Nick_R_23

Most seats you want to start out in the middle, then rear, then front, then finish off the corners. However, I found it best with this seat to tack the middle of the sides first, then tack the center of the rear, and finish off the rear corners, tack the front/top, then do the 'wave' part in the front, I had to re-tack this area several times before I had all the wrinkles out. Then just go around and finish off the in between areas. Heat/blow dryer is your best friend when trying to smooth the wrinkles. This guide is a great place to start, lots of good info and tips, courtesy of www.cosmicquads.com (Great site, they do awesome work!!) You might need to register to view the pics, but its well worth it for the info. http://3wheelerworldforums.com/showthread.php?t=90587 -Nick

No idea on the handlebars...thats what was on there when I bought it. I know its not meant for the banshee as the adjustment slits on the bar sticks out past the handlebar clamps. I do like the feel of them though. Im not going to cut the front plastics since I need all the coverage I can get on the trails up here!! Plus Im not a big fan of cut plastics myself, I have an 86 200x with cut rears and I wish they hadent been cut. If I rode in the sand I might consider cutting them. I like the look of them on your machine though, looks very clean!! -Nick

Before with the ugly purple cover with black paint all over it: After with the new cover: I have a blue tank and rad covers coming so those pink ones will be off soon. -Nick

On the banshee Im rebuilding, I think someone already did the TORS removal. None of the electrical parts are there, throttle is siliconed, and carbs have none of that extra crap on them. The stuff thats on the carbs now (caps, throttle cable) look like the Vito's TORS removal kit. The problem is, the throttle cable is missing some part in the middle and the idle screws are confusing me. I read that the carbs must be drilled and tapped for the idle screws and I think somebody may have screwed up. One of the carbs has the idle screw, and the thread size is M6x0.75. The other carb is missing its idle screw, but the threads where it would go are M8x1.0, which is obviously a lot larger. Did someone mess this up?? What do I do now? -Nick

Thanks for the compliments guys! Its not a pre-sewn cover, its just a raw sheet of marine vinyl from a fabrics store. Ive done a few seats before but like I said this one was by far the hardest one yet, because of the corners/wave and the tall front. My uncle used to do this for a living and Ive gotten tips from other guys who are pros at this so that helps out a lot. It starts to get easier once you do a few, and kind of pick up on certain tricks. -Nick

Black it is then!! :beer: This is by far the hardest seat Ive ever recovered, very tricky to get the wrinkles out and wrap the cover around the corners. Heat helped a ton in this situation. Foam was good, a little damp but it dried overnight. Only part that needed a little buildup was one of the rear corners (had to cut off some moss growing there) so I put a small bit of foam and used the Mosh's tape trick and you cant even tell its there!! Took forever and no less then a million tries to get all the wrinkles out but Im pretty happy with the results!! What do you think?? -Nick

Im going to recover the seat on my banshee. Its going to be all one color, and Im thinking about doing it in blue or black. I have all blue plastics, silver frame/swinger/a-arms/rims. Would you guys do blue or black or even another color with this setup?? If you have a shee with blue plastics, you can throw up a pic of it that shows the seat, Id like to see what it'd look like before I went and bought materials. Thanks! -Nick

You wont be able to rebuild your own crank. You would need a bearing puller, press, and the ability to true the crank once its put back together. 99% of the people out there dont have the access to these tools and/or the ability to do this. Im one of those guys that does everything in my own shop and doesnt let anyone else touch my rides, but I still send out my cranks to the local shop for any work I need done to them. -Nick

Ill throw in my .02, take it for what its worth. My 1986 ATC 250R has a milled head, and requires race gas. In Alaska you can imagine how far I have to go to get it and how much it costs on top of that, no way Im paying that much. I live like a mile across from the airport, and so I have as much 100LL at my disposal as I can buy. I decided to try using AVgas in the 250R, I mix it with Klotz SuperTechniplate at 25:1 and so far Ive been impressed and havent had any problems, Ive been using this for almost 2 years now, and have taken the machine on long trips (50+ miles at a time). Ive noticed better gas mileage and the engine burns cleaner. Smells awesome too. -Nick

Im just going to throw this out there...First engine I ever rebuilt, was a 1977 Yamaha YZ80. I fully rebuilt that thing and was pretty proud of myself. I rode it around for a day or so and then out of nowhere it locks up, good thing I was slowing down in about 2nd gear. I tried the kick starter and it was seized completely. So I took it home and pulled the clutch cover off and come to find out I forgot to tighten down the clutch spring bolts, and each of them had unscrewed themselves and caught on the clutch cover, 'seizing' the engine and putting a crack in the clutch cover that just about split it in half. -Nick

Yeah, I know theres no gasket in the cases. They didnt use the case sealant though, the entire thing was RTV silicone. And not a good job either, it was overflowing everywhere, the crank bearings were full of it and so was pretty much everthing else. I think I mustve scraped 2 or 3 tubes of it off!! :yelrotflmao: The cases are clean because I just got back from cleaning them off for 2 hours with the parts washer. This thing was a mess when I first split the cases. -Nick

Well I brought the engine inside and started tearing it down. I couldnt believe what I saw. If I could find the guy who 'rebuilt' this motor I would rip his nuts off. The whole thing was really half assed together, no gaskets at all, just 100% silicone. Not only that, there was silicone over a different kind of silicone in some places. The center crank bearings had a bunch of it in them, no wonder that crank gave out. They also didnt bother lining up the bearing pins, just stucked the crank in and crammed it together. The whole bottom case was lined with sludge. And more silicone. Almost half the case screws had stripped heads and every single one required an impact driver to remove them. (Why Yamaha used screws as case bolts is beyond me....Im replacing every one of those with a REAL bolt). And suprisingly enough, each and every screw also had silicone where it threaded in. I mustve spent over an hour with a tap cleaning out all those threads. When I was cleaning the cylinders I also found that they put silver paint on the head gasket surface...WTF?? The clutch turned out to be shot as well, the basket is grooved badly and if you grab the basket and gear its rivited to and twist, the basket rotates over 1/4" side to side on the gear. Little worn out, you think?? The rest of the clutch components look to be ok though, however I might end up replacing the fibers and steels anyway if they turn out to be too thin. On the plus side, everything else in the motor was in good shape, and the cases cleaned up very well. I already have the tranny installed, so I pretty much need to drop in a crank, and the bottom end can go together. On the clutch basket issue, what would be a good replacement one? I take it the stock ones arent all that great?? Bottom case half with tranny installed and oiled. Other case and top end Oh I almost forgot, I think this is one of the major reasons this engine went. At first I thought the shaft was bent, but I measured it and its straight. I think they put the bearing in and it wasnt perfectly straight. The impeller was rubbing on the case pretty good, Id imagine that would slow down the flow of coolant a good bit. The bearing is shot anyway so it and the seal will both be replaced. And would you look at that, more silicone!! -Nick

I think I am going to get this crank here, its low hours and came from a fairly new year. I will have it trued, welded, and probably new bearings to be safe. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...em=160313452518 -Nick

I will look into the stock crank more, and send NYUK a pm to see if he has one. I tried talking to the guy I usually have do my cranks to see what it would cost, but he wont be back until later today. I will definately get the PTO side bearing, Ive had experience with those going out on Polaris XLT engines. Since he would be pulling the bearings off anyway, would it be better if I replaced the other ones also? Edit: Looking at a parts fiche it appears that theres only 1 bearing on each end of the crank, and none in the middle, is this correct?? If so that would be awesome, I thought there was a bearing in the middle that could go out and require splitting the crank and cost a lot more. I will probably stick with a stock crank then if this is the case. -Nick