A friend of mine broke his frame yesterday on his 400ex. He jumped a little hill and it sat on the ground. It broke in four the places that hold the front shocks onto the frame. It also snapped one of his month old works shocks. Any ideas on where to get a frame? It can be new or used, stock or aftermarket. Any idea of a price on this would be helpful.
And to all of you who noticed I did say friend and 400ex in the same sentence. I don't hold it against him, everyone makes mistakes.

 

yea when i totaled my ex they gave me a list of parts and it lists ex frame as 694.70$
hope this helps

 

Thanks alot that is way cheaper than I thuoght. I had not even called Honda to see because I thought it would be so high.

 

If I were your friend, I would go w/ an aftermarket frame. If the stock one will break once, it'll prolly do it again. Althought the aftermarket frames are expensive, it's better than having to buy a stock one more than once.

Just my 2 cents

 

weld and gusset it it will be stronger than before

 

Check out www.servicehonda.com for cheap factory parts. Buy another frame and definitely gusset it. The upper shock mount is a known weak area on the 400EX frame.

 

How bad is the frame? Have you taken it see about getting it welded, this could be a lot less money and make it stronger than before. Don't just let some hack with a welder at it, you will need someone that knows what they are doing so it won't be all bent out of shape

Good luck.

 

The reason for the break is he rode it for almost a year with wore out shocks. He ordered works for it about a month ago so I don,t think it would happen again on a stock frame. Are after market frames really worth the money for a non-racer. All we ride is dirt pits and sand dunes, well not really dunes but its all we have near hear.
The frame could probably be welded back. The only problem is that when it broke it also twisted the upper mounts for the shocks. To me it seems that if you bent it back that it would be weak in that spot. You could gusset it but that also adds weight and it would have to be alot to make me feel comfy on it again.my site

Thanks for all the help.

 

Thats odd, the same thing happened to my friend on Saturday except his 400ex is a week old and he broke the lower weld on his sub-frame. We think he broke it when he landed off a 53' tabletop. The landing is pretty hard but better than landing on flat ground. Ill have pictures from the jump up soon.

 

Don't bother with an aftermarket frame for the 400EX.... Especially for what your buddy is going to be doing with it.

Gussetting adds minimal weight - if you're worried about 2 to 4 lbs (being VERY liberal) of extra metal in the frame, you're in the wrong sport - it's not like you'll be adding 150 lbs of lead to the chassis.

It takes minimal gussetting placed in the correct spots to make the frame significantly stronger than before - just attack problem areas.

You said yourself that the this was caused by him riding with toasted front shocks for a year and it probably wouldn't happen again on another stock frame - then you say it would have to have a ton of gusseting to make you feel "comfy" on it again - what's up with that?

Tell him to buy a $400 frame from Servicehonda, then take it to the welder and have gussets placed on the upper shock tower and the down tubes in the front - then consider the old frame a lesson in properly maintaing equipment....

Take a look here for some gusseting I did to my frame. I went a little extreme, but I have really punished this quad... My pics will be under the userid of 86atc250r

I suggest at minimum the 4 flat triangular gussets in the front. Two go from the upper shock mount cross tube to the down tubes in the front of the frame. The other two are on the same down tube, but down low where they tie into the horizontal tubes where the front upper control arm pivot is. All 4 can be seen in this pic.