, head 250. I'm at 65.5 on bore size. I'm taking it apart this weekend to see if a top end rebuild is all I need. If its a lean issue I'm surprised. 35 keihn's pwk with a 165 main and a 55 pilot. When i had the boyesens I had 168's w/ 58 pilots and plugs were dark and just dealt with it installed new ones every trip. Motor never got hot but didn't run like i wanted till it got cooler when true colors shined. I'm probably going to get new pistons and have the cylinders just rehoned. Hoping no material got into crank. What 4mm stroker piston set should I get? The ones I have now are the vertex...... I know.... but I can't assume they are at fault till shes opened up. Sad not being able to ride this weekend. Hoping its just a head gasket.

I will be sending mine to elka during the winter to get them rebuilt and what not. According to them it needs to be done after every riding season. No way will my machines ever have leaking shocks after spending about what someone would pay for a used banshee.

I made it up this past weekend. Trails were on the wet side so she got a little dirty. Before the ride I had to adjust the air screw to dial in the jetting just so. Its the best the bike has ever ran. But still had a dead spot in the throttle I think it might be too rich in the needle so I may drop it one clip for next weekend. I think I finally got it dialed in and its a finished bike besides needing new tires soon.

That ceramic based high temp paint is good stuff. The T5's on my banshee are painted flat black. Good enough for me looks great.

just installed the 4's, had the boyesens. it does make a difference. the exhaust sounds a little different or it could be the sound coming from the intake. i did need to trim off the rubber tabs off the intake to make them fit. i used a flat razor blade like the ones used in the box cutters. THe gaskets that come with the reeds are the cheapo paper kind. I like the rubber coated gaskets that cometic makes I didn't have any more so I just coated the paper ones with a thin film of gray RTV and used a gasket between cylinder and reed cage and reed cage and intake. Also use a thread locker on the screws because you do not want this area to suck air it will ruin the motor. I'm always checking to make sure these are still tight.

its called a plug chop. You need to read the color of the ceramic on plugs in order to get the jetting correct. It appears you can also determine where in the throttle it is doing. I have no experience in this yet. I hate changing jets on my banshee. I just do it once a year when I clean the carbs. I'm getting close though. I start fat and work my way down.

Are you sure the stator is mounted to a paint free surface on the engine case? That is the ground. When I painted my cases I went and scraped off those spots. Gotta be clean there. Try that. I know it sucks taking shit apart when it was just installed very nice. Live and learn. Voltage regulator ground is near the CDI. The OEM coils are nice except for the way the wires are secured to it. I have a few extra coils and I made up my own plug wires up and just used gray RTV neatly to seal the ends in there. It acts as a suction to keep them in there and 100% water proof. OEM stators are the best and I picked up a used one for a 89 that was hard to dish the 115 bucks for but works fine......... for now. I traced my bad stator using trickedcarbine's info. OH make sure when you do install plug wires that they are actually contacting the pins in the coil, I noticed the OEM coils do have the gray sealant in there also and you need to get that out before putting new ones in.

I had T5's on a stock motor with 35 pwk keihn carbs, boyesen reeds and k&n filter with air box lid off. It was okay but was too much on the rich side so never got the full potential. Now I have same mods but with a new motor, 4 mill, ported, and advanced timing with head for 93 octane. I installed V4's just a few days ago and waiting for a weekend to take it up. Its rained every weekend this month except for the 4th and thats when the stator went out. Still waiting for a weekend for the perfect ride with this damn thing.

stator could be bad. CDI are not known to go bad, OEM coils tend to last longer than any after market coil so I lean towards something else, the engine on/off switch shouldn't matter cause it will still run if wires are cut, the key switch could be a possible problem but I doubt it. PM sent.....

Bel Ray MC-1 50:1 100% synthetic about 10 bucks a bottle.

port job alone runs $500-600

I would go up 2 sizes on the pilots. It WILL start easier. But you may foul plugs easier when idling it too much on a hot day.

I would say the pilot jet is a bit too big and or the air screw needs to be adjusted. Drop the pilot down one size or put a clean filter on to help lean it out a bit. opening the throttle is allowing more air to enter.

i switched to the cascade clamps. I made sure I used antisieze on the bolt threads. I ran her hard the first ride with them on. No jiggling tail pipes, no leaks, and look clean. I have used the high temp silicone heater hose made by Goodyear. I bought a foot of it from a go fast parts store for about 25 bucks. it worked as good maybe better but the cascade just looks better.

Fixed it. It was the stator.

I tested stator at leads and did not get continuity on the charging coils. According to clymers its the problem. I won't say its it until its running again.

Just check leads going to CDI. No continuity on blk/ white and blk with switch on. Red/ blk and blk continuity when switch on. At least I know the wire harness is good up to that point.