bigcountry78

I’m in Hickory NC. I’ve already got a full set, I just picked these up for $20 each for spares, mostly for the tires. I was just trying to see if I could save it or if I was out the $20.

A while back, I picked up an extra set of 11” rims to have on hand since I was going back to the factory size. Well I was in a hurry and didn’t realize that one rim had three of the lug holes wallowed out. Can it be repaired or do I just have a Honda branded fire pit now? I thought about welding the holes back up partially and then re drilling them, but I’m not sure how I would get the right chamfer.

While cruising Facebook this morning, I saw an ad for a rancher with what looks like a foreman 450 headlight and gauge pod. Does anyone have any information on this modification? Wondering if it’s a straight bolt on plug in affair.

Man, you are awesome! Thank you!!

Oh ok, when I looked at some diagrams online I must have missed that seal. I was thinking there should be one there, but all I saw was the one up by the differential. The one out by the backing plate should be a lot easier to get to and replace. Thank you sir. I’ll do a bit more looking poking and prodding before I go tearing the diff out.

Well when I first tore into the brakes on the rear I found that the drum was full of gear oil. I cleaned it out and got the rear assemblies freed up and working and called it good. I recently took it down to my parents house and got some ride time in, including finally getting her up to speed in 5th gear out on their rural paved roads. This thing blows my old big bear 400 out of the water when it comes to top speed and handling. Anyway, when I tried to slow the ole girl down on the blacktop I found out that the brakes must be full of oil again because the rear brakes absolutely did not have any effect on the speed. On top of that, I smelled hot gear oil. I haven’t torn it down yet, it I suspect the seal between the differential and the axle shaft is bad. Can anyone point me in the direction of some instructions on how to get to the seal to replace it?

I’m not in a huge rush. Where are you located?

He said he would take $80 for everything. Figure I can get $50 out of the bumper if I decide not to use it. Just might do it.

Oh I am. I rarely throw anything out, and winch parts are no exception. This was posted on Facebook marketplace this weekend. The guy said the winch works, just needs a cable which I have off the old one. All the wiring is there but I’m not sure the whole bundle is worth $100 for everything. I think that bumper fits a 98-04 foreman. But it looks like the winch mount might fit my rancher.

These tires popped up for sale local to me. They are the stock maxxis tires, m977 and m978 that come on the newer ranchers. How do they compare to my mud lites for general trail riding? I could probably get the set of 4 for $80, maybe less.

Price has jumped on everything unfortunately. The winch I had on my big bear to replace the warn A2000 was a 2500 pound mile marker. It never gave me any issues, but the price has jumped from $150 for the kit to over $350. Looks like I can get a superwinch LT2000 for a little over $100, plus the mount. I still have what’s left of the warn winch, but it’s dead. River water got into it and rusted the motor. And the switch that they sold it with is terrible, but it serves its purpose mounted on my utility trailer. If I was to use it on the rancher, I would want a handlebar mounted rocker switch.

Alrighty, chucked those pieces and now the battery is installed properly. Seems like the guy before me was a “good enough” kinda guy. He said he never bothered to see why the brakes did t work, he’d just bump into something to stop. Shopping around now for a winch mount. I have a traveler brand winch mounted to my trailer that I’m thinking about putting on the rancher. It’s currently wired in using and old Warn A2000 butterfly switch which really isn’t ideal. But by the time I buy a mount, and then buy a wiring kit, I could spend just a little more for a complete superwinch kit. Decisions Decisions.

@Velvetlinedcasket You wouldn’t want to part with those OE Bridgestone tires would you?

Are any of those pieces factory? I found them under the battery. It was sitting too tall for the hold down strap to fit, so it was just flapping around. Looks like it’ll fit better without the height adapter. and those little rubber pads were just floating around loose in there

I believe they are called C-series. I also don’t think they are made anymore.

I do like orange, and I took a look at his build. It turned out great. Got me wondering if the 400 AT front diff mod can be done the same way on the foot shift models, since they have fewer electronics.

Thanks everyone. I’ll definitely be checking out the creamsicle build.

I forgot to add, that it came with a set of 4 tie rod ends, so I replaced those within a few days of buying it. Today, I finally got around to getting the front alignment dialed in just about right. I had to wait until I could get a tube put in a front tire, apparently whoever originally mounted it ripped the bead and it wouldn’t seal anymore. While I had it up in my teeth, I checked wheel bearings and they’re solid. I noticed a clicking sound when the tires were rotating, and after a bit I found that the warn 424 cable is not adjusted quite right and is not 100% disengaged. Does anyone know how to adjust it correctly? I’m still really happy with how clean it is. It was cleaner, I took it for a three hour ride on brown mountain here in NC’s pisgah national forest, and it’s still dirty from that. It was a shakedown run just to make sure everything was good to go, and it was great other than one minor hiccup. After about an hour of riding, it started to sputter at half throttle. After 20 some seconds of playing with the throttle, it cleared up and hasn’t missed a beat since.

As I was going over everything, I discovered that the recoil starter rope was only about a foot long, and was frozen up. I took the assembly off, disassembled, cleaned and greased everything, and replaced the rope. That pretty much brings us up to speed. I still need to replace the breather lines, a couple are missing and the rest are dry rotted. But it runs and rides great. It’s still missing a couple pieces, namely the heat shield from the muffler, and the small plastic cover for the recoil starter. The toolkit is missing as well. So I’m casually looking for those. I would also really like to have a set of the OE Bridgestone dirt hooks, but those are nearly impossible to find. I do have a set of 12” rims with 26” Titan 589’s, but I think I’d rather have the power and durability that the stock tire size provides. I still need to buff and polish the plastic, but I may just see if I can find a set of orange plastic. Less face it, orange is HOT. I added a gun rack, and I have a 2500# traveler brand winch that may make its way on, but I haven’t decided yet. But anyway, here it is now with the new seat and correct tires and wheels.

Next, I dove into the brakes. Turns out all they needed were some love. The brake shoes were still good, all the way around. The fronts just needed to be cleaned and adjusted, and the rears needed to be adjusted. I also had the remove the rear actuator stud, clean and grease it to free it up. It also needed a new park brake cable, since the old one was stretched out. Next up was to remove the led light bar, and that janky wiring. The headlights also needed to be adjusted, so I did that as well. It was also missing the left rear fender stay, so I tracked down one of those on Facebook. Got that installed, snugged up the 424 mounting bolts, and then noticed the 424 kit was kinda gritty. Cleaned and lubed that and got it back to 100%. Next up was a new seat. I played with the idea of recovering my seat, but decided to just replace it instead.

So like I stated in my intro post, I recently picked up this 2001 for $2500. The story that I was given, is that it was bought new by an elderly lady that used it to pull her garden wagon. She used it up until about two years ago, when she sold it to a family as a gift for their 6 year old son. After about a week, they decided that it was too much machine for him, so they sold it to the guy that I got it from. This thing is really clean to be as old as it is. As a bonus, it has a warn 424 kit installed. When I brought it home, it sat like you see here. The brakes did not work (shocker), the guy before me had traded the OE wheels and tires for what looked like 12” itp wheels, 25” swamp witch tires in front and 26” in the rear. Well, it’s a bad idea to run mismatched tires on a 4x4. Also, the right front rim had a badly bent bead, and the tire would not hold air. So, I set out to trade tires and wheels. I ended up trading a guy for some factory wheels, with OE sized mudlite at’s. 24x8-12 in the front and 24x9-11 in the rear.

Hello all, just signed up. I’m finally back on a Honda, a rancher. Grew up on a 1989 Yamaha moto 4 250, but I wanted a Honda bad. So when I was about 12, I got a new rancher for Christmas. It was a green, 2000 4x4 ES model and I loved it. We lived on a 450 acre farm, with access to about another 500 acres or so of hunting land to ride on. So I racked up about 1200 miles in less than 10 months. But, ES, so it was also in the shop 5 times in those 10 months. Under warranty of course, but the dealer was 45 minutes away so it wasn’t exactly convenient to take it in. So, it got sold and the money was set aside to replace it. My dad told me to get a foot shift rancher, but I was swept up In Yamaha’s marketing and chose a 2000 big bear instead. I had it until February this year, and I’ll admit it was a great machine. Never had a warranty claim and never let me down. But, that Honda itch never left. So, I sold my trusty Yamaha, and picked up a 2001 Rancher, 4x4. Foot shift, and red this time. It’s in way better condition than my Yamaha was, definitely led an easier life. I don’t have much planned for it, basically a refresh. This is it right after I brought it home. I sold my big bear about 9:30 on a Saturday morning, for $2500 and by lunch I had this in the back of the truck headed home. I gave $2500 as it sits.