BenBB

...ahhh a happy ending, that's good to see. I've always had excellent customer service from RMA and recommend them.

Sounds like the venerable Warrior is getting replaced...along with the Blaster and Banshee it's been in production since like '87. Looks like times are changin' in Yamaha's lineup, and I'll bet their last two 2-stroke ATV's are next on the chopping block...

I agree with boonman, sounds like you could go up a size on the mains. Did it get colder lately? If so that's a good indication that it's lean now...

Naw, I was just sayin' I could afford to spend $40 right now to get it one done, especially if it'll help ya get there. I'm not a cheap bastard, just normally broke so I figured I'd pay a little extra for you to do it so it can go towards the road trip fund. Might be enough to get you halfway through Ohio, heh. Would you be going through PA? Wonder if we could talk Meat into going too...hell isn't Wheatchex in Ohio? I hope Fixitrod can make it. ROAD TRIP!

Looks like the key switch wiring; if so it should have a black and a black w/white stripe wire on the left side of the connector looking at the pic. Cut those off and splice them together. Then you can ditch the connector and all the wires to the right of it in the pic, and use the handlebar kill switch to kill the motor.

The j-arm frame will work, or you can make it work, but I would consider a couple things: 1. J-arm frames were on '87 to '91 (I think '91, maybe it was '90) Banshees, so keep the age thing in mind...how many hours of pounding it may have had over the years, corrosion (visible or otherwise), etc. 2. It'll be a little lighter than an a-arm frame so better for drag racing, but for anything else I would prefer a-arms. Especially if you have or wanted aftermarket a-arms for more width, durability, etc. 3. How bad is your frame now? Might be worth repairing...or waiting on a better one.

Where is it located? I'd like to see a pic of the trailer too...

Boonman, DO IT! I missed Roostfest a couple years ago when it was close (Little Sahara OK) and have been kicking myself ever since. If I have to push my Banshee across Arizona I'll be there. There's gonna be so many HQ guys there this time it's not funny...assuming they don't flake out like I did last time, heh. I'll try and get my RZ shift star off in January and send it to ya with $40, I know it's not much but I hope it'll help (decided just to do the one star for now). Wallrat, I'd love to see the pics, hope someone can post 'em. Theeechozen1, you takin' a tent or what? I was just sorta planning on taking a sleeping bag and crashing out in the truck bed, trailer, or wherever I fall over (did that at the Kermit dunes once, woke up to rain at 3am and slept the rest of the night curled up in the passenger seat of the truck). That reminds me, I gotta find my headlights and see if the bulbs are still good...

Wish I could help, but haven't ever had any trouble with my back (been lucky on crashes and was always nagged to "lift with yer legs"). From the symptoms it does sound like arthritis, seems like aches associated with atmospheric pressure changes are usually associated with arthritis...just from what I've heard tho, certainly not based on any medical training . Hope you find somethin' that helps...

Right on, I'll see if I can get the 4-door Ford from work and a bumper-pull trailer, if we load the quads sideways on the trailer we'll have the whole bed free for ice chests and gear. The trailer is like 20' deck or so, should fit 4 quads easy. I think the Powerchoke got better mileage last time I took it to TX than the Dodge, so if we got a few people chippin' in the fuel won't cost much at all. It's got a fuel tank in the bed too, so I'll prolly fill it with 80-100 gallons of diesel when I leave and see how far that gets me...should be able to get to Dumont easy without buyin' fuel. Only drawback to that truck is there's no CD player and I think even the tape deck is fucked up, so someone will have to man the radio tuner full-time, heh. I'll find out for sure soon and let ya know, if it works out you think the other guys would wanna cruise together in one truck/trailer?

I forgot to add this for Stan, here's my dream chess set...

Screamin_Banshee and micorps1, sorry to hear that, but keep your head up! If nothing else take is as a sign that you'll find someone better. I got Huevos 6 DVD, FOX riding sox, and a bench grinder (that'll soon have a wire wheel and a polishing wheel, heh). Also got some bucks that'll be enough to get my RZ crank done by TDR and a couple little things for the Banshee. Best thing we got was the XBox I bought for my son...over the 4-day weekend we beat Halo on Normal and Heroic and got to the third mission on Legendary, next to riding together there is nothing funner than playin' Halo missions co-op!!

I agree with spoin39, you could do a plug chop and find out for sure on the mains, or jet the mains larger until it bogs at WOT and drop a size. Depending on your elevation, I'd probably start with 30 pilots, needles one clip position leaner than stock (2nd clip position from the blunt end), and 330 mains. Should be a safe starting point (for sea level, 60-80 degrees F, and 32:1 premix ratio) and if it bogs at WOT drop a size on the mains until it revs out clean. If it's real cold you might start a size or two larger on the mains, if you're at a real high elevation maybe one size smaller. It might run good now, and the jetting could be fine where it is now, but you might be surprised to find more power with a little more work dialing in the jetting. If you haven't already you might check out the Jetting FAQ below. Good luck.

You can be the first to bite me cabinboy

True, true Wheatchex. I might add that it helps from time to time to remember that it's US that will make or break the forum...no matter how many chumps come and go, the reason I'm here every day is for all the guys I consider true "friends" even though I've never met them in person (and that shouldn't be taken lightly as I have few that have earned more than acquaintance status). I hate to name names because I don't want to leave anyone out but you Wheatchex, Meat, B370, Fixitrod, NYUK, Lee, Stan, Iridea250r, Dune-a-tic, Boonman, Banchetta, Holyman, Blue Duece and a few others are the ones I can always depend on for a word of advice or a good laugh. New members will either prove their worth or quickly fade into anonomity, but it's the core group of like-minded maniacs like us that make the HQ such a great place to be... Don't anybody go and get all misty, I'd just as soon tell you guys to bite me, if you deserved it, but I know you wouldn't take it personally Sure would be cool if more of you guys could make it to Roostfest '04

ROFL ScreaminShee01!!!! That was PRICELESS!

Haha sounds like a good trip, I can just picture the jeep tour (croc farm? ). Even with the rain I bet the weather was way better down there this time of year. Feedin' the stingrays sounds really cool too, if that clip is under 1MB I'd love to check it out, my addy is [email protected] (hotmail puts a 1MB limit on attachments). Anyway, hope you had a good time, I'll be takin' a cruise right after I hit the Powerball, heh.

Standard bearings? Does it have Hot Rods (with new big end bearings)? Who did the work? I'm interested, but was leaning towards long rods...

If it doesn't cost too much, a local upholstery shop is the way to go. I did mine and it took about 800 staples and an hour of fighting with it... But yeah the best thing to do is lay it in the sun for an hour or two to let it stretch easier, if it's too cold outside you might try throwing it in the drier (at your own risk). You'll need the short staples, like 1/4", and although a hand-held stapler will work, it'll be ALOT easier with a pnuematic. Like Banchetta said, put a couple staples in the back, stretch the front and put in a couple, and then stretch each side and nail it. Then it's just a matter of pulling out the wrinkles and putting in more staples. Good luck.

Fixitrod is clicking off another year already?! Have a good one!!!!

I think if they seriously want to compete with Yamaha & Honda (which by signing Doug Gust it's pretty apparent that they do), they should follow Honda's lead and keep the Z400 as a trail machine like the 400ex, and come out with a 450. We'll see what happens.

I forgot to ask, how was the Bahamas Holyman? (isn't that where you went?)

Gfdfireman, the Jetting FAQ should have a decent walkthrough and some pics to help, if you haven't checked it out yet the link is in my sig below. I don't remember if I put an exploded view of the carbs in it or not, but you can find that online, Yamaha's webpage has parts microfiche online. Also, a Clymer manual might help (everyone should have one), although not super detailed the pics are helpful. Good luck.

I'm no professional but I can offer what I've learned... I've never used Frontpage, or cared to learn any HTML, but either Frontpage or Composer should be really easy to use, more or less just like a word processing program where you just stick text and pics where you want them. Then it's just a matter of moving the html file, along with any image files you used, onto the server. I keep a folder on my PC with everything on it that's on my web page just in case it crashes, but also to have some idea of how much space it takes up (most places will have a size limit). So start off with the HTML program. What I did was first choose a background image; some simple graphics programs will help here too. I've used MS Paint, MS Photo Editor, and Paint Shop Pro, just whatever I had laying around (some programs come preinstalled on computers, others come with digital cameras, or you can get copies from friends). A smaller image that's tiled will take less time to load than a huge image, and a gif is typically smaller than a jpeg (but not always). I chose light colors for the background images so you can see the text easily...actually I just used a graphics program to lighten the image I wanted. Different fonts can be cool, but keep in mind that another computer may or may not be able to display them, so for text I stick to whatever is typically included with Windows (Copperplate Gothic Bold is what I like). However, if you find a really cool font and want to use it as a banner or in an image, just make an image file (jpg or gif) and use that font, that way it'll be visible to anyone. Free fonts are all over but here's a site I found with a good selection: http://www.1001freefonts.com/fonts/bfonts2.htm Then add pics to the page if you want. Remember to keep them relatively small so the page loads faster. One tip I got from looking at a lot of porn sites is to use thumbnails: have a html page with small (like 10% to 25%) images, and link the images directly to the full-size jpg. That way the html page loads fast and you can just click on whatever image you want to see full-size. Now if you want to just have pics online to link to from ebay or the HQ, you just need to upload them to the server. I don't know for sure if you can just use IE to make subfolders to keep images or whatever, I just have all my shit lumped into one directory (in my case www.dfn.com/benkaren). So if I have next month's wallpaper called Jan04.jpg, I open up IE, and instead of using http to connect to the server I type in ftp://www.dfn.com/benkaren in the address bar and it shows all the files. Then I open the folder with the image in it, right click and "copy", then go back to IE and right click and "paste". Once it's uploaded (it takes a minute depending on the file size, of course I'm on crappy 56K), then if I want to display that pic here or somewhere else, the address is www.dfn.com/benkaren/jan04.jpg. This is kinda simplified because my ISP has gone to password protection but that's basically it. One other thing, you can make any text a link to another page or another site, with Composer just highlight the text, right click and "create link". In the popup box just put in the address (if it's an image put in like http://www.yourserver.com/uglykidjoe.jpg or whatever). Let's see, I know there's more little stuff...oh yeah if you mess around with Composer (or whatever program you use), there's a place where you can put more info about the page like page title, author, brief description, etc. Use that. Alot of search engines look for keywords in the description. That brings up something else, you can tell various search engines about your site (like Yahoo, Lycos, Altavista, etc.), don't pay for that shit. Just go to the site and root around until you find something about getting listed. It's been so long I forget what I did but I know there's a way to do it. What else...make sure you put an email addy somewhere on the page (if it's a public page I would suggest a hotmail account to reduce spam)...oh yeah another thing, you can have multiple HTML pages on the server, typically the main page is named "Index.html"; so that loads when they go to your URL. Then whatever other pages you have will just go in the same directory on the server (with different names obviously like "banshee.html" or whatever). Another thing, you can use frames on a HTML page but I think they are more work than they're worth...just try different stuff and see what you like. Anyway, hope this helps, I'm sure if you have any specific problems or ideas someone here can help that knows more about this shit than I do. Good luck.

Just a suggestion, but download the newest Netscape (the full version), that'll include Composer. It's ALOT easier to use than Word, and it's free, I use it (any fuckups on my webpage are a direct result of trying to use Word). Play with it and you should be able to get all the basics of the web page done fairly painlessly. Also, find out from your webpage host how you can upload files. I use my local ISP and can just use MS Internet Explorer as an ftp (file transfer) program...cut 'n paste or drag & drop whatcha want onto the server. What do you have in mind?