It's back. 2001 RZ350 Banshee.

[Def]

Finally got it pulled out of parents garage after 15 years.  Sitting so long didn't do it any favours. Had a bunch of stuff to take care of and still a few little things I'm working to sort out.

2001 Yamaha Banshee I picked up new in March of '01.

I don't even remember what's original and what's modified on it any more.  

I believe it's got a +4 durablue.  +2+1 HSD A-Arms out of Manitoba. I think they are no preload Elka shocks.  Then there is the RZ350 motor with the PT High Rev pipes.

 

First ride out after taking care of a bunch of issues. Rebuild shocks. New exhaust spigots. New power valve seals. First pass at fixing my rat nest of a wiring job. Carb rebuild.  Can't remember what else.

 

One of my test rides with my new riding buddy.

[Def]

One mod I was happy to figure out was the ODI lock on grips with the motion pro twist throttle.

I don't recall what cam it is exactly.  I can dig for more pics.  But it came in the 2 stroke grip kit at the local parts shop.  I don't recall the details exactly, on what the exact difference between the cam and the motion pro throttle was.

What I do recall though, is that it fit in the throttle housing and the cable was at the same diameter, so the twist range was identical.  I think the ODI cam cable guide was a bit longer than the original, blocking the cap from installing which had a U shaped groove to guide the cable. All I ended up doing was filing down the one side of the U shape and the cap slipped in and I screwed it on.  So now I can run the ODI lock on grips.  Love swapping in fresh grips and not dealing with the glue hassle.

 

Edited March 6, 2022 by Def

[locogato11283]

Did it start?

[Def]

Yeah.  But has been a bit of a journey that I have yet to complete.  I pulled it out of the garage back in 2020 and took it straight to the machine shop to get my exhaust fitment sorted out.

I bought these pipes back in probably 2002.  I never got them fitting right. Even after so many years, when I emailed Duncan Racing, Leonard responded and helped me finally solve the fitment problem.  I think at the start I may have made him feel offended when I said that it wasn't fitting, but after a quick call it was sorted.  So just wanted to mention that customer service at Duncan has been amazing.  Leonard is a great guy.

My bad pipe fitment, along with messed up PV seals, coated my motor in lots of oil.  The years of dust seems to have amplified the bit of dirt coating I had on it already.  Never really expected when I put it away it would be so long before I pulled it out again.

I don't remember much details about the motor itself.  I purchased it off a local shop that had a wrecked RZ350.  When I pulled the head it had obviously one piston larger than the other. I took the motor to a local shop where one of the owners is well known for building engines.  I don't even remember what I did with the motor. I wasn't too concerned about documenting things back when I was 20.  I had the other cylinder bored out to match the larger one.  A light port and polish knowing I wanted to keep the low-mid being a trail quad.  I believe I got the bottom end refreshed and the crank trued and welded.

Right now I think my plan is to work out all the fitment issues.  Pipes, jetting, wiring etc.  It was all "good enough".  I may look into stripping it to the frame after that and doing a full refresh when I know where I'm starting from. 

 

[specialblend07]

You should pull that motor out and put a serval in.

[Def]

44 minutes ago, specialblend07 said:

You should pull that motor out and put a serval in.

I'm invested in the uniqueness of the RZ350 at this point.  I'm not sure the swap has had much traction over the years.  I was looking for the widened power band I expected power valves to deliver.  Wasn't look for more power per se.  I trail ride it, so fuel was a real consideration too. Still running stock carbs.

Back at that time the CAD to USD conversion pretty much would double any purchase by the time it arrived. All the cool kits were off the table at $2k plus conversion.   So RZ350 it was. Older me would tell younger me to not do anything though. In hindsight this thing is already too much power for me now.

[kawa110]

Paul turner hi revs
Power valves
And the rz trans, should move pretty good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[specialblend07]

2 hours ago, Def said:

In hindsight this thing is already too much power for me now.

Don't say that, don't ever say that!!!!!!!!

[Def]

This is when I got it back from machine shop. Time to address the rest of the problems.  At this point I knew I had blown shocks.  Neutral switch cover o-ring leaked oil all over.  Carbs needed cleaning. Air filter was toast.  Rats nest wiring. Toast PV seals. Lots of dirt.

 

Carbs actually look worse in the pic.  I expected to see it all dried out with green gunk.  But it was pretty good in there. I left the fuel petcock off.  Also put a new one of those in the fuel tank while I was at it.

Can't believe how bad it looked now in hindsight.

[Prime113]

I know the rz350 and banshee basically have the same engine, but is there anything noticeably different in how it performs vs the normal banshee engine? Looks great even after sitting for 15 years!

 

[Def]

2 minutes ago, Prime113 said:

I know the rz350 and banshee basically have the same engine, but is there anything noticeably different in how it performs vs the normal banshee engine? Looks great even after sitting for 15 years!

 

Haven't been on a normal Banshee in forever.  I felt I never got it running the way it was supposed to though. I'll have to find some on local that I can compare with later this year.

One thing I did fix though was the bottom end going from 25 to 32.5 pilots on the stock banshee carbs.  I can pretty much idle a trail in second without touching the clutch.  Pretty good when I have my 3 year old up front.  Can't believe the bottom end transformation with that pilot change.  I'm not sure how much more to go.  Just seems to keep getting better.

[Def]

More images from the test fire the year I got it back from the machine shop. It went in the back of the garage for the winter shortly after.

Made a mess.  I didn't realize I put the carb slides in the wrong way.  Would fire up in 2-3 kicks and then just smoke and wouldn't rev out.  Couldn't figure out what the heck I did. Thought I broke something, or something was messed up from sitting.  Realized my mistake when I took it apart again the next spring.  Ever since I did the swap it was like 10 -20 kicks to start it from cold.  So was excited to see it start in 2-3.  But now it's back to 10-20 after getting the slides in the right carb.  Still working on figuring out that issue.