2001 honda foreman 450.

[audie]

hi .y,all happy new year, could  anyone help me with this question? i have a 2001,450 s, honda  foreman , i also had the same machine before but it was a 450.es my question is  why do they keep pulling to the RIGHT? I HAVE THE SAME TIRES ,7 PSI AIR IN SAME TYPE TIRES NO LEAKS ECT.,THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY HELP......AUDIE

[Mech]

Wheel alignment or dragging brakes could cause a bike to pull to one side.

[audie]

thanks but i.ve check both. strange tho  the atvs were same models, yr, only difference  was an e model the other a es model??? sure would like to know answer frustrated..................  ...

[Mech]

Did you check the four wheel's alignment with one other? Did you check the caster and camber ? Alignment would be the number one and biggest contributor. Dragging brakes are rare and people notice mostly.

How bad is this.. how far along the road could you go before it had drifted off by, oh say, five feet ? That's with you just barely constraining the bars..

 

Are you riding on a cambered road when this happens ..?

[audie]

hi thanks for reply. my atv  will pull to the right which makes it difficult  when i try to make a left turn its easier to make a right turn .it doesn.t seem to be much of a problem when i.am on a straight running logging road for example. only when i try to turn left .......i hope i.am explaining this as best as i can...tks for any replys..........

[Mech]

Hi. Yes that's a good explanation. I'd suspect that's in the steering linkages then.

There are two rods that come from arms on the wheels into the center of the bike and attach to a short lever that pushes one of the rods as it pulls the other rod when you turn. We can adjust those rods to change the toe in of the wheels. When the handle bars are straight ahead those rods should both be the same length and the wheels should(on most four wheel drive bikes), be slightly wider apart at the front of the wheels than at the back of the wheels. That's known as toe out.

Now, when we turn a corner, the wheel on the inside of the turn needs to turn a little more than the outer wheel because the inner wheels is following a smaller radius turn. We arrange that by having short levers on the steering hubs that don't come straight back from the hubs but converge slightly towards the back of the bike. The short levers on the steering hubs point to a point on the rear diff. What that does is, as one rod pushes it's steering arm, say the left wheel arm, it swings it's lever through the point where the rod and lever are at right angles. The rod starts off pushing the arm at slightly one side of a right angle, through right angle, and beyond till the rod is past a right angle with the arm. That wheel turns at the optimum amount possible for the rod travel. The other side rod though starts off pulling it's arm already past a right angle, and keeps on pulling it more and more into a position of decreased movement in comparison with the rods travel. The left side steering rod achieves full swing of it's wheel, while the right side rod struggles to turn it's wheel much. The left wheel tucks into a tight turn, but the right wheel doesn't turn as much as it might and it follows a bigger radius turn.  All this is called "toe in on turns", and it's achieved by having the short arms attached to the steering hubs converging. The whole idea is known as the Ackermann principle.

I'm pretty sure that your bikes are both going to have something bent, probably the short steering arms attached to the wheel hubs, or, the upper and lower suspension arms have been changed for ones of different length, or, the steering shaft that comes up to the bars is twisted. People have adjusted the rods so the basic toe in when it's straight ahead is still right, but there is no toe in on turns, or at least, the toe in on turns is wrong when turning left.

On some bikes the rods attach in the center to a plate that's wide and both rods attach the same distance from the steering shaft. On those bikes both rods attach from either above or below. On other bikes the rods attach to a narrow plate attached to the steering shaft which is attached to the bars, and because the plate is small they attach one rod behind the other. On those bikes one rod gets swung through a longer arc than the other, which can also give toe in on turns. They compensate so as to not get excessive toe in on turns by attaching one rod from above and one rod from below. That works because the steering arms out on the wheels are at a different height to the centre plate, and one rod ends up at the same height as the plate and steering arm, and if it's attached so as to swing through the shorter arc, that is it's attached to the hole in the plate nearest the steering shaft it pushes straight and gets full travel, while the other rod being attached from below, and to the further from the steering shaft position on the plate, is pushing sideways but also upwards or downwards and loses some of it's travel. That lost travel compensates for the extra distance from the steering shaft.

So, a long and complicated explanation, but in there somewhere is the answer to your problem. One wheel is getting turned more than the other wheel during turns. You need to check how those rods attach in the center, and then check for bent steering arms on the hubs, or wrong length suspension arms. I hope all my terminology is clear, but if you're not sure which bits I'm referring to at any point ask and I'll find a picture or something.

 

 

[quadnut20]

On 1/1/2023 at 3:28 PM, audie said:

hi .y,all happy new year, could  anyone help me with this question? i have a 2001,450 s, honda  foreman , i also had the same machine before but it was a 450.es my question is  why do they keep pulling to the RIGHT? I HAVE THE SAME TIRES ,7 PSI AIR IN SAME TYPE TIRES NO LEAKS ECT.,THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY HELP......AUDIE

Weird ! I have a 2003 450es and it doesnt pull ! Id like to know what is causing it !! 

[Mech]

I can fix that..  Bring it around and I'll bend it for you..

[Mech]

Actually Audie, I was thinking... (don't laugh)..  The easiest thing to give that problem would be, if the steering shaft from the bars to the short plate the rods attach to had splines, and someone had the plate or the bar mount off and put it on the wrong spline, then the plate would be swung one way when the bars were straight ahead, and the rods would have to be adjusted to get the straight ahead alignment right, but it would have the same effect as I had been describing earlier.. One direction it would be traveling through the right angle with the rods, and the other direction it would be swinging further away from the optimum right angle as you turned.  What's the bet that's what it is..  No bending needed quadnut, I'll do if for you cheap.. cheaper than bending.

[audie]

many thanks awsome. ok i will have atv  tect check all of this out. very thankful...have a safe and healthy yr...............audie

[Mech]

Any competent mech or tech would know all this and realise straight away what was wrong as soon as you gave that second description of it not wanting to turn one direction.

Find a competent tech and they will find the problem no trouble.

[quadnut20]

23 hours ago, Mech said:

I can fix that..  Bring it around and I'll bend it for you..

LOL No i can do it my self !! But thx anyway LOL