[SherlokOhmz]

Hi everyone, I picked up a 86 fourtrax 350 awhile back as a project. It had been sitting in a barn for years & the seller knew nothing about it. It wasnt getting any spark, tooth broke off the starter gear & damaged the stator. I finally got all the parts I need to fix it but after reading the service manual I am not sure thats the best idea. After 86 they changed the starter setup a bit probably because of what happened to the one I bought happened often? When I bought the new stator buddy just gave me the whole side cover off his 87. I think I could make the 87 work but I would have to buy the starter & shim off the 87 + add a hose connector as the 87 case has it capped. I could be missing something, is this possible? If there is a design flaw in the 86 I don't want to rebuild it just to have it happen again down the road. Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated thanks.

 

[Goober]

Hi everyone, I picked up a 86 fourtrax 350 awhile back as a project. It had been sitting in a barn for years & the seller knew nothing about it. It wasnt getting any spark, tooth broke off the starter gear & damaged the stator. I finally got all the parts I need to fix it but after reading the service manual I am not sure thats the best idea. After 86 they changed the starter setup a bit probably because of what happened to the one I bought happened often? When I bought the new stator buddy just gave me the whole side cover off his 87. I think I could make the 87 work but I would have to buy the starter & shim off the 87 + add a hose connector as the 87 case has it capped. I could be missing something, is this possible? If there is a design flaw in the 86 I don't want to rebuild it just to have it happen again down the road. Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated thanks.

Welcome!

If the stator is from an 87 Fourtrax TRX350A and not a Foreman TRX350D, then transplant the stator into your side case. A D model stator will not have an exciter coil wire.

Your sidecase still good?

Lol your pics didn’t show the stator—does your stator look like mine (gotta have the Black/Red wire) that goes to the exciter coil.

Check Ohms using the Green wire with white sleeve—it’s the case ground. Blue/Yellow is pulse coil; Black/Red is exciter coil. Check Yellow wires you should get no continuity thru side case, but from Yellow to Yellow you should get around 0.6 Ohms

 

[SherlokOhmz]

Hi everyone, I picked up a 86 fourtrax 350 awhile back as a project. It had been sitting in a barn for years & the seller knew nothing about it. It wasnt getting any spark, tooth broke off the starter gear & damaged the stator. I finally got all the parts I need to fix it but after reading the service manual I am not sure thats the best idea. After 86 they changed the starter setup a bit probably because of what happened to the one I bought happened often? When I bought the new stator buddy just gave me the whole side cover off his 87. I think I could make the 87 work but I would have to buy the starter & shim off the 87 + add a hose connector as the 87 case has it capped. I could be missing something, is this possible? If there is a design flaw in the 86 I don't want to rebuild it just to have it happen again down the road. Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated thanks.

Welcome!

If the stator is from an 87 Fourtrax TRX350A and not a Foreman TRX350D, then transplant the stator into your side case. A D model stator will not have an exciter coil wire.

Your sidecase still good?

Lol your pics didn’t show the stator–does your stator look like mine (gotta have the Black/Red wire) that goes to the exciter coil.

Check Ohms using the Green wire with white sleeve–it’s the case ground. Blue/Yellow is pulse coil; Black/Red is exciter coil. Check Yellow wires you should get no continuity thru side case, but from Yellow to Yellow you should get around 0.6 Ohms

Thank you for getting back to me so quick on this. Yes the stator is the same, tested it with my meter and its good. I now have all the parts & could probably have it running tomorrow if I tried. I was thinking it might be a better idea to try and upgrade my 86 to the 87+ starter setup. If you look at the attached pics you can see that after just one year (86) honda changed it. After 86 they made the starter gear cover bigger so they could press a bearing into it. The shaft on the 87+ starter is longer so it can be supported by this bearing making this a more reliable setup than the 86. I have noticed 2 differences between the cases & marked them the attached pic. I think difference #1 will be fine once I buy the starter off the guy with the 87. For difference #2 was thinking I could just drill the cap out and transfer the hose connector over. I believe honda changed the starter after just one year because it was a shitty setup. This is why I had to buy a new stator for my 86. A tooth from the starter gear broke off and damaged the original one, if it happened once it will probably happen again. This is why I believe it would be worth the effort to upgrade to the 87+ setup if possible? I hope this makes sense lol.

 

[SherlokOhmz]

Hi, the stator is the same and tested good. I could assemble the parts and have it running tomorrow but Im not sure if thats the best idea. The 86 I have in my garage needed a new stator because a tooth broke off one of the starter gears fell down the hole and damaged it. Honda must have known it was a bad setup because they modified the starter setup after just one year. 87+ they added a bearing to the starter gear cover & extended the starter shaft so the bearing in the gear cover supports it making it stronger & more reliable. This is why I would like to convert my 86 to the 87+ starter setup, I dont want to have to fix it again down the road. There are 2 differences between the cases marked in the attached pic. I think once I get the starter+shim off the 87 it will work. I will also have to transfer the hose connector to the 87 as it doesnt have one for some reason? I think this will work but Im not sure, I could be missing something. If it wont work I would rather learn here than after buying more parts I cant use. Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

 

[Goober]

Okay
Well I wouldn’t consider it a flaw; There are plenty of 86s still running. If this is a design flaw I don’t know about it but that’s not unusual lol

That said if you want to install the 87 cover i think you just need to install a vent in the cover and new starter gears.

 

[SherlokOhmz]

I saw your pic posted on the other thread, nice work on the quad it looks brand new. I had a laugh when you mentioned mouse pee, this one sat in a barn for 10+ yrs. The smell was truly rancid I had to wear a mask while spraying it off. I hope what happened to this one does not happen to yours as its a pain. I attached a pic of the damage the gear tooth did to the stator. Im not sure if it was a flaw. I just figured if honda changed it after just one year they must have had good reason to do so. If I can get the parts off the 87 might give it a go on the weekend.

 

[LedFTed]

I hate mieces, to pieces... how can 1 mouse pee so much..
[ooh, that smell,, it surrounds you..] , and be so destructive..
the only good mickey, is a dead mickey.. durn things can get through a hole, the size of a dime. with the exmark, i cant figure out how they get up there on that one cylinder head, but i got it where i could clean the heads off, so much fur hair, and a strange bug, till i could make out the face. hello little dead baby mickey, of a couple of years.
i were going to hand it to my brother, an ask him, what kind of bug is this??
E got no sense of humor. acts really serious, proper.. but the current underneath ???
sorry to vent some, but, i still hate Mickey's.. and will.
SherlokOhmz '; good side name;;

 

[Goober]

I saw your pic posted on the other thread, nice work on the quad it looks brand new. I had a laugh when you mentioned mouse pee, this one sat in a barn for 10+ yrs. The smell was truly rancid I had to wear a mask while spraying it off. I hope what happened to this one does not happen to yours as its a pain. I attached a pic of the damage the gear tooth did to the stator. Im not sure if it was a flaw. I just figured if honda changed it after just one year they must have had good reason to do so. If I can get the parts off the 87 might give it a go on the weekend.

Thanks yeah lotta work in both my 86s. Yeah that could be a great mod to swap over cases.

O man that’s some rodent ruin there. My harnesses were all chewed and cut Every one.

I have 4 87 TRX350A at work and I looked at the cases yesterday–there are vents on them just like my 86s.

Is there a part number on your case? Wonder if it’s from a D model.

 

[SherlokOhmz]

Im kinda new to the 350s is the 87 TRX350A the foreman model? The service manual shows 2 models for 1987 fourtrax & foreman. This one is a fourtrax, thought I read somewhere that USA got the foremans & Canada had the fourtrax. That could explain the difference with the vents? If it was a 350D the stator would have not worked on my machine. I had a 300 for years & thought the 350 would be prettymuch the same thing. There are differences but most parts off a 300 will work on any year. Trying to buy a stator for the 350 was confusing at first with the different model names and letters. Once I had the manual, it made it easy as long as it had the black wire with the red stripe it should work.

 

[Goober]

Close–all were made in Japan, but seemed to be exclusively offered in Canada beginning in 1990 when TRX300s started being built in USA.

TRX350A is the Fourtrax basic model
86 was first year; you’re right about the improvement to the starter in the following year.

TRX350D is the Foreman first sold in 1987.

TRX350D built in 1988 until 1993 are supposed to have the Revolution Research Line ignition components which don’t seem to be compatible with the 1987 D model.

You’ll see the notes about these in the manual