I Have a 1999 Honda foreman 450es. Around 30 mph and up it shakes like crazy. I put new wheels and tires. Replaced spindles, bearings, axles, and shocks in the front. Had it lined up twice. I cant figure it out. The front handle bars shake back and forth and if in fourwheel drive it makes the hole fourwheeler rock back and fouth. I took it to three shops including the hond shop and cant knowone figure it out. I really love this fourwheeler and have alot of money in it. I would love to get this problem fixed so someone give me some good advice.


1999 honda foreman 450es
warn 424
snorked
HMF pipe
High lifter lift kit
winch
custom seat cover
Jetted & kn air filter

 

Was any of them bearings you replaced A-arm bearings?

 

This is interesting. How long has this been happening? Was it doing it before the 424? Does it do it with the stock tires? Looking at your mods I'm assuming you have big tires? What kind? Are they balanced? Have you tried jacking up the frontend and trying to move the tires? I mean grabbing them at the top and bottom and wiggling them to see if theres any play? When the 424 was installed did you tighten all the front diff bolts? Maybe something has worked loose.

 

Sounds like your front differential is "locking"???? Maybe it has a malfunction that needs to be sorted out??? And, did you go back to the stock tires??? Big tires can change front end geometry for the worse!

I think the diff on a 99 predates the newer torque sensing diff (????). I think it is an "open" differential (not so great!). I know there is a Honda service bulletin about adding a friction modifier to these diffs when they get sticky. Dealer should know about that......

I have a new Rancher 420. The front end of the 420 fights me a little when in 4wd (a little like the front diff is locking), and it REALLY fights me if I put on bigger tires. I am thinking it may need to break in, and might improve with time.

 

Its been doing it for a year and I cant remeber if it was doing it before the warn 424. I have had the other mods for months. I have the factory rims and tire and it still does it no matter the tire size. seems better the bigger the tire size. I only changed the wheel bearings and I jacked it up and there is no slak anywhere. I have tryied every shop in town and the will not balance ITP 589s. They say it not possible I thought the same thing about the 424 something being loose but I put the dive shaft back in adn it still does the same thing. I got it at anouther shop now and there haveing alot of problems figuring this out. If I ever find out what it is I will be sure to let you guys know. If you have any more ideas I will be sure to look into it. Thanks for the help.

 

well I would have to say that it's the tires since they aren't ballanced, do you have any stock tires that are ballanced that you can try out.

 

bullcrap, none of my tires were ever balanced, or any of my friends and there bikes never had a issue at 30 mphs. how are the tie rods? are the ends worn out??? alot of play in the tie rods can have the wheels dancing even a little bit at 30 makes a big difference

 

If it does it with both stock and aftermarket tires, that eliminates "balancing" as the problem. Were the stock and aftermarket tires on the SAME RIMS, or different?

Could it be something as simple as a bent rim???? I had a bent rim in the REAR (yes not even in the front), and it gave similar symptoms.........

 

Jack the quad up securely so all tires are off the ground, run the speed up to 30 or more to see if the bars shake back and forth. If they do take the tires off and try it again, if it still shakes you obviously have a problem in the driveline (bent axle, bad cv joint etc) If it doesn't shake with the tires off then you have a serious balance issue. Correct tire balance makes a hugh difference, I balance all my front tires and they all take weight-some a large amount. I've had the bar shake issue you describe with larger tires (25"+) and balancing corrected that. They need to be spin balanced and weight applied as needed to the inside and out side tire bead areas to correct static as well as dynamic imbalance. Dynamic imbalance is what makes the bars shake back and forth....

 

Works great i have did that before and it was just the tires out of balance fixed the problem and runs great