2001 rancher refresh

[bigcountry78 21]

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.

Edited May 1 by bigcountry78

[bigcountry78 21]

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.

[bigcountry78 21]

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.

[bigcountry78 21]

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. 

Edited May 1 by bigcountry78

[jeepwm69 6,826]

@Fishfiles or @Wheeler are your 424 experts.

 

Nice looking rancher.  You need to look at @retro’s creamsicle build if you like orange

[Fishfiles 17,649]

Maybe this link should be a sticky or something :

 

WARN 424 disconnect manual 

 

https://www.catalograck.com/ImgVD/WAR/66040A1-PN66055.pdf

[Wheeler 2,388]

Ur ride looks sweet! Very nice! Congrats!

 

[bigcountry78 21]

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

[bigcountry78 21]

On 5/1/2023 at 6:56 PM, jeepwm69 said:

@Fishfiles or @Wheeler are your 424 experts.

 

Nice looking rancher.  You need to look at @retro’s creamsicle build if you like orange

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.

[jeepwm69 6,826]

Yep, front diffs are the same.  All you need is 12V through a switch to actuate the front diff.  That's the only wiring.

[bigcountry78 21]

[bigcountry78 21]

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

[jeepwm69 6,826]

Nope, none of that come from Honda.

[bigcountry78 21]

On 5/12/2023 at 11:08 AM, jeepwm69 said:

Nope, none of that come from Honda.

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.

[Fishfiles 17,649]

15 hours ago, bigcountry78 said:

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.

I have had good luck with Superwinch ---

I hate that WARN butterfly switch as you called it ---- 

if you are thinking of buying just a controller / solenoid , I have good luck with the KFI brand and the china stuff on ebay and amazon is crap 

 

 

[jeepwm69 6,826]

Agree with Fish.

 

I bought several LT3000's when they were $130ish on Amazon for the whole setup.  They have not given me any problems at all on any of the machines on which I installed them.

 

Price had jumped up quite a bit last time I looked. 

 

Get you a KFI plate and just about any winch should mount to it.

[bigcountry78 21]

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.