Bman

Thanks for the heads up. I'll stay away from it then. I was interested in the Fuel injection and the selectable 4wd. But if it's just gonna break down on me all the time I'll pass on it. Guy said he wanted 800$ on top of the Foreman

Well a new possiblity has come up. May be looking at a trade to a 2008 rancher 420. With boot on my end but not sure how much he's thinking yet.

Yeah I've done two. First was incorrect oil on a Yamaha and the second was actually a foreman 400. Though that thing was rode hard and put up wet and sunk who knows how many times. The electric shift kinda spooks me. My papaw had an S and an ES that he bought new for his wife. And he left that ES in the building cause he said that thing never acted right and water would screw up the shifting. So far this one works great after fixing the fuse socket. And it's actually very nice to ride. But I haven't had it down in water. I used to hate automatics as I always thought the belts would just get wet in water and you'd be SOL. But I rode a Polaris for awhile and found out that's not as common as I thought. Heck I had it down in a creek for over an hr straight once. Water plenty high. And it never offered to slip once. And I know the clutch cover had cracks in it. I'd keep them both but I know I'd pick a favorite eventually and the other would just sit around collecting dust.

So Is the earlier drive shaft better or the later one?

Well I was originally on the same boat about belts. But honestly I've never had to replace one for anything other than age. I'd also rather be replacing a belt than cracking open a engine to do clutches. However belt slip is very annoying. Where as good ole gears just keeps going.

So I've come to the point of fixing up my Foreman to either doll up the cosmetics on the Foreman and Flip the quad. (Was the original plan.) OR. Boot the Grizzly 600 on down the road and keep the Foreman. The pros and cons of each as I see them. Grizzly pros. I've already been all through the quad. Fresh piston and rings too. Brand New tires. Automatic. Serviced clutch and new belt. Already has front disc brakes and all brakes are working well. Also has in and out front diff. Runs well and is in decent shape. Ground clearance is better as well. Grizzly cons. Not as reliable as a Honda. Parts aren't so easy to come by for the 600 grizzlies. Most service parts are easy to get. However replacement drivetrain parts or engine parts like say a top end rebuild kit for example can't be had. You can get oversize piston and rings but no complete cylinder and all kits. Engine is cold natured. Possibly the only quad I've owned that actually needs to warm up for a minute before riding. However the carb may not be right. It's a big quad. And its known for having stability issues due to its increased height and weight. Honda pros. These a very robust machines. Possibly the toughest. So reliability is in my mind is a mark above the Grizzles. Headlights are a much better design. Digital dash is nice. The Honda does run better. Parts are for the most part common and plentiful. Could need a top end tomorrow and I can get a whole kit from Amazon no problem. Can also find most drivetrain parts readily available. And in that regard I see it being sustainable further into the future than the grizzly. Honda cons. Factory drum brakes. They are awful. Obviously going disc makes things equal, but thats more money. Even fixing the drums aren't cheap. Electric shift. I Hesitate to List as a con because it honestly is a nice system to me. But it does occasionally act out from what I've read and relies on sensors and ecm to control it. I can see where it would awfully annoying to have it act out in the middle of ride. There is a bypass kit to eliminate these problems, but again. More money. All time 4x4. Some consider it a pro some consider It a con. To me it's a con. Being able to switch out of 4x4 is pretty nice. Especially in trails you just don't want to be fighting the 4x4 when you don't need it. Again this can be remedied but not without either lucking up finding discontinued parts for high prices. Or swapping In the later differential and minor fab work. Honestly my biggest gripe about the Honda. Things I consider a toss up. Power. Now the grizzly is more powerful, but honestly not by a HUGE difference. Honda wouldn't have any issue keeping up on trails. Maybe not in a straight line. Ride. The grizzly does have the on the fly adjustment for the rear suspension. For soft or harder suspension. However the Honda seems to kinda split that difference nicely. Front end seems similar in ride quality. Suspension. Both are solid rear axles. Honda is dual shock. Grizzly is single adjustable. The grizzly is McPherson strut front while the Honda is more traditional double a arm. Honestly Im not sure which is really better. Both have full footboards. Honda is plastic and the grizzly is all steel. Or aluminum depending on year. Grizzly looks to have better skid plates. So what it comes down to is the grizzly has alot of options the Honda would have to have added to it. But the Honda is much cheaper, more reliable, and easier to obtain parts. And can have the options added with time. I know this is a Honda forum and theirs likely bias towards Hondas haha but what do you guys think? Spend the money and double down on the Foreman and make it what I want. Or flip the quad and keep the grizzly.

So if I go the swap route. Which drive shaft is better to use? The 98-01 or 02+. From what I understand the 98-01 should have the shorter drive shaft due to it having the longer output shaft correct?

So I got the reverse cable installed. Actually pretty easy when it comes to routing of the cable. Nice to be able to use reverse to move it out of the garage without risking death haha. Reaching under and pulling the lever while shifting it into reverse was getting pretty dicey. Also got the rear rack I ordered. In good shape. It's got surface rust, but so does the front rack. Plan on repainting them and the bumper. Got the taillights in as well and while they aren't exactly like OEM( OEM seem to fill the opening in the fender a bit better). they are pretty close and definitely a good replacement. The carb i fixed by simply tapping the bowl. So far it's Me 2 carb 0. Took the quad out a few times just shorter trips from my house to the creek to fish and it's doing great. I enjoy being able to putt along in a higher gear nice and quiet. And the electric shift is growing on me. Turns out the odometer I put in to replace the broken one has an interesting idea of units of measurement. The MPH is spot on. However. It rolled over from the 999999.9 milage reading and now it thinks I've ridden 22 miles. Hour meter is still stuck on 9999.9

When you say shorten the driveshaft. Are we talking cutting out length from the middle and welding back. Or shaving some off each end?

Anyone got one they want to part with or know of one? Looking for one for a 99 450ES

Got a rack ordered and some tail lights. should be in soon. Oil change looked great. Filter wasn't full of metal or anything. And surprisingly I checked the Diffs and the gear oil wasn't bad at all. Hopefully this one doesn't kill its rear axel like my old one did. My luck with the carb working fine without touching it ran out. Still runs great but the carb is pouring gas out of the overflow. Trash in the needle valve id say. Got my used reverse cable and Im procrastinating installing it.

I don't like to impact these if I can avoid it. I'd prefer to feel the nut move so I can get a feel for how the threads are doing. And it was rusted a bit, but not terrible. Took some heat and 1/2 drive breaker bar and everything I had to break it loose. I'm honestly surprised the drum and hub slid right off. Last foreman I had apart it took a slide hammer to move them. But that foreman was absolutely beat on. It was a testament to Honda durability. And yeah I plan on replacing them soon because while they are now working they aren't working great. I just wanted to be able to move it around without pushing it and brakes were a must to do that haha. I live on a hill so nothing but my garage floor is level. I did get an update on the reverse cable from partszilla. May 9th supposedly.

So while I'm still waiting on parts. I decided to take a look at the rear brake. Ofcourse it was seized up, but not stuck engaged. So I removed the adjusters and set to working the lever. Well I got it moving but still too tight and not returning so I finally resigned myself to tearing the brake apart. I knew from the beginning I'd be doing this. I just wanted to delay the inevitable. And while it wasn't the worst I've done it did have its highlights. Such as the nut holding that hub on must have been put on there by impact. And a big one at that. It took heating it and ALOT of leverage and it finally broke loose. Though thankfully the hub and drum came right off. It was full of an "ash" like that which would be in a fire pit. I figure it's probably a corrosion of sorts. I'll attach some pics. Anyhow I cleaned that all up and pulled apart that lever and cam. Cleaned it and greased it and it moves great. Sanded the pads and did my best on the drum. Drum still needs some attention but I was just shooting for a functional brake for the time being. It's "working" now, but only with the hand break lever. Wouldn't trust it on a hill, but it will get you stopped. The foot lever pivot is seized up pretty solid so I gotta get after that, but plan on getting new shoes and maybe a drum before tackling that.

so some part updates. Couldn't find the reverse cable new anywhere but partzilla. was used ones on ebay for 17$. figured id pay the 20 + shipping to partszilla for a new one. Weelll the next day i get an email update saying the cables is backordered till who knows when. so back to eBay i went and ordered the used cable. Ive decided im gonna go straight to a disc conversion on the front because i HATE these honda drum breaks. Orignal display/dash was trashed. And this being an ES ive found you can't find a new one. OR any used really. but i found one for 40$ on ebay listed as non-working. So i rolled the dice and lucked up. other than some UV damage to the screen it actually functions perfect. You can see the difference. The Original is trashed from weather and sun damage. The board is damaged and badly water damaged. I removed the sun cooked film on the lcd to see it display and it would sometimes display and other times not at all. The New-used one is in way better condition and works fine, just the UV damage. plan on sending it to get fixed. Picked up a tune up for it. filters and spark plug. Still gotta find a rear rack and taillights.

Out of curiosity. Did honda produce a front diff that also has diff lock that could be made to fit into the Foremans?