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slowindown

06 honda foreman ES

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I may be picking this up tomorrow.  It's one of my coworkers'.  It has has sat in his barn for years.  If I recall correctly I actually went and looked at with him new.  He thinks it has around 5-600 miles but not sure.  I assume the carb is clogged - ethanol gas.  He doesnt know. He hasn't used it in years as he bought a big red a couple years after he bought the foreman.  Is there any particular problems with these machines I need to be aware of before I get it.  I'm familiar with the ES as my 02 rancher 4x4 has ES and I've used retro's method for bullet proofing it.  Seems like I read something about 1st gear one time??

 

I didn't really know where to post this...

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unless its free ?, and your gonna TRY to flip it ?, i would not touch an es with a 10ft pole.

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Well, I've had my 02 ES since 05 and it is still fine.  After 15 years of ownership, I finally had to regrease the reduction gears and it runs and shifts like new at over 4000 miles and over 600 hours.  I'm not worried about the ES.  I would go ahead and do Retros ES procedure though. My only issue with ES is holding a drink and shifting.  LOL.  And it's almost free.  I may flip it or sell the rancher or keep both for the kids to ride when they're home from adulthood or sell both. 

Edited by slowindown

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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

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I’m going to look at it now. 542 miles. 111 hours. 

 

He wouldn’t have abused the machine. But isn’t there an upgraded 1st gear you can add? How difficult is that?

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Yes you can upgrade the first gear set to the 09-11 style, which is very strong. 

 

It does require tearing the engine all the way down to do it, which is why I said if the machine hasn't been abused, and you don't intend on abusing it, you could ride it as is and would likely never have problems with it.

 

See the third post in this thread which shows the differences in the old style vs the updated gears.

 

 

 

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Thanks for that. I picked it up. It was in a barn that only had a wall on one side so it is kinda pink. lol. I’ll have the fix that. Gotta get the generator going now before everything in the frig and freezer spoils. Tornado hit the area last night. Power been out since 3 am. 

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Yikes.  We had that here last week.  Power was out for 3 days at my work. 

 

I have a pinkish Rubicon project I picked up a few weeks ago.  Going to try a heatgun and Wipe New on it.  Let me know what you try and whether or not it works.

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Heat works on my orange rancher but doesn’t seem to do anything on the Foreman. I tried it on the pull cord cover. Nothing. 

 

I’m thinking I may get new plastics. I’ll know more how I feel about the machine tomorrow. What all years will fit (there’s some interesting colors out there)? I read somewhere up to 2011 but I noticed that there are different parts numbers for different years. While 07 red fenders have the same part number as my 06. A red 2009 Es has a different number. I don’t know if new fenders come with decals or not. I was thinking maybe the decals changed and that’s why the number was different. Any idea?

 

On the foreman, I took the gas tank off and cleaned it.  I finally got the petcock to work. Something that looked like pancake syrup was in the fuel line. Lol.

 

All 3 filters in the airbox turned to dust when you touched them. Fortuitously I had picked up a new main air filter but I didn’t know the other two filters existed as my rancher doesn’t have them. I guess I’ll drive 20 miles back to the dealer for those. 

 

I think I got the carb cleaned pretty good and put back together. Torch tip cleaners and nearly a whole can of carb cleaner. . . Hopefully it’ll start up when I put it back on tomorrow. 

 

I did verify that it would start on ether before I took everything off. So that’s positive. 

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So I guess I didn't clean the carb as good as I thought.  It started but required choke at idle, or giving it gas.  It was kind of popping at lower speeds.  I drove it around the yard up through say 3rd gear.  Backed it back into the garage.  It idled a few seconds and died.  Opened the airbox and pulled the filter to see gas running back from the carb into the airbox.  Let it do that for a minute to see whether it was going to stop.  It didn't.  Guess I will see if the honda shop has a float and needle valve.

 

Anyone know the difference between a VE6DA A and VE6DA B carb.  Mine is an A.  I see 2 different ones listed on Partzilla.  There is a new one on ebay $20 cheaper than partszilla but it is a B.  Do they simply interchange (if I end up getting a new one)?

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 I swapped a lot of parts from 05 to 11. Never had any issues with any of them working on various models. 

 

You could get dark blue plastics 05-06, black in 09, yellow  05 and 06, white in 08. Red and green every year, camo starting in either 07-08.

 

Green seems to hold its look the best. Fading and scratches don’t seem to show up as bad on green as they do in other colors

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I like the blue ones. But red, black and white aren’t bad. Understand I’ve lived with an Orange rancher for 15 years. Lol. 

 

I got a carb rebuild kit at the honda shop in Brookhaven. They didn’t have the 2 airbox sub filters or a float. Go figure. Huge volume dealership. 

 

My petcock doesnt stop the fuel flow. I’ve read horror stories about the screws stripping out in the plastic. I’m inclined to leave it how it is. My rancher is the same way.  Any tricks? 

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13 minutes ago, slowindown said:

I like the blue ones. But red, black and white aren’t bad. Understand I’ve lived with an Orange rancher for 15 years. Lol. 

 

I got a carb rebuild kit at the honda shop in Brookhaven. They didn’t have the 2 airbox sub filters or a float. Go figure. Huge volume dealership. 

 

My petcock doesnt stop the fuel flow. I’ve read horror stories about the screws stripping out in the plastic. I’m inclined to leave it how it is. My rancher is the same way.  Any tricks? 

a new petcock is in order...unless you can get that screw out ?..lol. most times they need replacing . shindy carb kit, dont buy oem from honda, price wise, its better to get the shindy kit.

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2 hours ago, shadetree said:

a new petcock is in order...unless you can get that screw out ?..lol. most times they need replacing . shindy carb kit, dont buy oem from honda, price wise, its better to get the shindy kit.

 

 

 Hmm. This in the picture belt is what they had and sold me. 

0E917C40-451C-4CE3-84CD-B98BDCBAE7FA.jpeg

CF87CEE0-FBCB-4CDD-A553-36B3972C9568.jpeg

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1 hour ago, slowindown said:

 

 

 Hmm. This in the picture belt is what they had and sold me. 

0E917C40-451C-4CE3-84CD-B98BDCBAE7FA.jpeg

CF87CEE0-FBCB-4CDD-A553-36B3972C9568.jpeg

aghhhh !!!..thats '' all balls '' !!!..total junk !!!, send it back, get your money back, buy a shindy kit !!!.

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2 hours ago, slowindown said:

Frankly, I just needed the float valve, I think.

and if your gonna go through all the trouble to pull the carb, remove the float bowl, just to replace the float needle, why not replace it all while you have it open ??.

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3 hours ago, slowindown said:

Frankly, I just needed the float valve, I think.

 

Unfortunately the china float valve won't work in your carb either. Ya only got two choices for carb parts; OEM Honda, or genuine Shindy.

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36 minutes ago, shadetree said:

and if your gonna go through all the trouble to pull the carb, remove the float bowl, just to replace the float needle, why not replace it all while you have it open ??.

 

 

Your point is correct, of course.  But I really wanted to get it running today.  Impatient, I guess.  The only thing I used out of the all balls kit was the float needle and the slow jet.  The reason I changed the slow jet is because I was afraid I reamed the stock one out too much yesterday with my smallest torch tip cleaner.  The new one in the kit wouldnt quite let that cleaner pass.  I'll order one of those shindy kits to put in the tool box in case I have anymore issues.

 

It's running really good now.  It fired right up and I did a two mile test run.  I didn't have any issues with how it ran - accelerated well in the proper gear or in too high of gear, responded immediately to throttle, idled well, etc.  

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3 minutes ago, retro said:

 

Unfortunately the china float valve won't work in your carb either. Ya only got two choices for carb parts; OEM Honda, or genuine Shindy.

 

Thanks retro.  I appreciate yalls advice on the Shindy kits. See previous post. The china float valve is working good right now but I'm guessing the rubber compound on the tip is not as good as the oem or shindy one???    I found the shindy kits on ebay.  I'm going to order one for the rancher and one for this foreman to use in the future.

Edited by slowindown

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Yup, put that new Shindy kit in the carb right away. Another leak event might wash out and destroy your topend or cause a fire. Trust us we have experience.... you'll be sorry if ya don't.

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A  good habit to get into , is turning off the petcock after every use , so if the float ever does decide to stick , it won't cause a problem ---- i try to do it every time I am parking the bike and know it will for more than the day 

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Agreed! -things can can South with those leaking float bowls- I always turn my petcock off just in case

Up here a lot of people drive them into the garage in Winter and the hot/cold fuel expansion sometimes can force

a leak at the float valve if its borderline.

My friend Mike went back out to his garage about 30 mins after parking ATV and the whole garage  was fumed up and the floor under wheeler was soaked with gas

he lifted the garage doors manually and said he was freaking out the fumes were so bad he was dizzy

He was sure if the furnace kicked on out there the place would have gone off like a bomb said he was scared to death parked while he was opening doors that furnace was gonna kick on- -he parked outside after that....

it was later we found some crud in his petcock- little sediment crumbs that kept washing down and hanging up his float valve

Never leaked again, but still parks outside AND turns off petcock

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hot/cold fuel expansion sometimes can force a leak at the float valve if its borderline

 

might be a good idea to check the gas tank vent in this case  ^^^  a stuck needle, can also completely fill the crank case was gas ..., I've seen that happen on rare occasions ... 

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1 minute ago, _Wilson_™ said:

 

 

 

might be a good idea to check the gas tank vent in this case  ^^^  a stuck needle, can also completely fill the crank case was gas ..., I've seen that happen on rare occasions ... 

Here was a near miss on that note too---

I had an Suzuki Eiger that I had rebuilt engine on years ago- went out the next day and hit the starter and it turned over slightly and went "clunk" - sounded like it hit the valves, I thought thats baaad.....

I took spark plug out to check  and stupid me (first time experiance) hit the starter buttom and gas SHOT everywhere- the cylinder had to be on bottom of stroke and filled with gas- it was a lot, I let off starter and pulled by hand and that was when i noticed spark arcing from plug cap to head

MAN was I glad it was Winter and quite cold out, so the gas wasnt fuming as much- but gas was dripping all over

I had go sit down and shake my head on that one would have lost whole machine if it went up

Lesson learned to unhook coil or turn kill switch to off and pull by hand-slowly...- and glad lesson was not leaned the hard way

It turned out to be the vacuum petcock was faulty and gas was going down the vacuum line to the carb and down intake whch must have been open, it had been a full tank so lots of gravity pressure too

Changed petcock and oil and all was good....

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