Hey guys, I bought my first ATV yesterday from a guy on Craigslist, and I’ve heard of all the horror stories so no need to fill me in, lol. In any case I ran the VIN and it didn’t come up as stolen and the guy who I bought it off has had it for over a year now.
He told me the guy who he had bought it off also bought it used (it’s an ’05 Honda TRX350FE) The battery is dead so I had to boost it from my truck to get it running which is does just fine. However after bringing it home I noticed the ignition switch has the key casing removed. And here’s where I’m somewhat torn –
Is that something to be concerned about? I mean you can see the plastic place where you can turn the machine "on" or "off" with something like a screwdriver, which in it’self seems fishy. However I can also see someone who owned it not really caring when they lost their keys and just popped the top off and started it with a screwdriver rather than order new keys or find theirs. It needs some work as the ES doesn’t currently work and I’m fairly sure it’s the solenoid that needs replacing among other things. It runs but it’s a project I want to fix up for my fiancee.
Last but not least, that being said – Is there any way to actually take complete ownership? I have a bill of sale but in the back of my mind what if someone comes out of the woodwork in the foreseeable future claiming it’s theirs? The guy seems like an upstanding guy but you really never know. Sorry I’m just new to this and may be over thinking it but I don’t wanna dump money into it if there’s any chance it’s not fully mine.
*I printed 2 bills of sale (he has one, and I have one) and have all the information his name, number, address, license number, I also paid by check etc.
Saw this one on ATV trader. It was at a dealer on consignment. One owner garage kept. Its showing 1200 miles but it really looks like it was taken out for one weekend.
2004 Honda Foreman S
I had a 1998 450 S years ago and it was a tank. I like the reliability of these.
My buddy and I went to M&M today to try out the new Reapers! Little icy so hard to really gauge, but what I got to experience I really liked a lot.
That was until my buddy ended up upside down in a 3′ waterhole that ended the days riding as his quad shut down and appears to have sucked water. It will not start. Any easy way to drain this or just have Polaris dealer take care of it?
I had a hard time getting my ATV up the hill pulling my pop-up ice house. I had no traction. The tires are fine on dirt, mud, etc. What have you guys done? Will chains help get traction going up a snowy hill? Tracks just sound really expensive.
I have a 2002 rubicon 500 with a bad trasmission. it will not do anything when you try and put it in gear. I have done everything that everyone has recommend and some. If i put is in gear and spin the tire, I can hear it grinding inside. So I am trying to figure out what is he best option, I would like to swap the motor or at least the bottom end out. it still runs good. I have a guy that has a 2004 450 rancher motor for sale for 500.00. I just dont know if it can be swapped. so I guess my question is will 2004 450 bottom end work in 2002 500? any help would be awesome
I have a 2002 rubicon 500 with a bad trasmission. it will not do anything when you try and put it in gear. I have done everything that everyone has recommend and some. If i put is in gear and spin the tire, I can hear it grinding inside. So I am trying to figure out what is he best option, I would like to swap the motor or at least the bottom end out. it still runs good. I have a guy that has a 2004 450 rancher motor for sale for 500.00. I just dont know if it can be swapped. so I guess my question is will 2004 450 bottom end work in 2002 500? any help would be awesome
In the never-ending pursuit of the ideal atv plow, I just upgrade my plow blade from a steel blade to the Cycle Country Poly plow blade. Boy, what a positive difference. The poly blade is taller – so snow does not come over the top of it. It has more curvature to it – so it rolls the snow forward, rather that just piling it up against the surface of the blade. It weights almost exactly the same as a steel blade – so it has enough weight to scrape the surface clean. Snow does not stick to the poly the same way that it often sticks to steel.
All said and done, I am very happy with it and I recommend it to others’.
I’m truly stumped, I know we have many threads regarding the new close ratio awd system and it’s "faster engagment" vs the old system. I asked a polaris tech if he could tell me what exactly was changed to make it close ratio and suggested a hillard modification for faster engagment. He told me they haven’t been able to dig into any of the new diffs because polaris designed the axles to break before it could damage the differentials, the axles I guess are referred to as "a fuse".
So he emailed their tech support at Polaris thru the dealer and got a response that a change in rear gearing was done to alter speed at which lock up occurs.
So I sent him a screen shot our member Phil here had with 15/16 diff gearing and 2010 front/rear diff gearing….identical
So last night he pulled up transmissions from pre/post close ratio since we thought maybe they altered something in transmission to alter the "transfer case" to make fronts engage faster. He came back with there are 2 different part numbers for complete transmission assembly, one refers to the new "close ratio" while the older does not.
So he went a step further and pulled up the internal.parts break down and counted teeth on every gear inside transmission old/new. He said all gearing in old/new transmission is identical.
At this point it sounds all conspiracy theory, placebo effect. Rename existing part for marketing purposes, much like gas stations call their gasoline detergents different names to brand themselves and yet it’s all the same ingredients.
So what changed?
Hillard was unchanged between new/old
Gear ratio is diffs are identical new/old
Transmission gearing is unchanged new/old
What is left to alter speed of engagment?
Engineer also told him putting a shorter back tire on, he gave example of 26"front/25" rear will cause faster engagment on older pre close ratio machines.
