Banshee build

[valin]

I just picked up another project.......1997 Banshee. It's rough.........it was cheap.....and it'll rock when I'm done.

The motor is going to be a 4mm stroker, ported cylinders, with a coolhead, on 33mm carbs. It is going to be a 91 octane pump gas motor. It should be fun.

The frame, swingarm, a-arms (if I keep the stock ones), cases and cylinders are going to be gloss black. The rear carrier, and front and rear hubs will be bright red. Plastics will be black, black nerfs, basically everything will be black. Pipes and clutch cover will be chrome. Water pump cover, stator cover, intake manifolds, and coolhead will be billet. Front bumper will be polished aluminum.

All of the black and red will be powdercoated. I am going to get set up and this will be my first powder coating project, so hopefully it turns out decent.

On with the pictures. Today I stripped everything down to the frame. The frame was originally silver, but painted over with black, which was all chipping and peeling. Isn't she a beauty? LOL....

I just placed the plastics on the bike. They are not actually mounted, which is why they look all warped.

Last pic......had to capture the 1136 in there a bit

 

[valin]

I took a rack of 33's from an SRX that I had laying around and modified it so I can use them on this project. I took them all apart, cut the shafts, and narrowed the spacing to 4" center to center. I kept the factory throttle and choke assemblies on them. These should work quite nicely on the Shee. They only come with 26's, and that just seems wrong......

 

[valin]

I bought these last week for this project for a great price. An absolutely mint set of chrome Toomey T5's, and billet mounts (which are not pictured), for $300 shipped, total. I did not want the spark arrestors that are pictured on the silencers, so they will just come with the end caps that are pictured above the silencers.

 

[T.S.U.Filmz]

this will be one fun shee

 

[jabber800]

Ryan good luck!! You have your work cut out for you.. After seeing it in person I think the pics make it look good.. LOL Give me a call, I found the book with all the powder coating info you where asking about..

 

[amatosrx]

looks good i have a 4 mill shee they are fun do you have the sparkys for the t 5 for sale. if you need any help let me know i know banshees well.

 

[valin]

looks good i have a 4 mill shee they are fun do you have the sparkys for the t 5 for sale. if you need any help let me know i know banshees well.

I did not take the spark arrestors with the pipes. The guy wanted additional money.

Well, it looks like I am going to do a stock stroke motor now. The crank deal fell through, and I don't want to spend the additional $400 for the crank.

Here's the cylinder head that I picked up with 21cc domes. It's a Pro Design Cool Head. I picked it up for $130, shipped with the domes and head studs.

Here's the actual head I purchased:

 

[valin]

Ryan good luck!! You have your work cut out for you.. After seeing it in person I think the pics make it look good.. LOL Give me a call, I found the book with all the powder coating info you where asking about..

Piece of cake.....

Of course the pictures made it look good.....they were from 3 miles away! Here's the pic that was sent to me......

 

[YA*AM*A*HEAD]

nice shee val ....you got to do a write up on modifying the srx carbs to fit ..i have 3 extra sets laying around i would love to put the srx carbs on mine ...share the secret ...lol let me know if you need any parts ....i got a set of 450 arms you can put on it and make the front end wider ...

 

[valin]

well hook me up! I need some arms!

 

[YA*AM*A*HEAD]

hookin a brother up get me a address to send then to ,,,

 

[valin]

Thanks alot Rich. Those are going to be a big improvement. Now I have to find some front YZF shocks....

 

[valin]

Ok. Everything is at the powdercoater right now. Well, not everything, but alot of stuff is.

The frame, swingarm, steering post, front spindles, pegs, motor mounts, and chain adjusters are going gloss wet black.

The carrier, sprocket hub, rear brake rotor hub, and rear wheel hubs are going bright red.

They should be done by the end of next week.

 

[valin]

It's time for tires!

I ordered a set of ITP Holeshots for this build because they are a light tire, and are cheap. The distributor screwed up and ended up sending me a full set of Maxxis Razr 2's. The Razr's are quite a bit more expensive, and are alot more durable since they are a 6 ply tire. The fronts are only about 1/2 lb heavier than the Holeshots, but the rears are nearly 4 lbs heavier. Hopefully that doesn't hurt the performance too much. They gave them to me for the same price as the Holeshots, which ended up being less than $250, Cdn., out the door. Good deals.

Fronts are 21x7x10's, and the rear's are 20x11x9's. I'm not crazy about the yellow lettering, but that's a small matter on a big ship.

 

[valin]

Picked up a few other small things. Slowly, it's coming together. There isn't much left that I need to pick up. All these small things add up! I still have to pick up rear swingarm and carrier bearings and seals, and the steering post bearing and seals. I also need to get brake and clutch levers, but i'm dragging my feet on them. They aren't cheap.

Chain slider and roller kit from Modquad - not cheap at $71, but I needed it. Mine are pooched.

Billet exhaust clamps - $30

Billet ear parking brake blockoff - $9

OEM throttle assembly with billet cap - $30. Mine came with a twist throttle setup, and I did not want to run it, so I picked this up.

 

[valin]

Now, I'm into a dilemma. Rich (YA*AM*A*HEAD) is sending me the front a-arms from a YFZ450, which is going to help out the handling of the bike quite a bit. They are 2" wider and about 1" further forward. I need to get shocks still ( I had to anyways if I were running the stock arms ).

So...........should I run the YFZ 450 stock front shocks, or should I opt and pick up these:

Elka Dune edition shocks for the YFZ 450. They look 100% better than the YFZ shocks, and have all the adjustments for rebound and compression. They sell for about $500 US, and there's a set I can pick up for $350. A pair of YFZ shocks would run me about $200 to buy, plus I would have to powdercoat the springs black to match the frame, so they'd probably end up running me roughly $250, so I am trying to decide if the Elka's are worth the money. On looks alone, the Elka's win, hands down. They are going to be a better shock, but enough to justify the additional cost? I'm still up in the air, but I am leaning towards the Elka's. Here's the pics:

Elka Dune Edition front shocks:

And here's the stock front YFZ 450 shocks:

 

[valin]

ARGH!!!!!!!!! Bad news today with the build.

I pulled the motor apart today, just for the hell of it. Actually, I had a bit of play on the kick starter rod, so I thought I'd look into it just to be safe. When I pulled the clutch cover off, I found the plastic gear that runs the water pump impeller completely sheared in half. There was fresh oil in the bottom end, and no traces of this lovely white plastic gear anywhere. Obviously this was covered up. Jackasses!
Anyways, I pulled the motor right down to the crank. Everything looks good inside in terms of gears and clutch, but then comes the crank. There is too much play in one of the rod bearings for my liking, so I won't run this crank. This was an expense I was not hoping to have. Also, the bonehead that put this motor together last used high temp orange silicone to put the cases together. I've never seen anything like it. There was silicone in every nook and cranny inside that motor. The oil retainer holes inside the crankcase were blocked by silicone, and 1/2 the water jackets were as well. It is freakin' rediculous. Some people just shouldn't put motors together. I also notice that there was an excessive amount of oil in the bottom end of the motor, so I'm guessing he oiled the hell out of the crank to cover up the bad rod bearing. Also, damn near every bolt was badly worn, so I fought like an SOB trying to get this motor apart, and one of the base bolts was completely stripped.

Ok, enough venting. I'm going now to find a crank, and it will now be a 4mm stroker.

 

[bluewho]

Did you hear they are going to build a motersport park close to sudbury?

 

[valin]

Yes. It is going to be near our Airport, and the government just gave them a $62,000 grand for a feasibility study. This is going to be awesome for us!

There is supposed to be a kart track, 1/4 drag strip, mud bogs, dirtbike/atv track, and a road coarse for cars and bikes. I really hope this goes through. I've got my fingers crossed!

 

[bluewho]

Dave was telling me about it.We are going to try for a demoderby up there when this is done.Plans for ice drags and i think the waterslide park in chelmsford might move there.Heres hopeing it all goes well.