I have a 2000 Honda Foreman 450 ES fixer upper that had been converted to manual shift and was working fine until I foolishly decided to convert it back to eshift.

I installed the missing reduction gears, a new shift motor and an ECU bypass kit. I noticed that shifting was a little finicky when I first tested out the eshift. Then it got gradually worse and finally stopped shifting back down to N. I can always get up to 5 no problem with electric or manual, and it sounds like it gets down to 3 (display reads -) but nothing lower. Then, I tried the clutch adjustment - backing the screw out the whole way, then 1/4 turn clockwise and locking it down, but that didn't seem to do it. Of course, the adjustment might be off since I'm not adjusting it while it's in N.

At this point, I don't even care about the electric shift anymore and would just like to get it working manually again. Any help is appreciated.

Edit: My strategy of posting here so that the answer would come to me was successful. I jumped on the bike a couple of times while downshifting, and that seemed to do the trick. I adjusted the clutch with the bike in N, and it does seem to shift reliably now with the electric shift. Who knows.

Question: The bonehead that converted this to manual shift welded a DIY shifter onto the spindle. Do you think I'm going to burn out the shift motor early with the additional weight of the shift lever on there? If so, do I a) cut it most of the way off and fabricate an arm that can be bolted onto the existing piece in a pinch or b) try to dremel it down to the original 12mm spindle, or c) take apart the back end and replace the spindle? This guy did it with a Rancher 350. It doesn't look all that difficult, but he's a more experienced mechanic than I am.

 

The additional weight of the shift lever won't make much difference to the strain on the motor. However the original ECU had the angle sensor to stop the motor when the change had occurred. I would guess the "bypass kit" won't be that sophisticated, so motor will be straining away after the shift has occurred until you take your finger off the button. Special pedals were available in the states, to convert ES bikes to foot change. They may not be available now as the more recent, water cooled ES models, have an 8mm emergency hexagon in a really awkward place, so are unsuitable for conversion.

 

These ECU bypass kits are pretty common on these older bikes since the ECU's are not cheap and do seem to fail. I have 4 of these machines of similar years, 2 of them with working ECU's, 1 that has a missing ECU (presume it failed) and this one has the ECU still there but appears to be dead or has some other issue besides the angle sensor. Sounds like I'll just leave the welded shift lever where it is then. Thanks.

 

Bypass kits may be common, doesn't mean they are a good idea. I have only come across 2 cases of faulty ECUs on 350s but dozens with angle sensor, shift motor and shift button faults, plus a lot more with mechanical problems like loose star wheels and cracked or broken components in the selector mechanism.

 

Yeah, I don't know with this one. I replaced the angle sensor, shift motor, thumb shifter, and the electric shift wouldn't even budge until I put in the bypass. Maybe there's a damaged wire somewhere that I couldn't find, but I'm done messing with it for now anyway.