Hi yall. I'm a Soldier in the US Army stationed in Iraq. We recently aquired a Honda Rancher. An Air Force unit was leaving and gave it to us. We dont know anything about it and I was hoping yall could help. I dont know the year but it looks to be atleast a year or two old. It has a 5 speed manual tranny with reverse. The side of the engine has 329cm3 stamped on it. It's 4wd (permanate 4wd as far as I can tell). I took some pictures that I will download and post soon.
In the mean time I'm hoping the little info I told yall might help to identify it's year and engine size (I've always heard of these in cc's, not sure what a cm is) and possibly a narrower range of years.
It runs, but rough. I have the carb off for a cleaning and partial rebuild (what ever I can do with what we have available) and I cleaned and re-gaped the spark plug. I also noticed that the choke cable is busted where it screws into the carb. Where could I get one off the internet? Uncle Sam wont put out for repair parts so it's going to be out of pocket. Now that it's getting cold here we will be needing it.
Other than that it seems to be in okay shape.
I'd also like to find out what oil should be used for the engine, tranny, and diffs.
Where would be a good source for light bulbs and spark plugs for it? They dont use the same size or style bulbs as our HMMWV's or 5 tons (not that I expected it to or anything). Just general repair parts like that.

I thank you for any help and info you could provide. I'll get those pictures up asap to hopefully better identify it.

 

Click on the ronnies banner at the top of the page, you can order from them...or dennis kirk or rockymountain atv. For the choke cable, they are sometimes available on ebay, cheaper than new.
The cm3 stands for centi -meters cubed.
Try to find motor oil that doesnt have moly in it, basicly, if it says SG rated oil, and older, its the right stuff. If you have nothing else, the newer motor oils will work, but you may end up with clutch slippage issues. If the container of oil has the energy conserving starburst symbol...it has moly.
Usually somewhere on the frame, in the front, by the steering stem should be a honda tag, which spells out the model and year of the quad.
Welcome to the forums .

 

the cm3 thing on the side of the engine is centimeters cubed, or cubic centimeters (cc's)

it's a 329, but marketed as a '350' engine.

as far as oil and stuff, go with a motorcycle oil meeting JASO MA spec's and is API SG or higher. make sure it says wet-clutch compatible.
it's regular 80w90 gear lube for the front and rear diff's.

also, as far as what year it is, look at the front lights. if they are square, then its a 2003 or older. if the lights are slanted and curved a lot more, then it's a 2004 or 2005.

 

Thank yall for the help.
The headlights are squared, so I guess that means 2003 or older. I cleaned the carb as best as I could and it runs better, but the idle is too high and it jumps hard into gear from neutral. I adjusted the idle screw all the way out and it's still to high. My next step is to rebuild the carb, so what year range would work on this carb?
Also the only choke cable I've found so far is for a 350 TM and the sticker on ours says 350FM. I asume that is the desination for 2 or 4 wheel drive. If so the choke cable for either should work on it correct?

 

yes, you're right about hte TM and FM. TM= Two wheel drive, Manual shifter. FM= Four wheel drive, Manual shifter.

i wouldnt think there would be a difference in the choke cable, as long as it's the same length as the one you take out it should be fine. There's an adjuster nut on the top of the part that screws into the carb, make sure if you put a new one in that you adjust a little bit of free-play into the cable, that way you know the choke pluger is seated all the way when the choke is off.

Also, i would fix the choke cable thing first before doing any carb work, there is fuel passage below the part that screws into the carb, and if that is broken off like you said, that could be an air leak, and be causing the idle issue you're describing. That part is supposed to be sealed against the carb body, in fact, there's a sealing washer you'll probably get with the new cable assembly.

 

Oh okay, things are making more sence now. What happened to the choke cable is that the threads actually broke apart from the rest of the cable so when you pulled the choke the whole thing would pull out of the carb. I figured that's where the air leak was so I removed the hole thing. I thought it would be fine if I just pluged the hole that was left but couldnt find anything to plug it with, so I used the threaded part that broke off, melted some plastic into it and used that as a plug. Then just screwed the plug in. So that needle type thing at the end of the choke cable is subbose to seal it off? If it's letting fuel pass I guess that would cause the problems I'm seeing now. The spark plug gets super fowled and the carb floods real easy. It also wont stay running now. When I first start it it will run for a couple mins then die and wont run again for a while.
My Dad went to the Honda dealer back home and got a rebuild kit and choke cabel for it. I'm going to ask him to get some extra spark plugs to send to us also.
Seems the more I work on it the more I find wrong with it. I had it running okay the other day and drove it around a little bit. It's pretty fun, I'll deffinatly have to get me one for my property back home.

 

Are you sure you didn't adjust the idle mixture screw? Check again. Sure sounds like it.


Thanks for serving our great nation!!
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The part you need for the choke cable is called a {valve set starter} it comes with the new plastic threads ,spring and rubber boot.If your not using it the choke will not seat all the way down the the engine will idle very high.I just replaced mine got it at bike bandit .com for $38 cheapest i could find.Also the idle adjusment is a thumb wheel not a screw.The part is the same for all ranchers 2000 to 2006.

 

Yes the 'thumb wheel' is what I used to try and adjust the idle, I just refered to it as a screw, sorry.
My Dad went to the Honda place near his home and bought the entire choke cable, carb rebuild kit, and repair manual for me and is sending it to me. I'll do like you suggested and replace the choke first and see how it does. The carb looked pretty good when I had it apart so hopefully I wont need to rebuild it, but it will be nice to have the parts on hand incase. Thank yall again for all your help and advice.


Oh, Prezzz, your welcome. It's an honor.

 

What are you going to go with it when you leave? Pass it on to another unit? How did the Air Force unit end up with it?

Or, are these questions no really asks over there?

Just curious.