Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's Honda Foreman 450 S....

1999 model...4WD....foot shifter....470 miles....rear view mirrors on the front rack...original tires. Never intended to buy an ATV this old but ended up doing just that for several reasons. So I'm picking it up day after tomorrow. It's a dinosaur for sure, but a low mileage dinosaur. Used to haul hay & feed to the cattle. Anybody have actual experience with the beast? Thinking just for general scouting, hauling stand material in and dead critters out it should last quite a while.

Its a Honda. If its in good shape you will do fine. I have a 2001 with 9000 miles on it and it still runs like new.

The old school Hondas are beasts and can take a pounding like no other. 470 miles on a 99, heck that ain't even close to being broken in. Congrats on the purchase and enjoy that machine for year to come.

For $2300 I don't think I'm hurt. Dang, feeling like a kid at Christmas waiting to pick it up. Hope to be hauling a couple of NC mountain deer out on it this weekend.

Nice! Looks just like mine (04), do yourself a favor and put a winch and some good tires on that bad boy.

Still can't believe those rear view mirrors. I'll probably break both just loading it up. Tires it could use. But the originals will get me thru hunting season here. Muzzle loader deer opens Saturday and runs thru 11/21 then rifle till Jan 1. 5 deer limit. Winch will get consideration this summer. Cheap as I am it'll probably take me that long to locate one for a steal.

One thing I would have preferred is 2wd/4wd option. I don't think that was included till 03 or so. Seems I read of an aftermarket kit to retrofit that operation. Anybody done that?

My buddy has one on his 04 Rubicon but I honestly don't know if he even uses it. It's an aftermarket setup made by Warn called the 424.

http://www.atvoutfitters.net/warn_select.htm

Ended up discounting the price a little because of a carb problem. Runs good with full choke and pretty good with half choke. No choke at driving rpm makes it buck, jump and backfire. Owner said he "cleaned the carburator out" last year and thinks the "middle adjustment screw" needs adjusting. Sounds to me like the jets are gummed and he didn't really clean anything.

So anyhow, after rebuilding a Yamaha carb and a Honda carb earlier this year I'm thinking about just buying the whole carb. Ebay has some aftermarked listed for less than $80 shipped. Plug & play. Has anyone any experience with these aftermarket units?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Carbure...ries&hash=item4ad96d321a&vxp=mtr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CARBURETOR-...ries&hash=item58ab12514a&vxp=mtr

There's also some OEM for $112:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Honda-TRX-4...ries&hash=item1c489ef980&vxp=mtr

Feedback appreciated.

I have a Yamaha big bear 350 and fought this same issue for a week.I had the carb off I don't know how many times before I found the root problem

If this is a slide type carb, remove the slide from the body and look for a rolled oring that is covering an airhole on the slid itself. You may need a tamper proof torx set or do like I did and take a dremel and remove the nub and use a regular torx,

That Honda is a great machine! Looks like a good buy to me

That's why I'm thinking a whole carb for $80 is a deal. Much less frustration. I"m really tired of putting carbs on and taking them off.

And thanks pp. She's shed the rear basket and hand shifter but I left the mirrors on. They'll probably shed themselves before long. I think it'll turn out to be a fun little scooter. Drained the carb then ran some cleaner into it and hope it'll be all better in the morning when I flush it out with gas. If not, see above. But any carb swapping will have to wait till next weekend. I'm headed to Ashe County, NC in the morning and plan on staying for the 1st week of muzzle loader season.

I owned a 1999 450S for about10 years, it was bullet proof. Sold it to a friend who still is running it. Another friend has the same machine and I was using it the past few days.

Great machines............

OK, got a question. Is the oil cooler fan supposed to run all the time or is it temp triggered? I had the oil temp light staying on this afternoon and got it to go off with an innanet tip on wiggling a couple of connections. But noticed when the machine was idling the fan was motionless.

Temp triggered.

Thought so. Thanks

If you can find a place locally that sells ethonal free gas, use it exclusively in that machine. Ethonal and Honda carbs don't like each other.

Nice bike!

Run some Sea Foam solution in the gasoline periodically, and that will take care of the carb cleaning issue.

I've run about 3 gallons of Sea Foam treated gas thru it so far and nothing has changed. I even squirted carb cleaner and Kroil into the fuel intake and let sit for a day with no luck. But I have a new aftermarket carb that I'll put on tomorrow. If it works for $77.80 I'm happy. There are 2 Shell stations nearby that sell hi test ethanol free gas and that's all that goes in my small engines from now on. But Sea Foam from all I hear is the additive to use.

Check the oil cooler and make sure it's not clogged with mud. My fan use to run a lot until I cleaned the backside of the oil cooler, now it hardly ever comes on.

Installed the carb I got from zoomzoompartz.com for $77.80 delivered off ebay. Bingo. Worked the first time. Now it gets fed only non-ethanol if at all possible. And I'll never rebuild another carb if I can get the whole unit for a price like this. Oh, I had an issue. The configuration wasn't exactly like the OEM. A breather tube with 2 taps on the OEM carb body wasn't included on the aftermarket. Had great service to determine if I had the right carb or not and why the difference.