I just bought a 2003 Honda Rancher 4x4 ES. I want to change all fluids (Engine/Trans, differential etc.) I don't have any idea what kind of oil/fluids need to go back in and how much. I have read a little bit about using a "limited slip additive" but don't really know.
Hope you can help.

Thanks!
Jamie.

 

Did you get the owners manual with this machine, it has all the info in it for that.
If not you can get one from your local honda dealer for about 16 bucks.
If you plan on doing any other work on this bike yourself, get a service manual for it... it will run you between 36 and 48 bucks, but is worth its weight in gold if your going to do your own work.

 

Got everything but a manual in the purchase.
I had hoped to get some kind of info today since the Honda dealer here is not open until Tuesday.
How about engine only...let's start small.

 

huntingtexas remove your seat that is where the ownwer's manual is on all new ATV's , just remove the seat turn it over and you should see the manual it's in a plastic bag ; unless someone owned it before you then it should be there ! If you find it remove it and either put it in a lock box that's where i keep my important paper's ! But even if you do find the owner's manual do as HondaTechnician said about getting A goood Service and Repair Shop Manual
even if it's not an O.E.M. manual , a good Haynes Chilton or Clymers manual ; they will pay for themselves with just one full service job ! ..........

 

2 quarts and oil filter change period in the motor 10-w40 motorcycle oil or atv works just dandy.

 

Thanks all, thanks bill.
Obviously a manual is a must. There was not one under seat or anywhere else on machine for that matter.
I will hit the dealership Tuesday for filter/oil, manual etc.

Thanks for you time.

P.S.
Other post should be deleting. My apoligies! Thought I had messed up first post then both appeared.
Great site and I feel certain I will be back for more!

 

huntingtexas make sure they give you the owner's manual , if it wasn't under the seat the tech who did the prep work on the ATV just forgot to put it back , it has some important info in the manual i've only had three ATV's and everyone of them had the manual Slide into a reccess like slot made into the bottom of the seat it's self ( between the seat near where your latch to remove the seat is located on most quad's and motorcycle's ; the main reason i said to put it in a lock box where you keep your important paper's ! Is because when i bought my first ATV an 86' Honda TRX 350FM Foreman fulltime 4x4 , on my first ride i was having trouble getting use to shifting into reverse and i took it out from under the seat ; and opened the sealed plastic to get to the manual and read up a little on the procedure for shifting into reverse , and somewhere between the place i took it out to readup on the procejure for getiing the instructio;s for shifting between neutral and reverse ! I had ridden Honda street bike's in the 70's and they didn't have a reverse on them ; many's a time when i wish they did though ! The last street bike i had before losing my leg's in an auto accident was a 1970 model CB450 with a new CB750 twin cyclinder with twin Double overhead cam engine ! The starter was burn't up and it needed a new battery , but back then i was lucky just to own a bike at all ; All my uncle's and cousin's who had ridden smaller Honda's and Kawasaki's were alway's wanting to ride it ! But it took some special knowledge the kick start this engiine by kicking it off by using the kick starter , some people or just pig headed and wouldn't listen to me ; My mom's youngest brother finally talked me into letting him ride it one day about a quarter mile from a freind's house he stopped his mustang and got out and asked me to let him ride the rest of the way to his freind;s house ; he wanted show his freind's and wife and older brother and ride up to his freind's to show his wife and older brother that he could ride a big bike ! The biggest Honda he had ever ridden was a 1969 CB160 and at that time the biggest sport street bike Honda made was the CB750 twin that came out in the 1970 , The bike was a 1970 CB450 with a new CB750 Twin cyclinder engine that my brother had just installed in it just less than a month before !
The CB450 was almost 3 time's the size of the CB160 and i told him he wouldn't be able to kick start a CB450 with a 750 twin engine with no electric start ;that was one of the reason's my brother sold it to me ! Everytime he would get a bigger bike he would sell me his old one ! But on this Honda my brother didn't even ride it to see how good it ran , he just got our dad come over to the Dealer and hauled home in the back of the dad's truck as soon as we got home he put it in the basement where it sat for two week's : The first thing he did before starting it up was to remove the muffler's and install with my help the the header;s ! We moved it out of the basement and he started it without putting the muffler's ; the original muffler's were made to run single cyclinder it had a crossover for the singler are without the crossover you could run them for a twin cyclinder's ! I tryed to talk his into letting me install the pipes before starting it , but he was drinking and didn't want waste his time with them ; so he got me push him off because of a bad starter and a bad battery ! I tryed to push it down the driveway but it had so much compression all it do slide the rear tire , so i told him to put in in third gear and let get him going a good clip and pop the clutch when i got him going ! Well we got it started but it was so loud and didn't have enought power to to get it back up in the driveway where shut off and rolled it back in the basement ! I tryed to get hid to let hookup the muffller's but he said no he was going to try some coutom pipes from the Harley Davison shop ! About two week's he asked me if i would give him $450.00 for the CB450 with the new CB750 Twin for $450.00 i jumped on it lik a duck on a junebug , but we were close to each other i really miss him he passed away in 1979 and my dad died just 6 day's later so it was a bad month for my family , oh here i go rambling again ! But i put the old pipe's back on and it ran like a scolded dog with the pipes back on and started wearing my old Army Jump Boot's to kick start it ! All my uncles and cousins who had ridden the smaller Honda's were always trying to let them ride it , but none on them had ridden anything bigger than a 225 Kawasaki and my mom's youngest brother who owned a new 1969 Honda CB160 but that was over ten years ago and it had an electric starter to boot ; and the 1970 CB450 with the original engine on an original CB450 frame is almost 3 time's my uncles 1969 CB160 and cousins all but one hadn't kick started anything near the 1969 CB160 but my cousin kenneth but he couldn't kick start my 1970 CB450 and He knew it had a 750 Twin had been put on it before i got it from my brother Roy , Mom's youngest brother Dennis talked talked me to into going fishing at his older brother Jack's Brother inlaw's to go fishing in his pond when we started down there they where in Dennis 67 MustangJack's wife was already there and Dennis was driving his wife was riding on the console with the grearshift and jack was riding shotgun in the front passenger ; and Dennis stopped about a quarter mile from the freind's house and got out of the car and said Harry let trade you drive my mustang and i'll ride your motor the rest of the way ! I told him he couldn't even kick start and electricstarter was burntn this motor to drive the rest of the way , but he thought if i (at 124 lbs ) could kick start it ;that he would ( at 175 lbs ) could surely kick start it with ease ! Well i told him if he could kick start it he could drive last quarter mile to the house he agreed his first atempt it kick back and tore the hyde from the back of his ankle , after his second try and the same thing happened i told hiim to let me and then he could ride it the rest of the to their friend's house , so i told him to watch me so if it stall's out on him again he would know how to start it back up ! Well i got i started on the first kick , then he stalled out the first time he tried to get it going ; i told him to do it the way i showed him ! He did but still got kick back and skint the back of his ankle again , so i had tostart it again his second strat i thought he had but no he stalled again ; by this time his wife and brother jack were laughing their ****'s off and i should've just got go thebike started it up and took off from him to drive the Mustang ! But i had been wanting to drive the 67' Mustang eve he bought new since he got it in mid 1966 , but i thought one more time and this is it ; and it almost was ! When i started it the last time i told him if you stall it again this is it ! Well i got it started again and this time he really throttled it so hard it almost came back on top of him , if not for the new brake's i had put on it the day before ; well i just hate to think what might have happened ! But when he hit the brake's the wheel went down and he guned it again to keep it from stalling and he was laying rubber all over the road ! I mean from one side of the road to the other just barly keeping from the ditche's but he finally got Control just as he reached the top of the hill and there was a stop sign and you guessed it ! To keep from stalling it again right in front of their freinds house he ran the stop signand slide to the left ; I eased up to the stop sign Just in time to see Dennis lose all control and lay it down at the bottom of the freind's concrete driveway ! And to make matter's even worse he layed it down on his left leg and couldn't get it off of him , Back then about all used car dealer's wore polyseter suit'swith double knit pant's and i knew what that meant ; so i gunned it on up the hilland made an illegal u turn and we made it to him as fast as we could ! It took bout of us to get it off him but double knit pant's were meltedto the exhaustand were starting to melt and stick to his leg i took out my pockrt knife and to his protest started cutting the leg of thre pant's off before they could melt and stick to his leg ! it could've been worse and , needless to say i never let anyone to ride my bike again ; the next time someone got to ride it i was doing the driving ! But back to huntingtexas those Suzuki LT 4wd are some great ouad's if your is like my cousin's 89' It was a Suzuki LT 4WD 250 with a Five speed foot shift with a semi auto clutch maual Trannsmission with three shift lever's on the cosole between the seat and the gas tankthe one on the left was for 2WD 4WD and 4WD DIFFLOCK and in the middle was the REVERSE LEVER and on the right one was for HI -LOW - AND SUPER LOW I had 93' SUZUKI LT4WD 300 King Quad it was just like the 250's only the wheel and tire's were bigger and a little more CC's but i couldn't tell the difference ! My youngest brother bought the 93' KQ abought a week after i got my2006 Arctic Cat 400 FIS Auto with the Suzuki 376cc engine and the Suzuki duramatic transmission Suuzuki's belt driven clutch , i wasn't to sure of the belt drivenclutch; i missed the shifted uuntill , but after a long ride in the mountains'creek's and alot of real rocky trail's i didn't miss the pain that stayed with me a few day's of long hard ride's !But is's not as sporty as the Suzuki ; cat is more of a utility machine they both have their place i loved:

 

I dont recall for sure, but I think that bike takes more then 2 quarts of oil.
Im thinking 2.5 but I just dont remember.

 

Some good reads on oil: http://www.thumperfaq.com/oil.htm


http://www.sportrider.com/tech/146_0308_oil/


http://www.maximausa.com/techn...news/LubeNews2002.pdf


Your machine shares the same oil between the enigne and transmission, so your oil needs special additives to cope with being thrashed between the gears in the transmssion. Pick a motorcycle oil that is API SG/JASO MA. Beyond that, the synthetics have many advantages over plain old petroleum oil. My personal preference is Maxima Extra, 100% ester based synthetic....but most folks in here will say it is to expensive.

Owner's manual says it 2.1 qts. If you are in the forzen north, then maybe run 5W30 in winter and 10W40 in summer. In the hot southern states, mabye 10W40 in winter and 20W50 in summer.

You will also need to change the oil filter as well. It will look something like in this example for the 400EX. Be absolutely sure you DO NOT put the filter in backward! http://www.atvriders.com/articles/oilchange400ex.html

Also, be sure the machine has has a valve adjustment. This is the most negelcted piece of manintenance there is. Most folks never do one, and chances are the previous owner (who doesn't even have an owner's manual) is no exception!

And mybe a fresh spark plug???

As for the front differential and final drive, they take 80W90 GL5 "hypoid" gear oil. The diff in the front of your Rancher is an excellent mechanical limited slip design. Your machine will NOT require any friction modifier...that is only for older machines that have a different design.

 

HondaTechnisian what i always do when i'm not sure how much oil a bike or quad hold's for sure , is to use the old rule of thumb if you think it hold's 2.5 qts ; put in 2 qrts start it up and let it idle for a couple minutes and check for leak's ! Then let it cool down and add a little at a time untill it's full , this is how i've alway's done oil change's in Auto's, Cycle's, ATV's and even lawn and garden equipment ! The tech manual's call for not completely filling an engine untill you're sure there , no leak's if an automobile call's for 5 qts with filter change they alway's reccomend putting 3 to 3 1/2 qts first then start it up and let it idle for 2 or 3 munite's to look check for leak's ; so this is the best way to do it anyway seeing as how you're suppose to start the engine and let it get to operating temp before draining anyhow ! To get as much of the sludge and metal filing's out as possiable , this is how i've done fluid change's for over 20 yrs in the small engine service and repair industy ; everyone have a good day on the forums where ever you are and be safe at work and at play ! .......................