THIS IS A ONE OF A KIND PROBLEM. ITS GOING TO BE THE EASIEST THING TO FIX BUT THE HARDEST TO FIND. THANKS AGAIN FOR THE HELP. I WILL LET YA'LL KNOW WHEN WE GET IT FIXED. THANKS !!!!!!

 

Ok Folks, I need some similar help.

I have a 98 450ES. I went to get on it the other day and nothing happens with the Electric Shift buttons. When I hit the buttons, you get no sound, no shift, no nothing.

Here is what I have done so far.

I have taken the switch apart, it looks good. I do however only have a little over 5 volts going into the switch and then 5 volts coming out of the switch. This tells me "I THINK" that my switch is operating perfectly, but based off a comment one of you said earlier, it takes 11 Volts to change gears (Correct me if I am wrong) then somewhere between the batter and the switch I am going from 12 Volts to 5 volts and therefore am getting nothing.

Please tell me if I am wrong, and let me know if you have any suggestions or thoughts.

P.S. With the manual shift attachment, the bike does shift gears fine, crank up fine, and run fine. The Electric Shift just want change the gears.

 

gidday, I am an ex honda mechanic, and have a trx450 ES..2001...it has 29000 kms..on it yes 29000 kms..and 2200 hours..I use it
a lot..for trapping...the electric shift has stop working..99% of the time it is the control motor..at the front bottom of motor...it is identical to a starter....when a starter does not work anymore...the motor is still good it is usually the brushes that go right..well
the same as the control motor...remove the 4 10MM bolts and take the motor and sensor off together...clean motor and brushes up..and reinstall...hook the sensor and control wires back up and as long as you are not in that 1% ,...it will work again...trap

 

Many times the shift motor will turn over when 12 volts are directly applied to it. Fools a lot of people that is for sure.
I have been working on Honda's for a long time and find 450's one of the toughest to cure, especially pre 2002.
My own 2001 450 was one of the toughest to solve. A customer brought it in, labor time went high on diagnostics finding the issue. I bought the wheeler and repaired it at home. It ended up being the shift motor although I even tried to make it turn over with a mere 6 volts, in which it would.
Seems the ecm picks up a high resistance from the motor and shuts the system down
A faulty speed sensor may also cause simular issues.
Also faulty gear position switches, but the tests for that are obvious.
Honda has a good test for the shift motor. You connect a low watt bulb in series of the shift control motor. The bulb is like a 2 or 3 watt bulb. It works kind of the way that connecting a test light in series to the negative battery cable and terminal when searching for a battery draw. I don't use this proceedure anymore, rather a test shift control motor instead. It is quicker for me to throw a shift control motor in the unit than fight all the tests in the service manual on a 450

----- Gimp -----

 

Thank you all for your posts which led me to investigate further rather than buy an expensive part and still have a problem. Now, how to fix this problem:

Upon investigating the shift motor, I found a broken green wire! Yes!!! Problem it connects directly to the shift motor and is broken at the motor so splicing temporarily is not an option. I see where the pair of wires connect UP the line, but have not removed the shift motor to determine how to disconnect or unplug the wires there....can they be unplugged or are they built into the shift motor requiring that IT be replaced?

Thanks!!!! Checking those wires no matter what the code is the right thing to do!!!

 

Problem my 450 will shift into first and reverse but won't shift to second or any higher gears what is the problem.

 

I would start a new thread, Most of us can't be bothered to wade through the previous 4 pages of answers.

Try shifting with the emergency lever. If you can't get second etc with that, you have a selector problem, if you can, it could be the angle sensor. If your 450 is a late one, any electrical fault code should come up as a blinking gear indicator on the dash. Also check the clutch adjustment, 1st and reverse are done from a stop so don't need the main clutch to lift.

 

Hello, I found this topic after mine came up with this issue over the weekend while my 13yo was just riding around the yard, not rough or mudding. Pressing the up and down shift buttons causes NO sound or anything to happen.

The display is showing just a solid -- in the gear number display. not flashing or a N or R.
I can use the lever to manually shift through the gears and I can start the engine even though the N is not displayed. BTW the Green light at the top is green in every gear I move the lever too.

This sounds like the angle sensor from what I've read. I'm in the process of taking of the "skin" in order to get to the shift motor and angle sensor from the left side.

BTW I get just the -- when I go through the reset steps in the earlier posts.

thanks
gary

 

I had a 2001 450 Foreman E.S that would not shift sometimes. I found that taking the fuses out from under the seat and reinstalling them fixed the problem .
Not sure if it resets something or what but it worked for me.

 

yea I pulled all of mine out...one at a time and looked at them and they all looked perfect, so I put them back in and I haven't turned it back on yet. may go out and try it now...
Sorry in looking at the plate, the model year for this is a 1999 Foreman

trying to find the wiring diagram to figure what colored stripped wire goes where??
not sure which box is the ECM as there's about 5 small ones under the handlebars/headlamp area.