jeepwm69

Makes sense. The wheeler is an 08, was partially stripped, and the rear end was completely seized up. Interestingly enough, when I took the rear diff apart the fluid in it was clean, and the gears looked good. A little oil on the bearings and working them back and forth and it was fine. Bearings were tight, just hadn't been turned in a long time. Engine was all there. Water/rust/mud in the cylinder so I figured it had been sunk. I'll check the timing before I tear down the bottom end, just out of curiosity.

I need to check the sensor, but I didn’t ride 1/4 of a mile, turned around, and then headed back. Normally I’m a good 6-8 miles from the house before the fan kicks on. if course, if the temp sensor AND the oil pump are bad, that’s gonna be ugly.

Lol no. That “this looks ok” was a joke. That was off of a parts bike I bought a couple of weeks ago. Cylinder was rusted and had to hammer the piston out of it. Anyone ever see a rocker box do that? Wonder what caused it?

First gear is weak on the 05-08 models. Other than that the 05-11 500’s are tough bikes. Last of the air cooled Foremans, and habe disc brakes and selectable 4wd. If it doesn’t have many miles on it 1st gear is probably fine. The 05-08 don’t hold up well to abuse but I’ve seen plenty that were used on farms and by responsible people that never had a hiccup out of the stock 1st gear

That looks good Shade. Those homemade fender flares turned out nice!

Sticker on the front dead center will give year model and say either 350D or 350. If it's an 86 it's definitely a 350A Fourtrax. 87 it could be either (and it matters, because they have different CDI's). 88-up were all 350D's

Well I'm going to have to tear it down regardless. Just wondering what I should be looking for. Oil light never came on, neither did the fan.

Been working on a couple of rear brake assemblies I had in the shop. Both were seized up. Got one apart this morning, had to put the cam pin in my vice and use a pry bar to work against the studs to work the backing plate back and forth to free it up enough to press out the cam pin without destroying the backing plate. Had to put he brake shoes in the vice, one at a time, and work the backing plate back and forth to get the shoes off the pins. FINALLY got everything apart, where I can reassemble with new bearings, a new cam pin and seals, and new shoes. The other one didn't go as well. The pins that the brake shoes slide onto are actually rotating in the backing plate, rather than the shoes rotating on the pins. I'm torn between using a cut off wheel to get the old shoes off the pins, or just saying to heck with it and cutting this one down for a brake delete. On the topic, what is the purpose of the ring that sits in the inside of the drum (other than being something to hang up on the brake shoes while getting the drum on and off the axle)?

Looks photoshopped. no way that hag has that kind of trigger discipline.

Heat gun and Wipe New (back in automotive section at walmart) worked pretty good for me. Nothing I've tried makes them look new again.

How about this one? That will still work ok, right? This was off the power steering 08 "parts bike" I bought a couple of weeks ago. In other news, I rode my buddy's bike down to check the river level yesterday. Ran good, sounded like a sewing machine, then all of the sudden I got this horrible noise and it died. I initially thought the engine locked up. I checked the oil, which looked good, and then hit the starter and it started back up, but had a weird squealing noise. Ran for a few seconds and died again. At that point I walked back to the house, got another wheeler, and towed it home. By that time it had cooled off, and started up and was running quietly again. If I had to guess there's a galled bearing in there somewhere. Going to have to tear it back down again and see what I find.

I sent you a PM!

If I recall correctly, the 400 is a smaller diameter. A local guy tried to do the 02-04 front diff swap in to a 400 and said the 450 front driveshaft coupler swallowed the 400 output shaft.

Sooooo, while you're in there, do you have extra gears laying around? I'm trying to work on something and need a 20 tooth gear from a 400/450 transmission. #19 here https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/honda/atv/1998/trx400fw-a-fourtrax-forman/transmission

Pull this up, and if you click on the individual part numbers, they'll show interchange at the bottom right of the page "related fitment" https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/honda/atv/2002/trx450fe-a-fourtrax-foreman-es/transmission-trx450fe I haven't been into a 450, but I've always been under the impression that they were the same other than the output/final shaft.

Get a center punch and punch the end of the bolt. Then a small left handed bit should bite in the indent. These bolts are soft, so should be easy to get a small left handed bit started, and with those clean threads it'll spin right out.

The early 350 Rancher flares are high as heck too. And then you look at my 500's and a new flare is under $15.....

Yeah the 450 footshifts were listed as "S" and the first year or two of the 500 had "Foreman S" stickers on them, but in the schematics they're FM's

To add to what Fish said FE is electric shift (ES) 4wd TE is electric shift 2wd TM is footshift 2wd FPM is footshift power steering 4wd FPE is ES power steering 4wd FPA is auto power steering 4wd The 2A after some models denotes camo plastics.

I third the left handed drill bit idea. If you can get it to catch it will spin it out. If you can't, I'd pull the rear diff, take it apart, and get it out of there. You don't want to risk it falling into the diff and eating your ring gear. It's just unbolting stuff and rebolting it together. No gear setting up or anything like that. Just take it apart, get the bit out, and put it back together the same way.

I thought about buying one of those, or having one made, but I don't intend to ever use a stock 300 rear end, so decided it wasn't worth it.

I just saw this Shade. Not sure how I missed it. Flares are on my list of needs too. And like you, I'm not spending $65/each on them. The problem is, used ones are usually in rough shape and people still want $$ for them.

Those flares don't look bad Shade. What did you use to make them?

@toodeep has done some plastic welding that turned out nicely. I would ask him for details.

Well crap. That's a long haul to Arkansas.