The ring gear is quite expensive to buy from the dealer (mostly because they only sell the ring & pinion as a set), so after some online investigating on www.hondaforeman.com, I decided to buy an Armour Tec ring gear from ATV Outfitters in the states. They were actually supposed to supply the replacement rear axel too, but forgot to ship the part.

The axel, seals and an All Balls rear end bearing kit were purchased locally at Honda One.

Replacement is pretty straight forward and I completed it on one evening. You have to remove both hubs, the brake backing plate, the left and right axel tubes, and slide the axel out from the brake side. Then you remove the bolts for the differential cover, remove it, and then pull out the ring gear. I replaced the seals on either side of the differential, but the bearings were in great shape. With the new seals installed the replacement ring gear was installed making sure to reuse the (2) old shims in their stock locations. It's important not to mix them up.

The mating surface of the differential cover was sealed with a thin layer of automotive silicone, which has to set before reinstalling the cover. This is a good time to clean, lubricate and reassemble the brake panel. I installed new bearings in the brake panel, and all new seals. It's important to grease the cam that operates the rear brake shoes, I always use high temperature brake grease.

Once the diff cover is installed and properly torqued, the right axel tube can be reinstalled, the axel slid in place, the drum brake assembly and the right hub installed. When I installed the axel I applied a light coating of anti-seize to the entire axel and inside of the ring gear. Hopefully this will slow corrosion if water enters the axel tube in the future.

Once the axel is in, the left side stopper shim, left side axel tube, hub and wheel can be installed and torqued. I installed a new bearing and seal in the axel tube, I also  replaced the left hub as deep grooves had formed in the seal area (which I believe helped mud/water enter  the axel housing). Once everything was buttoned up the brakes were hooked up and adjusted and everything tested out ok, no binding, no grinding!

Before our Argentia Trip I gave the rest of a bike an inspection and found one toasted front wheel bearing and a loose upper ball joint. Honda One stocks All Balls bearing kits, so I picked up a front kit which came with the bearing and all the seals you need. First I took the plastic seals out of the bearing, manually packed it with wheel bearing grease, and reinstalled the seals. I also filled the inside of the hub seals and the space between the seals and bearing with grease. This way there is no empty space for water to gather and wear out the bearing prematurely.

The upper ball joint was another straight forward job. With the hub removed for bearing replacement, I removed the cir-clip from the ball joint, and hammered it out with a large hammer and an old socket as a spacer. To press in the new ball joint without removing the A-arm from the bike I made a ball joint press out of a large c-clamp and some sockets from my 3/4 drive set.  I took 2 large sockets one that fit snug on the bottom to push against the ball joint lip, and one that would allow the top of the ball joint to freely come through the opening on top. I then used my large C-clamp to squeeze the sockets which pressed the ball joint in place perfectly. The snap ring was reinstalled and the job was done.

My last upgrade before the Argentia run was the installation of a Perfex Lift kit. I got a great deal on new old stock at Honda One and decided to give it a try on project Foreman. These kits not only lift but change the angle of the front and rear shocks to give a better ride.

There are two sets of holes so you can choose between .75 or 1.5" of total lift. In the front I chose the shorter of the two to keep CV joint angles in check but in the rear I went with the higher of the two as my rear shocks are weak and the bike sits level with rider in place. The kit definitely makes for a better ride, its not comparable to an independent rear suspension bike but its much better than stock!

May 14, 2012 Goulds test ride post repairs and I'm happy to report Project Foreman is working perfectly once again! The Perfex lift kit definitely made a big improvement in ride quality, even running OEM shocks & springs.

May 19, 2012 Argentia ATV run. Project Foreman had its first long ride in quite awhile, so long we took and used extra fuel! Bike ran great which is more that can be said for 2 newer bikes that had to be towed back on this adventure!

On the Argentia trip I found my 12 year old Warn 424 Shifter was getting quite hard to shift and lock in 2wd and found some end play in the 424 unit driveshaft bearings. WARN discontinued these units a few years ago as most modern bikes finally have selectable 4wd from the factory, but I found a company called Wide Open manufacturing these units and making rebuild kits!

I removed the unit from the bike and found a lot of dirt & grime mixed with the grease filled drive unit, the cable was worn down to 2 threads and the bearings were toast. The Wide Open rebuild kit fit perfectly making the unit as good as new. For the complete story check out the WARN 424 article.

Labour Day weekend 2012. Project Foreman still running great, busy weekend on the Southern Shore, Sooley buried Maffer's new bike in bog, then Maffer swamped it in the pond trying to clean it! Project Foreman turned project tow truck and got the water filled bike back to camp.

Cheers, MIKE