regalrocket

Ok, more. I was reading the YFZ450 shock install thread, and some things really made me cringe. First off DO NOT elongate the holes in the A-arm to get the shock to fit. The big end of the shock eye hits the a-arm reinforcement plate, and elongating the hole, will just make sure that the eye grinds on that plate every second of the quads life, not good. Also, I don't recomend cutting the metal from under the eye mount, it really adds alot of strength, so removing it is bad. What I did is heat the area red hot, and with a bolt ground to a radius, I massaged the area down. I heated, beated, heated, beated, then heated for a min or 2 and let cool slow (getto temper). This give LOTS of clearance, keeps it strong, and is pretty easy to do. It can be done with a regular cheap propane torch. My beating tool (happens to be a shock mount bolt, as it was rusted and gettting replaced). Painted Lower with the pocket made by beating. Upper painted. Just gotta paint the ball joints, and its all getting installed.

I'm not sure, I think that they will be fine with the lonestars. Its the design of the stock a-arm, and the mount being a stamping that is the issue. The aftermarket ones just don't have the mount tab connecting piece, and they have the extra 1/8 of inch clearance between the shock eyelet and the mount bar. You should be fine. If you go to page one of this thread, there are closeups of the mount modifications.

With the aftermarket arms, you shouldn't have to do anything with the a-arms, it should bolt right in. You will have to shave a little on the upper mounts at the chassis. It takes literally 15 minutes to shave it with a angle grinder. Use a soft disk and its mainly the front shock mount ear that needs it. Paint up the bare metal and toss those shocks in.

I'm just finishing my 450 shock install. These shocks are a steal for the price. Its adjustable for compression and rebound, and has a resi all for 150 bucks. You just can't beat that.

I don't think so. The standard YFZ450 shock is just like a Banshee with a solid eyelet. That one is forked, and the fork might go over the lonestar mount ears, but its doubtfull.

Up here in NYS it was never legal since I have been alive, but generally overlooked. A bunch of yuppies moved in, and now we have quad police patrols out to bust the few kids tooling around. These kids and a few adults are riding the same areas that are totally legal for sleds to ride on all winter, and they do a good bit of damage (I ride sleds also, I know) but for some reason the quads and bikes are evil. Total BS.

Just to add to this. I just got done modifying my stock lowers. If you cut the back webbing out, and then heat the area that the lower shot mount hits, good and red with a torch, you can tap it down nicely to gain clearance. It takes maybe 30 minutes, and can be done with a regular propane torch. You won't have to modify the shock at all, and it looks real nice when done.

I just got done taking 700lbs of sled threw 2 feet of powder at 70mph for 6 hours. You get used to riding over things you can't see. Course, if you stick to beated down paths, you won't have any problems. I would totally get that kit, but in NYS, once its an ATV, it can never be made a snowmobile for use on state trails. I wondered if you home built a banshee frame, that was ONLY used as a snowmobile, if you could get it on the trails, Could be fun.

Pull the seat, and rear plastic. remove the coolant resivoir. Loosen all three clamps for the carbs, very very loose (the carb to reeds, carb to boot, and boot to airbox) Smoosh the carb to airbox boot together, then push it out, do it for both sides Move the wires that run along the side of the airbox off the box. The with the two airbox boot screws off, push the box towards the front of the machine, and then it comes straight up. You will learn how to get those carb to airbox boots off, and really, once you take those off, you can remove the carbs easily, and that will give you more than enough room to work in there. If you remove the tors, you can then just remove the carb tops, and fuel line, and rotate the carbs inward to access the bowls, without remove the carbs. Makes for easy tuning.

Ok now with the uppers: The setup is pretty much the same. Using the template, I marked where to slice the tubing. Cut it narrow, then with the grinder, cope (notch, fishmouth, it goes by many terms) it out to fit the bushing. Remember that the bushing is on an angle, and cope accordingly. Set the angle again, for this one it was 3 inches. Once tacked, and then checked again for angles both off the template, and off of the machine, its welded up. Small picture of our in house shop. Its alot bigger, but this just gives you an idea of what little we have really. Nothing special really.

I could build new ones, but I'm lazy, and I really don't wana change the geometry. Course, it would probably just slightly more work, but I really tend to go overboard easily, so this will limit me. I just want better ball joints.

I called FAST for some parts for my machine. I am new to this stuff, and Jeff was fuckin awsome to deal with. He sold me everything I needed, at the best price I could find, and offered to help with anything I needed, not just to sell parts, but questions on tuning and stuff. The parts came really fast, and I will sent my business his way for now on. He is a stand up guy at a stand up business. BIG T-up.

Ok, I finally got motivated again, and finished the bottom. I capped the tube ends with pieces cut with a bimetal hole saw. They were then welded on, and then ground for clearance with the adapters (that I machined myself). Here is how I set the ball joint angle, this was measured before I cut everything up. After tacking them, I took them back to the diagram, and made sure they were also lined up fore and aft. All welded up Just to prove, 360 of weld :biggrin: Pictures of them with the new balljoints A admin note. Because I want max clearance on the uppers for the shock, The wheels will be pushed out 3/4 an inch from stock, and can be adjusted easily to get an inch a side. I wanted 100 percent stock width, but with the YFZ450 shocks going on, and them being a little bigger, I don't wana get myself in a situation with clearance. I can say, these ball joints have wicked travel compared to stock and it should allow for full travel and no binding.

I am on a tight budget (who isn't) but am looking for a set of Fatties, on the cheap. I can afford up to 200 chromed, and 125 for plain steel, with the silencers. Please don't be insulted, its all I got. If you do have one kicking around and are willing to sell for these prices, awsome. Thanks guys. G

I want RED stickers, and a full size high quality print of your avatar!!

I have a set on the way. The way I see you can get them for 165 shipped. Put them on, and if they don't seem to suit you, change what is needed on them. In the end you still got off cheaper than aftermarket shocks, even after a revalve. And when its done, its a good shock, that will have parts made by yamaha for years and years.

Throttle bodies are not like carbs. The sizing of carbs is needed to maintain velocity over the venturi, but not so much that you choke off the bike. With throttle bodies, you can go as big as you want. If you go too big, the bike will be very hard to control because you will have little throttle gradient, and will go WOT with just a small crack of the big throttle body. If you go to small, you choke it off. We know that 35mm -38mm works on alot of bigger bikes. Size a throttle body in that area and you will be fine. With EFI you always go lightly bigger with the throttle body and injectors. You can grow into both, but if you go small, you will choke the engine off, and over duty cycle the injectors. There are known formula for both injectors and throttle bodies, but going with what we know works with carbs is a good start point, and size injectors based off of current production EFI machines of similar CC (snowmobiles, bikes...............). The throttle body on my drag car is 105mm, I can make a fist and stick it into this TB, no carb on the planet that big would run on my car, but its fine with the EFI.

My experiances with setups like these say that it would be great for the racer, and weekend rider. It will allow easy shifting ALL the time, and will not require any tranny mods (shift star of course helps). The other advantage is that because it breaks that gear tooth pressure, that it will remove alot of component stress. You have a huge lever (shift lever) that you can really torque the crap out of components. If you can remove that stress, you will be less prone to breaking stuff. This is why the bike guys use setups like these. You add an interupter and a air shift cylinder and solenoid, and you can bang gears so fast it makes you giggle.

Double tap, please delete.

Ok, heres the story. I am a fabricator by trade. I have a bad ball joint on this machine, and HATE the fact that I can't replace the ball joints. I also don't want wider arms because I do a fair ammount of woods riding in tight areas, and just don't see the benefit to myself to get wider arms. I started by ordering 4 Moog ES2074R for 60 bucks. I am going to have the threaded adapters made up for them. The stock arms will have adapters installed so that I can replace the joints next time easily. I am also installing stock YFZ450 shocks, and will modify the lower mounts so that I don't have to grind the shocks at all. All work will be done with an angle grinder, hacksaw, and a TIG welder (a mig would work out just fine). You would be amazed what you can do with an angle grinder. Its my number 1 most used tools. These first few pictures are just the start, I will take it from beginning to end. First thing you have to do is map the stock arms. A simple cardboard template works great. Make sure to mark the center line of the ball joint, you want that to go back where it belongs. I don't have a picture of the inital angle measurement. Pretty much you raise the chassis side of the arm until the ball joint mount plate is level with your table. Note the height of the chassis mount, and that will allow a quick way to set up the mount. Next, you have to do some cutting. I started with removing the back webbing of the shock mounts. I used a new hard grinding disk (so it has sharp edges) and just cut down like a cutoff wheel. I took about 5 min a piece. The back webbing does very little, and it will flex at what every point you leave it. I just decided to take it all off. No matter what, if its going to flex, it will somewhere. If it does crack down the road (I highly doubt it will) I can easily make stronger mounts and install those. I want to see how this works for myself, and so you guys know if you choose to do the same. Now you have to cut the upper mounts off. I at first cut the ball joint stem off, so that I could measure the angle of the mount plate easier. Then you cut the top, and bottom welds with the cutoff wheel, and then using a soft disk, gently remove JUST the weld. Make sure the disk is new, so that it won't overhear the arm. Now move on the bottom. The mount casting isn't into the arm very far, and you could cut each off just behind the weld and it will fall out. I chose to use a cutoff wheel, and just cut the tubing, not entirely through as the disk isn't that big. I couldn't get the last 1/8 inch or so that is in the inside due to the wheel hitting the other arm. I just clamped it in a vise and used a hacksaw (remove the blade, feed it threw and then attach it to the handle) and it took just a few seconds to nip that last bit off. You can see that the stock mount doesn't go very far into the arm. I removed just the weld. It leaves me options for down the road. More to follow

If its powervalved, you have some nice cylinders, there, and yes, your gonna, or already have fucked those pistons and head up, just by the heat alone. You have serious detonation, and even though your running race gas, you have some stuff to look at. If you have an adjustible timing plate, back that sucker off. Then you have to look at your plugs, if your buring the tip, your probably running too hot of a plug. I would go with a BR9es to start out.

I'm pretty sure NO company x-rays every swing arm they make, its just too expensive, and down right silly. At best, some might perform dye penetrant inspections, but dollars to doughnuts, they don't. Ive welded professionally for years on race cars, and we don't NDI anything. In aviation, its even pretty rare. If your TIG welding, you know if you have an inclusion, you don't need an x-ray to show you, you can see it clear as day. You act like Yamaha did NDI on our machines, which they sure didn't. If the welds look neat, then your probly just fine. I am more concerned with the filler and the materials, but x-ray, and dye penetrant won't help with that.

My banshee came with a twist throttle, it was the first thing I replaced. I have ridden 250r's with twist throttles, and it was down right dangerous in my eyes. The machine is just too heavy to have a twist throttle. You need to be able to have a full grip, with no worries about moving a throttle. When I get into a bad situation, its nice to be able to pull your thumb off the throttle and just hang on for the ride.

I have no actual riding experiance, but from what I have read, the 04 shocks are much stiffer than the 05 and later shocks. One of the changes was from a straight rate spring, to a progressive rate spring. Valving might have also changed.

I use megasquirt for my race car, amazing system for the price. I thought about putting one on my banshee, but mine is pretty much totally stock, and I think it would lead to more problems than it would solve. But its very tempting to say the least. I think that before I spent hundreds on a bigger carb setup, that I would go with the an EFI unit. I think that a 2 into one manifold, with an injector at each port, and one throttle body would be they way to go. Not sure though.