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NickRose1453

No Nuetral Light & No Spark 2006 Honda Rancher 350 ES

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I am working on a 2006 Honda Rancher 350 ES 2x4 TE model. When I got the bike it was stuck in gear because somebody tried using the manual shifter and sheared a gear off in the front cover that the gear motor goes into on the front of the engine. Well I changed that along with the angle sensor and put it back together and started it up and everything was working fine. After about 10 minutes she died out suddenly and I lost the neutral light. So I pulled the engine and replaced the gear position switch in the back cover of the engine thinking it would fix it because they are known for going bad, well that didn’t help and I even tried grounding the Lg/red wire in the back by the battery like others said to do and still not getting anything. What’s really weird is some days after it sits for a while I can go out there and turn the key on and the neutral light will be on but goes away after a few seconds or after you try to spin the engine over. Thanks in advance! 

Edited by NickRose1453
Misspelled

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Hi NickRose1453,

Check the battery connections, the fuses and the ignition switch. Buy OEM parts only, china parts don't work on Hondas.

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Battery connections are tight, brand new battery, checked all fuses for continuity, and getting power to ignition switch. Everything I changed since I’ve had it is OEM. I am skunked.

Edited by NickRose1453

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1 hour ago, NickRose1453 said:

Battery connections are tight, brand new battery, checked all fuses for continuity, and getting power to ignition switch. Everything I changed since I’ve had it is OEM. I am skunked.

id you check where the battery ground wire connects to the crank case bolt ,  I have had a bad connection there and it was intermediate 

 

Did you check for voltage to and thru the  fuses 

 

Have had the kill switch corride inside and also had the wire rot off 

 

@AKATV  on a ES , if the change control unit goes on the blink , if it doesn't show neutral will it loose spark ??? 

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Nickrose,

Your Rancher is plenty old enough to suspect ground wire corrosion problems so I recommend that you rule those out first. Take both fenders off, then go get a tube of dielectric grease at the auto parts store. Take the ground wires and cable off of the frame on the right side/rear and the other ground wire on the right side/front on the frame next to where the CDI is mounted. Shine the metal up around those ground wire bolts with sandpaper then smear some dielectric grease on the shiny metal, the exposed metal on the 3 ground wires, then bolt them back down. Remove the bolt where the negative battery cable connects to the motor (located above/next to the starter) and shine those metals up too, then coat them with dielectric grease.

 

Next up, unplug every wiring harness connector on the Rancher - one connector at a time - dielectric grease inside each of the plug halves and plug them back in. Be careful unplugging and plugging back in the ECM. Those ECM pins are small and can get bent easily, so be sure to hold the plugs straightly aligned while unplugging and plugging them back in. Some force is required to get the large connector fully seated back down in the ECM... be careful.

 

Next test both power circuits that go through the ignition switch. The IGN switch could be going bad... you won't know until you test it. Holler when ya get all those done so we can take the next diagnostic steps if needed.

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7 hours ago, Fishfiles said:

on a ES , if the change control unit goes on the blink , if it doesn't show neutral will it loose spark ???

 

Do you mean the ECM? The ECM shouldn't prohibit the ignition to work regardless whether the neutral light is on or not. But the neutral ground provided by the gear position switch must be operable, else the ES won't know which gear the trans is in when the key is turned on - and so the ECM will fault out when the key is turned on and it won't shift.

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Thanks! I will do as you say with I get home this evening but I already cleaned all 3 of the ground connections but I will do it again. I just replaced the Gear Position Switch with the OEM part and that didn’t help anything. I’m going to take the ignition switch apart and clean the terminals in there also.

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19 hours ago, Fishfiles said:

id you check where the battery ground wire connects to the crank case bolt ,  I have had a bad connection there and it was intermediate 

 

Did you check for voltage to and thru the  fuses 

 

Have had the kill switch corride inside and also had the wire rot off 

 

@AKATV  on a ES , if the change control unit goes on the blink , if it doesn't show neutral will it loose spark ??? 

late to the party...sorry just got back in from up North

But what retro said above- CDI wont spark without neutral ground, no effect on ECM though

When you said change control, did you mean gear position switch or ECM?

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They call the Gizmo I was talking about ,   the change control  unit #13 , I can't read the wiring print of the free download service manual , was wondering about no neutral stopping spark , seems I had read where some years and models do different things than others 

 

 

CONTROL UNIT, CHANGE
38910-HN5-M11 
$498.18
$463.31

image.png

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If the spark control module / CDI doesn’t get a neutral ground it will stop spark

The ECM is  the electronic change control module that is a different module for electronic shifting- but the neutral ground will have no effect on that unit as far as spark is concerned

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27 minutes ago, AKATV said:

If the spark control module / CDI doesn’t get a neutral ground it will stop spark

The ECM is  the electronic change control module that is a different module for electronic shifting- but the neutral ground will have no effect on that unit as far as spark is concerned

 

 

10/4 >>>>>

So is that pretty much the norm for all models , even the Hondamatics 

 

 

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