Went riding today, reversed and stopped shifting. The ES would not work and it was stuck in reverse. I manually put it in 2nd to get out, took it to the house, tried resetting it, tried everything and nothing would work. Plan on taking it to the dealer tomorrow and letting them fix it. Any suggestions? My guess is the angle sensor, that seems to be the general consensus. I hope this doesnt happen too much it only has 10 hrs and 50 miles.

Thanks

 

It's on warranty, so it's Honda's problem.

I always get jumped on when I tell folks to get the foot shifter and avoid the ES. There are a couple of other ES problem posts on the board right now as well as this one. Got to wonder when everybody is going to learn from all these bad experiences.............

 

Went to the dealership today. It was the angle sensor, but my fault. Apparently a stick hit it and broke it. Cost me 100 bucks, but it makes me feel better than if it was already breaking on its own. I am surprised that there is no guard over it. the angle sensor is wide open in the back of the engine by the drive shaft. Take a look at yours and let me know if anyone has any suggestions to how i could protect it.

Thanks

 

thats why id never buy a honda with es. i actually don't see any honda's id buy. sorry for loss man . glad u got it fixed.

 

I like the 420, this little incedent just sucked. I like the ES alot better than my brother's belt driven KQ. Hopefully i wont have anymore problems.

 

yea I had a 450 ES before, I had few problems with it to nothing major once in a while had to rock it back and forth. I just bought the 420 and opted to go to manual, i had to many friends with problems with the ES. To each is own, manual or es much better then belts, been down that road ERRRRRRRRRRRRRr

 

this is one helpful reply!!!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

 

My honda 420 rancher ES is amazing we go through crap that not even the foremans can go .We usually go with 3 foremans 3 rancher 350 and a brute force 650 and in water we do better since is Fuel injected( has never shut off) and in mud only the brute force that is a beast beats it.

 

I have an 04 Recon ES and just replaced the angle sensor on it for the first time (over 3 years old). It has a guard over it, maybe something like that you can incorporate into your rancher. Just looks like a thin piece of galvanized metal shaped and bolted on over it to protect the sensor.

 

I had problems with the sensor when I first bought it .But when I took it back they told me it was getting wet when I wash it or I went through some deeper creeks.They seal it really good and I haven't had problems in 5 months.