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jeepwm69

Sideways engine case splitting (TRX300FW)

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Yeah, I could call @shadetree, but figured a post instead might be good reference material for future folks looking for info.

 

I’ve done a lot of front-to-back engines (05-11 500’s, 420’s, 350 Ranchers, 400/450 Foremans) but I tore down a 300 today and they seem a little more different when it comes time to actually split the cases, and typical me, did the same screw up I did last time.


For the second time in a row, I tried pulling the shift drum linkage side off the other (shift mech is on the front/ clutch side on the front-to-back engines), only to discover that the shaft from the output housing pulls out of the transmission, which I’m assuming means when I split cases in the future I need to remove the cup from the other end of the shift drum and pull the clutch (front) side off leaving the transmission gears in the other side.

 

That sound right?

 

I split an extra engine I had today to get a better look at how I might get the kick start washer out of the one I’ve been working on (Still don’t see any way to get it out without splitting cases).

 

It had about 1.5 inches of mud and gravel in the bottom of the cases…lol

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50 minutes ago, jeepwm69 said:

Yeah, I could call @shadetree, but figured a post instead might be good reference material for future folks looking for info.

 

I’ve done a lot of front-to-back engines (05-11 500’s, 420’s, 350 Ranchers, 400/450 Foremans) but I tore down a 300 today and they seem a little more different when it comes time to actually split the cases, and typical me, did the same screw up I did last time.


For the second time in a row, I tried pulling the shift drum linkage side off the other (shift mech is on the front/ clutch side on the front-to-back engines), only to discover that the shaft from the output housing pulls out of the transmission, which I’m assuming means when I split cases in the future I need to remove the cup from the other end of the shift drum and pull the clutch (front) side off leaving the transmission gears in the other side.

 

That sound right?

 

I split an extra engine I had today to get a better look at how I might get the kick start washer out of the one I’ve been working on (Still don’t see any way to get it out without splitting cases).

 

It had about 1.5 inches of mud and gravel in the bottom of the cases…lol

you can use a dremel to widen the lower hole to get to the washer, but by doing this..you must rinse the cases out very well from all the alum shavings. as for which side to lay the 300 engine down when splitting the cases ?, left side goes down, ( stator side ). always have the centrifugal clutch facing at the very top. new engines like the 350 rancher, 400, 420. 450. 500..all of these must have the front clutch cover at the top, stator side ( rear ) on the bottom. yer welcome..lol.

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Something they did on the 400ex engine cases i thought was very smart is they have 9 or 10 of the case half bolts you take out from one side. You remove those first. Then you flip it over and there are 2 more from the opposite side. It keeps the case halves together. And reminds you which side to have facing up. Dont know if they did this on the utility quad engines or just sport quads. But i know for sure the 300ex was that way and 250x aswell.

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31 minutes ago, SlammedRanger said:

Something they did on the 400ex engine cases i thought was very smart is they have 9 or 10 of the case half bolts you take out from one side. You remove those first. Then you flip it over and there are 2 more from the opposite side. It keeps the case halves together. And reminds you which side to have facing up. Dont know if they did this on the utility quad engines or just sport quads. But i know for sure the 300ex was that way and 250x aswell.

The TRX300 4wd and 2wd and the TRX450FM ,  S  , ES and FE are also made like that 

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2 hours ago, SlammedRanger said:

Something they did on the 400ex engine cases i thought was very smart is they have 9 or 10 of the case half bolts you take out from one side. You remove those first. Then you flip it over and there are 2 more from the opposite side. It keeps the case halves together. And reminds you which side to have facing up. Dont know if they did this on the utility quad engines or just sport quads. But i know for sure the 300ex was that way and 250x aswell.

Yep, almost all of them

have 8-10 on one side and 3 on the other.  That’s a good tip

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52 minutes ago, Melatv said:

HI: This may help -- Cut a V notch see picture

Honda washerremoval.jpg

I’m thinking if I stuff a blue shop towel up in there and then cut it out with a Dremel I should be able to suck the chips out since the blue shop towel will keep them from going all up in the engine

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Finally got my butt out of bed early (been lazy lately) and did some clean-up work in the shop.

 

I'm waiting on a gasket set for my buddy's 450 Foreman, so I went to work on the 300 cases on the engine I tore down last weekend.  I HATE SCRAPING GASKETS!

 

Got the center cases cleaned up on both sides.  Crank was bad on this one, but have a good crank on the shelf I got from PSN at some point, so will press it in in the next day or two and see if I can get the transmission back in without screwing something up.

 

Waiting on a gasket set for this one too, so wont' be able to go past setting the transmission in there.

 

Question.....When I put the shift drum in the "back" (left side) the bearing tries to fall out and drops the shift drum down.  Is there a trick to keeping that in place while putting the transmission in, or do I just have to improvise?

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1 hour ago, jeepwm69 said:

Finally got my butt out of bed early (been lazy lately) and did some clean-up work in the shop.

 

I'm waiting on a gasket set for my buddy's 450 Foreman, so I went to work on the 300 cases on the engine I tore down last weekend.  I HATE SCRAPING GASKETS!

 

Got the center cases cleaned up on both sides.  Crank was bad on this one, but have a good crank on the shelf I got from PSN at some point, so will press it in in the next day or two and see if I can get the transmission back in without screwing something up.

 

Waiting on a gasket set for this one too, so wont' be able to go past setting the transmission in there.

 

Question.....When I put the shift drum in the "back" (left side) the bearing tries to fall out and drops the shift drum down.  Is there a trick to keeping that in place while putting the transmission in, or do I just have to improvise?

 

1 hour ago, jeepwm69 said:

Finally got my butt out of bed early (been lazy lately) and did some clean-up work in the shop.

 

I'm waiting on a gasket set for my buddy's 450 Foreman, so I went to work on the 300 cases on the engine I tore down last weekend.  I HATE SCRAPING GASKETS!

 

Got the center cases cleaned up on both sides.  Crank was bad on this one, but have a good crank on the shelf I got from PSN at some point, so will press it in in the next day or two and see if I can get the transmission back in without screwing something up.

 

Waiting on a gasket set for this one too, so wont' be able to go past setting the transmission in there.

 

Question.....When I put the shift drum in the "back" (left side) the bearing tries to fall out and drops the shift drum down.  Is there a trick to keeping that in place while putting the transmission in, or do I just have to improvise?

if this shift drum is for the trx300fw ?, the trick is to install the outer brackets that hold the bearing in, two dowls, metal plate i think it is ?, this keeps the shift drum in until you work that left side.

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Looks like I'm not the only one who has struggled with that shift drum.

 

Pretty good video here on a full reassembly of the 300 engine.   Not so sure about using gaskets AND Hondabond, but guess it couldn't hurt.....

 

 

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Got this one back together this morning.

 

Waiting on gaskets for this one and my buddy’s 450 now.


Timing marks in the first pic

 

@shadetree’s suggestion on putting the bearing plates/dowels/shift plate in place to hold the shift drum bearing in place worked like a charm

 

2C04E2DC-510A-476D-A346-08F34F7955C4.jpeg

2431488B-BE50-4FDE-A6F8-9CCDEEC04BAA.jpeg

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1 hour ago, jeepwm69 said:

Got this one back together this morning.

 

Waiting on gaskets for this one and my buddy’s 450 now.


Timing marks in the first pic

 

@shadetree’s suggestion on putting the bearing plates/dowels/shift plate in place to hold the shift drum bearing in place worked like a charm

 

2C04E2DC-510A-476D-A346-08F34F7955C4.jpeg

2431488B-BE50-4FDE-A6F8-9CCDEEC04BAA.jpeg

would i steer you wrong on an engine build ?..lol. glad it worked out for ya bro !!. i've got a mess on my hands again with this other 450 engine, but i'll get-r-done !..lol.

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Soooo, yall know my ADD has me walking away from projects, then coming back much later, right?

 

Waiting on new connecting rods for the 500FM engine and the Hondamatic Rubicon engines I have torn down, so figured I'd finish up this 300 engine and get it done.  Friend of mine wants it for his kid, and I figure I can knock it out pretty quick and he can give it to his kid from Christmas.

 

Got everything cleaned up except the kick start (gotta fish the shim out of the other bottom end) and installed on both sides this morning.  Going to clean up the gasket surfaces on the covers and get the top end installed hopefully tomorrow.

67C5B527-CE96-4602-B248-15B2C2300EFB.jpeg

9A46B0E3-8AC0-4A6F-899D-75857471F537.jpeg

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Got the cylinder, head, and cam put on this morning.  These overhead cam setups give me fits getting everything in there, but I finally got it this morning.

 

Need to clean out the valve cover before I put it back on and brake cleaner wasn't cutting it, so going to bite the bullet and pick up more starter fluid shortly.

 

Gotta clean out valve cover and install, adjust valves, and put the kick starter and reverse lever on the side, reinstall the cover, and this one will be ready to reinstall.

300 engine.jpg

300 cam.jpg

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Got this one back together and set in the frame yesterday.  Working with the flu but was going nuts sitting in the house

88D69191-0DE8-4236-8B3F-2148DD8F4EAF.jpeg

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Test fired this one this morning. It fired right up and idles and sounds great.

 

The problem is the shifting. It will go up and down through the gears but it looks to be in neutral except when I shift. When I actually move the shifter the rear wheels spin for just a second.  
When I get to fifth gear it is firmly in gear and the wheels spin.

it is tough to get it back into neutral but it will if I mess with it.

Obviously I didn’t get something quite right. What should I be looking at?

 

@shadetree @_Wilson_™ @Fishfiles @Goober @Wheeler

 

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Of course, now I have to take the little and the wife to St. Louis to the Polar Xpress so probably won’t be able to work on it again until next weekend🙄

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I would think either the clutch plates, or someone can correct me if I"m wrong, but if the dot on the shift drum isn't aligned correctly, it will be all outta whack as well..... I'll have to go back thru & see if you got that all aligned with the dot...

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I figured the clutch cover was gonna have to come back off.  
 

I thought if I had that lever off a spline it wouldn’t shift at all.

 

Might get back early enough tomorrow to pull it.  Not much wrench time outside these days

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5 hours ago, Fishfiles said:

Pinched / misaligned clutch plate first thought 


It’s just weird how it pulls perfectly in fifth gear, but not in any other gear unless it’s while I’m holding the shifter up/ while shifting.

 

Anyway, I’ll take pics when I get time to pull the shift plate. 
 

I think there’s a picture earlier in this thread of the shift lever right before I put the clutch cover back on…..

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On 11/20/2022 at 12:52 PM, jeepwm69 said:

Got this one back together and set in the frame yesterday.  Working with the flu but was going nuts sitting in the house

88D69191-0DE8-4236-8B3F-2148DD8F4EAF.jpeg


that’s where the shift lever was right before cover installed.  Does that look right?

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1 hour ago, jeepwm69 said:


that’s where the shift lever was right before cover installed.  Does that look right?

Looks right to me.   I know if you are one tooth off the shift shaft it will either not go in reverse or not go  in forward depending on what way you are off 

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Well I was gonna pull the clutch cover off and move the shift lever one tooth.

 

When I pulled the clutch cover off the shift lever came off with it so I had no way to tell where it was before.

 

This look right?

10331340-EEEC-4CC5-A902-E1FAD6438D71.jpeg

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