dadude Posted October 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2005 (edited) Took it to a shop guy tried to fire it right up checked it out and thinks it's the firing coil, he said it's either something electric or it isn't getting gas. He's gonna start with the obvious and go from there. He checked the spark plugs and put good ones in, it's not even firing. Hopefully it's something small. Edited October 23, 2005 by dadude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallrat Posted October 24, 2005 Report Share Posted October 24, 2005 2 strokes are super simple to work on but a shop will charge you top dollar. My advice is to pick it back up and learn to work on it yourself. Everybody on this forum was like you at one time. Engines are daunting at first but really easy once you start to understand them - especially 2 strokes. Pick up a Clymers manual and a compression tester. Both run about $25-$30. There's 4 things that your engine needs to start: compression, fuel, air, and fire. I like to check the easy stuff first since 9x outta 10 its an easy fix. Here's how to narrow it down a bit... Check your compression by removing 1 spark plug and screwing the tester into the plug hole. With the fuel and kill switch off, kick it over a few times with the throttle wide open until the tester gauge won't go up anymore. Write down that number. Now do the same thing for the other cylinder. Find out your altitude for your location by using google or yahoo as altitude will affect your pressure. Post the 2 numbers you got for your compression. Ideally you wanna do this with the engine warm but we'll know if your rings are shot even by doing it cold. If the compression is good, the next step is to make sure you've got fuel. So turn off the gas and pull off the fuel hoses at the carbs (just follow the hose from the fuel petcock down past the T to where they plug into the carbs. Turn on the gas briefly to make sure you have fuel dumping out of both tubes. If you do, hook em back up. We'll worry about the possibility of gunked up carbs later. Next check for spark. Take out 1 plug and then plug it back into the plug boot. With the fuel off and the kill switch on, wrap a rag around the plug so you don't get shocked. Touch the metal part of the plug to bare metal on the head bolt so that you have it grounded and have somebody kick the bike over. Make sure you're not close to the plug hole or u might get some flame. You should see it sparking. If you don't try moving it around a little since sometimes you don't get the best ground on the first try. Do this for the other plug as well. Post that too. Do these 3 things and let us know what you find. We'll be able to help more from there. Also where are you located? There might be a member near you willing to help out. This is especially handy if its an electrical issue since you can swap parts out to narrow down which part it is. Oh and if its low compression, you don't always need new pistons. Sometimes you just need new rings, which for everything will cost you less than $50 if you do it yourself. With a clymers manual it'll take you about 2-3 hours to replace the rings your first time. Eventually it'll be a 45 min job, if that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fast500#12 Posted October 24, 2005 Report Share Posted October 24, 2005 i see on the inital post "when i bought it " was it brand new. if that is the case did you do a proper breakin. if not then you may have messed up your top end real bad. most brand new bikes that arn't broke in are hard to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dadude Posted October 25, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2005 (edited) far from new it's a 2k1. I feel reliable after a guy who works on two strokes/motors and know alot about them is going to fix it. he said it had nothing to even do with the motor tried the spark plugs and tested them on kick even new ones weren't firing. He hopes it's like the firing coil or something simple like that. Basically one of two things. not getting gas for some reason or it's something electrical. Since it was runnng find the night before i'm hoping it something very simple and small. The guy will get to finish start looking at it at the end of this week so i'll see. The guy knew how to crank the banshee right up and we know first hand he know his stuff so I believe th guy will get it knocked out real soon. He's like and individual and works on mowers and god know what else. He supposedly has his stuff down. With him totally rulling out the engine pretty much beeing the problem not even firing i'm hoping that's all it is. I'll know more as the end of the week nears. Edited October 25, 2005 by dadude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dadude Posted October 25, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2005 2 strokes are super simple to work on but a shop will charge you top dollar. My advice is to pick it back up and learn to work on it yourself. Everybody on this forum was like you at one time. Engines are daunting at first but really easy once you start to understand them - especially 2 strokes. Pick up a Clymers manual and a compression tester. Both run about $25-$30. There's 4 things that your engine needs to start: compression, fuel, air, and fire. I like to check the easy stuff first since 9x outta 10 its an easy fix. Here's how to narrow it down a bit... Check your compression by removing 1 spark plug and screwing the tester into the plug hole. With the fuel and kill switch off, kick it over a few times with the throttle wide open until the tester gauge won't go up anymore. Write down that number. Now do the same thing for the other cylinder. Find out your altitude for your location by using google or yahoo as altitude will affect your pressure. Post the 2 numbers you got for your compression. Ideally you wanna do this with the engine warm but we'll know if your rings are shot even by doing it cold. If the compression is good, the next step is to make sure you've got fuel. So turn off the gas and pull off the fuel hoses at the carbs (just follow the hose from the fuel petcock down past the T to where they plug into the carbs. Turn on the gas briefly to make sure you have fuel dumping out of both tubes. If you do, hook em back up. We'll worry about the possibility of gunked up carbs later. Next check for spark. Take out 1 plug and then plug it back into the plug boot. With the fuel off and the kill switch on, wrap a rag around the plug so you don't get shocked. Touch the metal part of the plug to bare metal on the head bolt so that you have it grounded and have somebody kick the bike over. Make sure you're not close to the plug hole or u might get some flame. You should see it sparking. If you don't try moving it around a little since sometimes you don't get the best ground on the first try. Do this for the other plug as well. Post that too. Do these 3 things and let us know what you find. We'll be able to help more from there. Also where are you located? There might be a member near you willing to help out. This is especially handy if its an electrical issue since you can swap parts out to narrow down which part it is. Oh and if its low compression, you don't always need new pistons. Sometimes you just need new rings, which for everything will cost you less than $50 if you do it yourself. With a clymers manual it'll take you about 2-3 hours to replace the rings your first time. Eventually it'll be a 45 min job, if that. 429111[/snapback] Wallrat, I just got to read this and woah thanks for so much info. Atleast I know other stuff to check and what to do when rebuild time comes! thanks a bunch. After I find out what the shop guy says and if it's a small fix i'll then start checking my compression myself and get a tool. The guy said it wasn't even firing to the engine and tried new sparks. He said it could be the firing coil or electric, hopefully that is all. Then i'll know how sound my baby is, wish my luck guys. I will know more closer towards the end of the week, can't wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2003LimitedBanshee Posted October 26, 2005 Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 I have to wonder if it might be the stator. I had a bad situation with two screws backing out of the stator. Noticed while riding the dunes at night that the lights seemed to be crapping out, took a lot of revs to get sufficient light. Rode the next morning, was running like a champ. Took a break for lunch, then no fire at all. Tore it down and found the stator. Ran to the shop, replaced and then fired first kick. I'd have him pull the stator and check it out if he knows his stuff. Otherwise you can check it yourself easy enough if you have a multimeter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justintoxicated Posted October 26, 2005 Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 (edited) yea you can check all the coils on the stator without even pulling it out. You can jsut check them at he plug clymers tell you exactly how to do it. take a whole 5 minutes. The wires in the plug go to you CDI, the yellow and black are for your lighting. If it's not the stator then you have eliminated 1/3rd of all the electrical...Ten it's just CDI and ignition. You can test spark as described above... The Parking Brake is not stuck on right? That will cause your banshee not to idle. It might be something simple like that. most of us have replaced our parking brakes and unpluged the TORS system...I know it sounds intimidateing but if this guy knows banshee it would take him about 5 minutes to unplug your tors and screw around with the parking brake. Also I hope you didn't go runnign around with the stock air filter! Better check your air filter it's in the plastic box under the seat...The stock one tends to not seal properly and allow crap to get into your motor. Better replace that ASAP. The stock one is a POS! Need to lern to clean your filters allt he tiem anyways so why not check it out. Edited October 26, 2005 by Justintoxicated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2003LimitedBanshee Posted October 26, 2005 Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 Sorry my bad... I should have explained that the stator could be checked while installed, just as justintoxicated said. I pulled mine because I had to run it down to the stealership, since I didn't have my multimeter with me at camp, plus I figured it was certainly the stator. With the symptoms my money is on the stator, but with a no spark condition you can toss out possible flooding. The good news is that both the stator and coil can be bench tested to determine if they are at fault. If they both test out, that leaves the CDI, under a no spark condition. If you can find a buddy with a bike I would recommend swapping his CDI to see if that fixes the problem, cuz new ones are pretty expensive, and usually non-returnable, so you bought it whether it fixes it or not. Good Luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallrat Posted October 26, 2005 Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 If it has no spark then its not a fuel issue. This guy should know that. I mean yeah it could also have some kind of fuel issue, but the reason why its not gonna run right now is electrical. Luckily the elec. system on the shee is very simple and easy to diagnose. You could check out every possible culprit in less than 30 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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