98 Foreman 450ES Voltage Regulator
 

Can anyone tell me where this part is located.
I've seen Merryman post saying that this is a common problem for a no spark situation, which is what I am dealing with.
I've read quite a few posts on it so I think I am up to speed. No spark at plug. It intermittently wants to fire when I let off the electric start, but dies immediately.
Brand new battery, New plug (correct brand and gap). New ignition coil on the way.

I can see the regulator/rectifier in the wiring diagram, but can't locate it on the bike.

Thanks in advance
R

Bolted to the frame under the RH rear wheel arch. If original, it is unusual in being a black plastic box with no fins. All other regulators I have come across are finned aluminium. We always stick a Honda 350 unit on, as it is cheaper and the plugs are identical. However, when the reg goes you don't get any spark, the "only sparks when I take my finger off the button" problem is one of life's little mysteries. Failure of the neutral light circuit will cause it, so check the wire to the CDI from the neutral light switch, it should be earthed, or open circuit, depending on if it is in gear or not

There you are Mr. merryman!
Thank you for your response.
We are the original owners and it is very stock. And very well taken care of. I don't think it has ever seen a night sky and has probably less than a hundred hours on it.
But still problems are starting to pop up, including the dreaded and oft talked about "electric shift not working." :lmao:

Still not working in spite of efforts to correct. And yep, I've done all that. I'm not an expert, but have the Honda Service Manual and have scoured section 21.
So I've given up on that for the time being and am cobbling together a manual shift rod.

But stayed tuned as I may get back into it as time permits.

Sorry for rambling, but again, thanks for the response. :thanks:

Installed the new Voltage Regulator and ...it works. It starts and runs, but runs rough. SO I probably screwed something up when I dismantled and reassembled the carb.
SO that's next on the list.

Where does the overflow tube go after it leaves the bottom of the carb? I took pics of the carb connection, but not the other end (SMH)
Image from the manual:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/atvconn...80b23a24e2.jpg

The overflow tube dangles downwards, doesn't matter much where, as long as it is down. With low hours machines, shift motor brushes stick and shift buttons corrode so they don't contact properly. Everyone seems to throw a new angle sensor at the problem, so I assume you have already done so. The later models with a fault code system, make life a bit easier.

Ha..Good assumption! . That was an easy "I'll just throw a part at it" job. Then I got serious and went through the troubleshooting steps. The first run through the steps I didn't really know what I was doing, so I did it again. And again. Body parts were laying everywhere :lmao:.

Everything checked out ok according to the specs in the book as far as voltage and resistant. Nevertheless, I still replaced the shift motor and the control module ( the little black box down under the headlight. But I'm not giving up. The next thing I'm planning is tearing it down again and going through the harness and cleaning all the connections.

I'll post the results cause I see that this "no shift" issue is a big problem. Maybe I'll stumble across something helpful.

Thanks for the response on the overflow tube.
R

Cleaning all the connectors will probably fix it, but the computer connector will be hard to clean. I could not even get my connector to release, as it seemed to be glued together.
The easy fix is to bypass the computer. Then you won't need to spend hours cleaning all the connectors.

I'm baaaaaccckkkk......

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/atvconn...3e75d0ad3c.jpg
Ready to start going thru the wiring harness and checking/cleaning all the connections.
As a refresher I have no electric shift. I did rig up a manual shift bar which I'll post a pic of later. I may start a new string with a "start-to-finish' commentary so this won't be buried here. Stay tuned.