i have a few questions....i recently took apart my warrior to paint the frame and put it back together and it starts up and runs fine but the on/off switch wont work i bought a new switch and tried it and nothing so i could use some ideas on that and also i was wondering if anybody has any experience on taking out the linkage on the shifter and making it a direct shifter what do i need to do or b uy to do that

 

Make sure the switch is grounded to your handlebars and that your handlebars are grounded through your steering stem. Check with "warpigs" on the shifter. The easiest way I know how to find him is go to the post by yamaharaptor350 "few new pics of the 350" last posted on 3/3/07 and scroll down . Hes in there. Also has pics of the shifter - looks uncomfortable to me. Why would you want to get rid of the linkage? I know they wear out, but they are cheap to replace.

 

thanks and the reason i want a direct shifter is ive drove 4 wheelers that have them and their smoother it seems like and its alot easier to find neutral

 

Yeah sometimes it is hard to find neutral. Your linkage may be worn out. It shouldnt have any play in it. The problem with a direct shifter is that the shift shaft is so far up toward and under the motor it looks like you would need a shifter with a lot of an offset on it. If you do it let me know how it works.

 

I have a custom made direct shifter. Mine had to be custom made because I have an oil cooler that uses the adapter from a big bear. But the difference between the stock linkage and the direct shifter is major. I swear that the only time that I ever found neutral was when running it hard shifting from first to second. With the direct shifter I never get a false neutral and I when I do want neutral I find it much quicker. Plus there's no more slop in it, shifting requires less effort and foot travel, and has better feel to it. Depending on if you have an oil cooler like mine, you can just use the shifter from a yz250 (99-2005 I think). It'll be longer than the stock shifter, which you may like if you ride with big boots. If not, you could just cut out an inch of it and re-weld it.

here's a pic with my custom made shifter (made from a stock banshee shifter)

 

k thanks im gonna look around.....but i need a shifter from a basnhee? do you have to re thread it to fit or is it universal

 

making a shifter like mine is a lot of work, but you only need to make one like mine if you have a big bear oil cooler setup on yours, because it sticks out a couple inches from the oil cap. Otherwise you can just use a shifter from a yz250 or 400ex and make it work with very little work. If you compare a stock banshee shifter to what I have on my bike, there's not much in common, you pretty much have to chop up, weld, and bend the entire thing.

And the splines are the same on all of these.

If you would like to see a tutorial of the work that goes into modifying the banshee shifter to work around the oil cooler adapter let me know and i'll find the link for you.

 

I too, have a direct shifter. Why Yamaha makes these stupid linkage setups is beyond me. It just makes for more parts to fail, which happened to me on a Poker run. The outside housing on one end of the linkage came off of the "ball" and I could not shift. Luckily, I had a piece of wire and was able to reattach it. It's not that hard to modify the stock shifter into a direct unit, providing you have a welder and a torch to heat enough to bend it.

I had problems as well with the stock footpegs bending. Not the peg itself, but the flat steel piece which bolts to the frame (the stock shifter/brake pivots on this piece as well). Had to reinforce it with some flat steel "triangles", which required removal of some material from the stock foot/heelguards.





If you take the time and get the bend right, you can modify the stocker to fit/feel exactly like the linkage setup. It's not uncomfortable for me and I wear a size 16 boot.

Why get rid of the linkage? -because it can fail, it happened to me, plus it's just more moving parts and think of the added weight savings {sarcasm}

Cheap to replace...why replace something if you don't really have to? The linkage setup is totally unnecessary, regardless of the cost to replace

 

Makes sense. I may have to rig one up on mine, cause mine has a lot of slop in it. I said warpig's looked uncomfortable because his is way up high. I couldnt ride like that but I see there are better ways of doing it.

 

i looked on ebay a yz250 shifter.....which is direct....is like 20-30 bucks im jus hoping that the threads match up i dont know ill probaly try it in a week or two..does anybody know if they match up