FireHead

I still don't see how you do not get a huge amount toe in on suspension compression and toe out when the suspension droops. Chainsaw, I know it's alot to ask, especially when I am not a potential buyer of the kit, but could you take a picture of the bike with the suspension in bump and droop positions? I have to still be missing something here, if you are saying that the steering stays the same during suspension cycling. I still question the brackets integrity a bit, especially the lower brackets that carry most of the suspension load. The brackets simply do not transmit the load in a reasonable manner to the frame. Whether they will break during use or not could still be up for debate though. My main concern with the lower bracket is the proximity of the bolt hole to the included radius on top of the bracket. In other words, the load path goes right through an area that does not have any material there. Without spending too much time on this right now it is safe to safe that a reasonable load the would travel though both the lower a-arm brackets would be 2400lbs. without considering the compliance of the shock. The area that I questioned on the lower brackets surely will not last very long with that sort of load on them. Once again though, maybe I am missing something. :ermm:

The Tri-Z with the engine that was all polished out is the one I was thinking of. Although I would be happy to look at pictures of the other Tri-Z's you had as well. :thumbsup:

There is alot of informtion there that I had not been able to get an a good handle on previously. It certainly sounds like JJ&A are one of the best places to get an axle from. How are they with honoring their lifetime warranty (I ask because of LSR's interesting interpretation of a lifetime warranty (i.e. they only honor it if they want to on a given day))? The gun drilling of the drag and hill shooter axles is definitely attractive. It is commonly accepted that the center 20% of a round shaft does not contribute to strength or stiffness in an appreciable manner. With that said a 19mm hole in a 40mm axle is more than 20%. I am assuming they are drilling a 19mm hole due to tooling or machine issues, but I don't know that as a fact. I have seen the LSR axle in person and thought, at the time, that the splined area of the shaft looked a little questionable with regard to it's resilience. Splining aluminum is certainly ok to do, but you generally need to use a large format spline form, which it doesn't seem that LSR has done. I am generally an opponent of putting keys in anything if I have a choice, but it seems that the better axles will be keyed, so I will have to live with it. I suppose that I should probably refine my pesonal requirements for use of the axle. With regard to light duning, I think that it will be limited to transport to and from the hill, that's it. With that said, how well do these axles hold up to whoops on the hill? It is pretty clear that the pure drag axle is not going to work for me at this point. Lastly (for this post), I do not care much for Fireball Racing either, but for slightly different reasons. I have had had several opportunities to do business with them in the past (twice in person), but I never bought anything from them due to them clearly not telling me the truth with regard to how, where, and who made particular parts they were selling. I don't really care who made the parts or where they were made if they were honest about it, but they chose to claim that they make everything they sell at their facility. Once you look at their facility and what's in it, it becomes obvious that isn't the truth. Past that, when I confronted the customer service representatives (for lack of a better job title) regarding this, they told me that I didn't know what I was talking about and that their engineers and manufacturing people were the best in the world. The reality is that their facility has a couple of small used up HAAS CNC machines, a couple manual mills and lathes, and one welder. With regard to the people working there, it seemed that besides the sales force there were really only two guys that woked in the shop. I would write all this off if it was just one person who was feeding me the bad info from the comapny, but it was three people. I don't know what is going on with that company and I am sure that I will never talk to them again to find out. :shoothead:

I would like to point out that if you were to search this forum for more information on this subject that you will finda thread where your question has already been fully answered. In doing that, I think it was agreed that if the screws are properly installed on the VF2's that there is no chance of the screws coming out and getting into the engine during use. :thumbsup:

I probably will wind up having a controversal opinion on this. Where do you ride primarily? If you keep the air box, you need to buy a Pro Design Pro Flow filter kit. Unless all you ride on is the sand dunes or drag strip, I think the stock air box with the Pro Design kit and the lid removed is the best all around filter setup. :ohmy: No we'll see who disagrees with me and tries to verbally park a car in my ass.

If you have crap coming out of the carb boot, you may very well have an air leak. Putting regular hose clamps on them is ok, but the stock clamps should be satisfactory. As for the oil coming out of the exhaust, what ratio of gas to oil are you useing? What type of oil are you using? Have you noticed the level of the gear oil in the transmission dropping lately? Is your bike jetted correctly?

While that isa great idea and looks very nice, I think Dinner was looking for the least amount of work/free taillight solution. :laugh:

I may have made a couple misleading statements in this thread, now that I look at what I wrote again. The pistons look completely normal with the obvious exception of the malformed crown of one piston cause by the suspected lean condition. Since you haven't done any work to this engine before (I am assuming) it would probably good to fully measure and inspect your cylinders. There seems to be alot of ridiculously bad machine work that has been popping up around here lately (it's always out there it's just a matter of the frequency of it causing problem). Doing the inspection is a good way not to be a victim in this scenario. :thumbsup:

There are two things you have to deal with at El Mirage (it seems to me it's at like 1500 feet or something like that). The first is that it's not a sea level like Pismo and Glamis are (Pismo obviously is at sea level , but Glamis is approximately at sea level). The second thing is that El Mirage is a bit trcky to get traction on and even though it may not seem like it, your tires will slip a little to alot under acceleration. The remedies to these respective issues are correct jetting and proper tires and tire inflation. How is the lake bed up there? Is it dry yet? I haven't been out there yet this year. I am sure I will get out there for one of the SCTA weekends with some of the boys from my work. :thumbsup:

Do the classics look like the '03'ish trucks?

There is a Wanted section in the HQ further down the forum index. You should probably post this there so as to avoid verbal abuse. :thumbsup:

I would like to talk about aluminum drag axles. I can read about them all day long on the internet, but it seems that this is one of the parts that personal experience mean just as much as manufacturer specifications and claims. We can either speak directly to my personal application or we can talk in general about the axles, it doesn't really matter to me. My application involves my recently purchased modified stock frame that I plan to do some hill shooting, a bit of 1st gear dune cruising (not fast and not overly rough), and I might campaign the bike around to a few sand drag events. With that said, here are the minimum discussion points that I would us like to cover: :woot: 1.)Who makes aluminum drag axles and where can you buy them? (JJ&A and Lonestar are the companies that I familiar with that actually make axles. I know Mod Quad sells the axles, but I am not sure if the make them. It seems many people put their names on the axles, but only a few are making them.) 2.)What are the different types of aluminum drag axles and what are their respective benefits? (Using JJ&A as an example, they make several drag axles for Banshees.) 3.)What are the maximum operating envelopes for each type of aluminum drag axle? (For example, how much power can they take? How hard can they be ridden before breaking? Etc.) 4.)How much do each of the drag axles cost? Also with this point, which axle is the best value and which axle is the cheapest? 5.)How much do the axles weigh? 6.)Are there any other things that one might need to know before choosing an aluminum drag axle or using an aluminum drag axle? 7.)Other than weight savings, what are the advantages of running an aluminum drag axle over an aftermarket steel axle?

Can you post a picture of you shocks or a picture of shocks that are like yours? I am not sure which type of preload adjuster you have. I think works has used a couple different kinds over the years. :thumbsup: Just to make sure that you and others learn while enjoying their time on the HQ, iwould like to make sure that you understand what the preload adjustment is used for. You correct in assuming that the preload on both front shocks should be near the same. With that said, the preload effects ride height and weight balance. It really doesn't have much to do with how heavy you are. One might adjust the preload to set the ride height of your bike, which is pretty self explanatory. One might also adjust the preload if you were trying to make sure the weight of the bike is distributes evenly across all of it's axles. For example, if you had scales (chassis corner weight scales or in most ATV enthusiast's case, bathroom scales) under each tire, you would add or subtract to one or both of the front shocks so that all the scales read close to the same weight. In some cases a front to rear 50/50 weight split is not desired, then you would be looking to balance the front wheels equal to each other on the scales and then adjust the front to rear weight bias with the preload adjustment on the rear shock. There is a pretty good chance what I just wrote does not make sense, so let me know what parts you don't understand and we can work from there. :thumbsup:

Having the coolant in the jugs when you put the engine ice in, is not a problem. :thumbsup:

Dude.............no fat chicks. I haven't spiraled down into stereotypical engineer hygene yet, so I still have the luxury of not hooking up with fat chicks.

Chainsaw, let me probably be the first person to welcome you to the HQ. Do you still have the Tri-Z that you were going nuts on awhile ago? You should post up some pictures of that thing. It was pretty cool. I will apologize a bit for crawling up you ass on this previously. I still don't think much of the kit, but based on what I have read on the 3 Wheeler World and 3Wheeler.org you have reasonably good idea of what you are talking about. Can you post a picture of the steering rod extenders? I am still trying to figure out how the kit can widen the suspension in that manner and not generate a huge amount of toe in and out during suspension travel. I can sort of see the inboard end of the steering rods in the pictures you posted, but I can't see how the steering has been corrected. I notice that you are running stock brake lines with this kit. Do they get stretched to hell or is there enough length in the stock lines to cover the wider front end? As for the kit making the bike ride smoother, it's a definite possibility I suppose. I don't know exactly what an OEM Banshee shock was setup for, but it doesn't seem to be a stock Banshee with a 95th percentile male rider. :geek:

Ahh, I did not realize that. That sort of idiot proofs it a bit. :thumbsup:

I agree. However, the assumption you have to make is that the cylinders were machined correctly in the fisrt place. :thumbsup:

Did you post pictures of your cylinder that I missed? If your cylinders look ok then maybe a new piston and rings will get your compression back up if the cylinder was machined correctly. :thumbsup:

Adjusting the preload in the springs is purely a ride height and weight distribution technique. All it does is index the spring in relation to the shock body. It does not change the spring rate. :geek:

I think you touched upon the main difference between Engine Ice and Water Wetter. If you don't need freeze protection then Water Wetter is just as good of a product. :geek:

It really depends on how you ride it and how you take care of it. Of course, how much you modify it also factors in to the equation. I have had a new top end last 2 hours and I have had one last 4 years. :thumbsup:

Between Engine Ice and Redline Water Wetter you will see a small increase in cooling efficiency. There are alot of factors involved with effectively cooling a Banshee. No matter what Engine Ice is a high quality coolant. Whether you will acutally be able to see a physical difference on a gauge or otherwise, maybe or maybe not. :thumbsup:

That's all I had to do. I didn't say anything because I have those IMS pegs that I thought might make the brake pedal situation better. :thumbsup:

This is the thread you are talking about. Slightly off topic: I think I figured out why there is a price difference between the Mod Quad units and the PD units. The Mod Quad units are apparently made out of aluminum and the PD units are made of stainless steel. :geek: http://www.bansheehq.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=75245