Already gone through 2 transmissions

[btilus]

Ok guys I've got a bit of an odd one here.

 

First off..I'm a cross country Banshee rider. Lots of wide open driving on the plains, roads, and hills (yes there are some) of South Dakota.

 

In the summer of 2009, I was ridding my machine at approximately 30mph when the tires locked. Couldn't get the machine into neutral (which of course made it fun getting back to the truck).

 

Anyways, over the winter I finally had the time to get into it. After removing the engine and splitting the case I discovered what I had expected, a broken gear fork and 3-4 gears stripped of some teeth. So I got on ebay and got a used trans and swapped out the parts as needed. Put the whole thing back together and had it ready for this summer.

 

So this year I took it out again, and it did not go as I had expected. The first 10 hours or so were pretty good, couple of times had trouble kicking it over, but nothing out of the norm for a 10 year old machine.

 

Then near the end of the second day it started getting temperamental. We had just started out again after lunch when after about 1 hour I noticed that I had coolant boiling out of the case overflow. So I gave it a 10 min break to cool down before continuing on the trail. About 30 min after that I was climbing up the gully of a large hill when I noticed it boiling over again and gave it another quick break. When I went to start the machine again I noticed that the clutch really wasn't engaging much, so once I got it started I used the throttle and the break to make my way up the rest of the hill.

 

Once I got to the top of the hill I gave the machine a 30min rest before continuing on.

 

After about another 30 min of driving we were on our way back to the truck when at approximately 20mph the wheels locked again.

 

I just got the case split again and found a bunch of issues.

 

First, both pistons had damage, but rods and cylinders look fine. Again I had missing teeth in the transmission gears and this time the gear selector was also missing a chunk about the size of a quarter.

 

The other thing was that the oil in the case was a very silver color.

 

So here's my questions.

 

Why do I keep having transmission problems?

Why did the engine keep boiling over?

What's up with the silver oil?

I plan on replacing the transmission, gear selector drum, and pistons. Is there anything else i should add to this list?

 

Sorry, I know it's a lot of questions, but I've already had this machine completely broke down twice now and I really don't want to have to do it again.

 

Thanks!

[bansheesrtoys]

sounds like you might have over looked somthing, if it was me i would buy a good used trans(use it as an unit don't take it apart and use what u need)second buy new shift forks and drum that should cover the trans

as far as boiling over well that could be do to water pump not working , is it a stock water pump? if so the fin could have melted away or the water pump gear could be broke, or a clogged raditator.

as far as the color of fluid well the silver look is prob metal shaving from the clutch. not a big deal.

if you have a factory water pump get an aftermarket one to. and since you r use a used trans buy new trans bearing and replce them too don't reuse yours or the one that come with the new trans their cheap and better safe than sorry. good luck

[btilus]

sounds like you might have over looked somthing, if it was me i would buy a good used trans(use it as an unit don't take it apart and use what u need)second buy new shift forks and drum that should cover the trans

as far as boiling over well that could be do to water pump not working , is it a stock water pump? if so the fin could have melted away or the water pump gear could be broke, or a clogged raditator.

as far as the color of fluid well the silver look is prob metal shaving from the clutch. not a big deal.

if you have a factory water pump get an aftermarket one to. and since you r use a used trans buy new trans bearing and replce them too don't reuse yours or the one that come with the new trans their cheap and better safe than sorry. good luck

 

Yeah, the waterpump is stock. I gave it the once over and everything looked good, but I hadn't thought of a radiator clog. I'll give that a look.

 

I also considered that the oil could be metal shavings. Is it worth looking at the clutch?

 

Yeah, that's a good idea on the trans bearings, I'll do that!

 

Thanks!

[bansheesrtoys]

when say rad clogged i don't just mean the inside also make sure the finns on the outside r clean a not all bent .

its never bad to check things like a clutch but you will almost always have some metal shaving its normal.

also check your jetting ,running lean could make you over heat and boil over .

[AKheathen]

what kind of piston damage? sounds like you may have melted it down from a lean condition...likely case sealant. you didn't use rtv, did you? that pretty much explains a lot, and possibly even lead to oil starvation in the trans/clutch. if you are like most people that don't really know the banshee, then you might not have noticed the excessive smoke or smell from burning trans oil, that and the fact that you did not realize that a banshee will start and run very strong, reliable, and like new until the day it fails, unlike a 4-stroke, as long as you keep the carbs in good tune. the oil normally has some metal present, especially after failure in the geartrain. iclean and inspect everything real good. use brake kleen on the fibres and everything, but be sure to re-oil it all before assembly. use proper case sealant and do a leak-down test when you put it back together