I picked this up for $525 and pulled the engine cause she ran awful and smoked like crazy. I never checked timing (stupid me) only valve gap and pulled the top end apart. I do have a service manual.
1) how can you tell if rings are bad? How does one measure ring gap? Mine look good but this quad smoked real bad!
2) I plan to replace valve seals but looks like one valve guide is cracked. Do I need to order the special tools to replace the guide and ream? I hate to buy a tool I’ll use once.
3) The timing chain seems a little lose, not wanting to dump too much $ into this, how can I tell if it’s too lose and where can I get a quality aftermarket to save $?
Thanks all

Hello All,
New member here on this forum, but active on a variety of other forums from motorcycles to aircraft.
I purchased an 06 TRX400FA a year or so ago, as a rebuild project. Primarily for hunting purposes, but I won’t turn down a bit of woods running in general when the opportunity presents itself. The engine was running at the time of purchase, but smoked really badly. Fouled the plug in a matter of minutes.
I rebuilt the upper end, installing a new cylinder, piston, rings, wrist pin and all new gaskets from the case top up. Had a local machine shop reseat the valves and I installed new valve seals at the same time. After reassembly, the engine spun over nicely, but wouldn’t so much as pop a single time, unless I shot a tiny bit of starting fluid into the carb inlet. Assuming the carb was probably in foul shape I obtained a complete carb overhaul kit and disassembled, cleaned and rebuilt the carb from top to bottom (It was horrendously filthy, and the CV slide was frozen in place. It did sit for most of a year before I started working on it). I also removed the complete airbox system and thoroughly cleaned the mud, dirt & crud from all that and the ducting, finally reassembling everything and adjusting all the linkages.
The engine now cranks and runs fine, idling well on the choke till it warms up. After I shift the tranny into drive, and begin riding around my shop area a bit, I noticed the very first time I cranked it up and rode it around after the rebuild, I could get it to occasionally shift to 2nd and 3rd, but it took a tremendous amount of button clicking and selecting back and forth between ESP & Auto. On the second and subsequent runs, I notice that it will not shift above 1st gear, regardless of what I do with the shift buttons, and regardless of whether I select ESP or Auto.
Admitted, the last ATV I owned and operated for any length of time was an old Suzuki 125 three-wheeler, but I’m thinking it ought not be this difficult.
Any assistance appreciated 🙂

*** After posting this, I found the Sticky on the shift motor gear grease cleaning and re-lubing (I had searched for this exact problem in the forum before my post, but nothing showed). I will go thru that procedure before I do anything else with it. Still welcome any other feedback and info.

D.D.

I read all the sticky clutch threads. I felt the clutch was sticking since i got the thing. I could hold the shifter up and gas it a little and it would free up and not creep and shift great for the rest of the day. It has 1100 miles on it and thought i better adjust it. I loosend the lock nut up and counter clockwised the set screw. It was very tight but moveable and i backed it out some. Went clockwise some still tight. thought it was about where it was and locked it down. Put it in gear and nothing. It goes into gear but wont move. Ive played with it back and forth some, it either goes in gear and wont move or wont go into gear at all the other way. It seems the screw is either really tight or really loose and springy (being able to push the set screw in or out?) Ive adjusted clutches many times on my ranchers and never felt like this. Im thinking i got the thing so far out of adjustment now and dont know what i need to do.

Im wondering what the screw does inside on the clutch, is it spring loaded and the more you screw it in the more pressure you place? Wondering if i should back it out far and try again?

Thanks for any help.

I have a Honda fortrax 400 that hasn’t been able to electric start for a while, I would always pull start. So wheb I got a new battery it worked just fine. Tool a ride and I didn’t check the gas, so it ran out if gas and died. Pushed it back to the garage aded some fuel, now I cant electric start. Charged the battery up over night. Put it in, electric start worked, and the the atv shortly died, out of now where. Tried to pull start and electric start and nothing works, even with the battery restarted. Extra Information: I did install a new warn switch for the wench.
When I was replacing the battery, the wench wires (blue and yellow) are connected to the battery, I just don’t know if they go both one plus or if one goes on black and the other on red.

Hey everyone. I will connect my new battery maintainer tonight but a few questions from ya’ll ( I’m from Texas). I have heard that my 2014 trx 420 draws a small current when off so the battery drains during down times. My maintainer operator’s manual says if there is a drain on the battery detected it will automatically shut off (after 12 hours) to Abort Mode because it thinks there is something wrong with the battery. My question is "will the small amount of draw inherent to my wheeler be enough to prevent the maintainer from switching to maintain mode after it has reached a full charge?" I bought a Schumacher 2 amp maintainer.

Will not start hot or cold when holding starter button down continuosly. Have to hit starter button in short bursts or pull rope to start. only have to pull cord 6 inches & will start right up. Changed out cdi with no results. any ideas?

Brand new here so hello, merry christmas, and thanks in advance for any tips. My 04 Rancher 400 (carburetor)) will only start in cold weather (around freezing) by pushing the primer Plunger. Then you have to really keep it Choked to stay running. I`ve tried different Plugs and I run clean Premium fuel. It has always done this but I use it more in the winter now and its a pain. Thanks

Hey guys, I’m working on a 86 trx250 for the in-laws. So when this project started he drove it about 100 yards and it died, then it would only run for a couple seconds and then it just wouldn’t start at all.

I took on the project assuming it was probably carb issues or something. The wheeler made spark when I would kick it over.

1. Choke cable was broken and rusted solid, cut that out and replaced it.
2. Took out carb and completely cleaned it, one jet was totally plugged.
3. Took out starter, got a new one, also replaced the starter reduction gear.

Problem 1. I lost the damn key. bought a new ignition because that was my stupidity. of course new ignition doesn’t come with a plug to go into the CDI so I had to cut the old one apart and do some minor wiring. NBD.

4. Re assemble mostly to make sure everything works, but it doesn’t. The battery is totally shot, whatever there is a spare and I used some short jumper cables for the time being.

5. I get no spark, no electric, nothing. When I jump the positive to the starter it kicks, that’s good. When I put the jumper cables to the battery, I get nothing. Rub the cable on the terminal and no sparks or anything. When I do the ground though, it does. So somewhere the positive is not making a full loop.

But the kicker is that I DID have spark all before this project started, and now I don’t. I even replaced a couple fuses that were shot or looked bad. I get no neutral light, no spark off the plug, nothing.

Can someone here PLEASE point me in the right direction??? I’m about to throw this thing in the river and let it rot. This has been almost 2 weeks of troubleshooting and to no avail….

i have a 2002 rancher that is giving no spark and will not crank… i have read it could be the cdi box. I have no idea where this part is located and would like for any help anyone may have.

Hello from Texas!

I work at an all repair shop here in central Texas. I have a customers 04 Rubicon here in the shop. It has 3700 miles on it. It runs very good with no problems at all until it gets hot. When it gets hot is when the transmission issues start. It grinds, bad!

At this point, I’m trying to figure out whether its worth rebuilding the tranny or just replacing it. It’s a 4X4. I’ve cracked open Hondas before, but this is the first hydrostatic transmission. With 20 years in the tech industry, I’m pretty confident I can fix it, my question to you guys is, is it worth the hassle to rebuild or just replace? I like saving the customer money when I can.

I’ve checked the basics already.

Thank you in advance.