Just picked up my 87 banshee and its only firing on the left piston does anyone have any ideas of what is wrong with it? its not the spark plugs cause i just put a new pair of NGK's in it

 

coil?

 

checked for spark and both plugs got spark then i started it up again still only the left cylinder firing so i put the palm of my hand over the right silencer tip to feel if anything was comin out but when i did that the engine started to die so i took my hand off and is sped back up again so i put my hand back over the silencer tip and this time i noticed that it wasn't blowing anything out it was sucking in! what the heck would cause it to suck in and almost kill the engine while its running? is it a hole in the piston?

 

No...the bike would not start at all with a hole in the piston....what does a compression test tell you?

Are both carbs in sync? reeds in good working order?

 

i haven't look at the carbs or reeds yet but the guy who i bought it from said he was riding it on a lake one day then all of a sudden he just lost power. could the reeds break and cause it to do that? will the cyclinder run without reeds? could a reed break off and get sucked in the cylinder?

i got another guestion what is the tors on the carbs and what does it do?

 

Hope the lake was frozen! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

Check to make sure both carbs have good fuel flow to them.

 

lake runs are usually wide open runs, maybe he blew it up?

Compression check tells a lot. Hold it wide open and kick it over until the compression gauge stops climbing. Good Luck!

 

yeah the lake was frozen lol but anyways i took the carbs and airbox off to look at the reeds and yup the right cylinder had a broken off reed i got some boyesen(spelling) power reeds and put them in both sides. i got it all back together and got it started. at first only the left cylinder was firing and i was getting mad then all of a sudden i seen smoke come out of the right one and it started to fire too. man did that sound awsome. i let it sit there for a little bit then turned the choke off and put it in first gear and started to go. still going good then when it hit the powerband it backfired out if the right cylinder really loud, shifted into second and again backfired when it hit the powerband got around to the back yard and it stalled and i cant get it started again. why is it backfiring?

 

well i got it started again by push starting it then i kept it running this time and its acting really wierd. its backfires and pfft's all the time, only runs on one cylinder at times, and wont idle at all. i have to keep the rpms up when they do go down i have to butterfly the trhottle to get it back up. when i go across the field i will give it gas then it will bog then backfire then about rip my arms off when the powerband kicks it.

i dont know what the heck is going on i know the previous owner just replaced the throttle cable so he might not of set the idle right and also the things on top of the carbs are not plugged into anything

and when my reed broke off i think it went into the engine is that bad? do i have to tear the whole engine down just to get a reed out?

 

If there is any chance that you think something went into the engine...you need to find that something.

I really think you should find a friend with a compression tester.