Recon Axle Seized (Brakes or Bearings)

[Whitfield]

I've got (2) Recon rear axles to tear down on Tuesday both seized while sitting parked.

Mine most likely had water in it, Bad creek crossing rack deep / stuck. Took a few minuites to get out. Been sitting 18 months.

Brother-in-law bought his cheap with the rear seized, but it came with a new rear from honda in the box.

What is the common mode of failure for these to seize while sitting? Bearings or Brakes

I've got the New OEM Honda Complete Rear Axle assembly to install in my Brother-in-laws bike. BUT mine will need to be repaired. I figure I'll take his and mine and hope to make 1 good one from the 2 bad ones.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a53/whitfimb/ebay/recon1.jpg



Thanks !!!

[cmanningjr]

I'd just plan on replacing both while your in there. That's what I did on my TRX300FW

[Whitfield]

Worked on the first Recon. (My Brother-in-laws)

Rear locked up while sitting. Rear Brakes were not the issue / while they needed cleaning and pivot arm greasing they were still functional.

Rear Diff bearings and Rear Axle bearings were seized.

Replaced the bad diff with the NEW rear diff from Honda (Came with bike).

This fixed my Brother-in-laws Recon dff.

Issues I ran into on my brother-in-laws Recon

We only had 1 axle bearing (needed 3) We bought one KoYo 60/32 from Applied industries for $22. I was able to pop the seals and flush oil, flush oil, atf, flush, grease and reinstall rubber seals on another bearing. Not perfect but probally better then 75% of the 10 yr old atvs out their. (he is Broke / unemployed) so this worked well for him.

Honda had all (3) bearings in stock but wanted over $125 for all 3 (bearings only / seals not included).

Luckly we had all 3 seals new, also had a new (Honda) locking snap ring for the 2 left side rear axle bearings.
Axle surface for bearings and seals was questionable. We passed it as OK for ATV use but all surfaces showed excessive wear from the sand / water mix.




For mine:

After Turkeyday I took his seized diff apart and found lots of sand, water, and frozen bearings.

For repair I ordered complete new bearing set for Axle and Diff.

Plan is to rebuild this useable diff and then install it into my Recon. I'm sure mine looks the same.

I have yet to find any brake issues other then one frozen cable on a dead parts bike.


Removing the Pinion nut from his seized diff was a SOB. I'm sure it takes a Honda special tool that i do not have. I removed the punch stamped locking section with a dremel tool and then heated up the pinion area around the nut with a heat gun (Oversized Comercial hair dryer shaped heat gun). Once the wd-40 began to bubble / boil and the flakes of baked grease began burning off I tapped the pinion nut loose with a Hammer and Punch. (Nut is standard thread. This is very destructive to the nut and must be done with care. Nut will need to be replaced if threads are damaged.

I plan on reusing this one, I figure I can do this 2 or 3 times before nut replacment is necessary. At which time I'f I've done this more then a few times I'll buy the tool.

Special Tool might be able to be made from a Very large nut. I tried a few trailer ball nuts but no luck yet (couldn't find my 2 5/16" ball). I'll bring the pinion nut into work soon and try to fab a FREE tool.

[Whitfield]

Also did a clutch.

That was a SUPER BIG SOB>>>

While functional this repair was 100% redneck engineered. This was taking 2 parts ATV's left for dead and making one run.

Big tranny clutch plate replacment. This requires removing the engine crank mounted (go cart style) centrifical auto clutch.
We didn't have the specail tool to remove the auto clutch from the crank. Ended up rigging up a puller by suspending it over head from an I-beam with a bearing splitter behind the clutch and a few trailer tie down straps. Heat the clutch to just before cherry red with oxy acetalene torch then smack the crank (center of clutch) with large brass drift and large ball pene hammer. Auto clutch loose on 3 rd smack. Now we can access and replce the transmission clutch plates with no issue.

WoW!!! Those Super Swampers did a number on the stock clutch. New EBC clutch is said to be HD unit with stiffer springs. Springs were taller and much stiffer. Trans clutch is operated when you pull the gear shifter with your foot. Cool / unique design.

These automatic / centrifical clutch (shoe return springs) 2 of the 3 were broken.

Disassemble parts motor. Rig same auto clutch puller hoist torch assy. Harves the 2 necessary springs.

Completly dissasemble and rebuild centrifical automatic clutch.

Fun FUn Fun!!!! Reinstall engine, rebuild rear. Swap all necessary good parts, rebuild entire rear brake, piviots / arms / de-scale / de-rust.

Note: Crank is soft.... Brass drift mushroomed end of crank. Clutch side cover would not slip on as the mushroomed crank end must fit into a case cover bearing. Minor filing got the crank back into useable condition whil eleaving plenty of surface for the bearing fit.

This is absolutly not recomended for standard repair. A crank clutch puller is well worth it's cost. My situation was that the ATV was brought in 150 miles and we had 24 hrs to make repairs before the return trip. + Current owner is unemployed and been out of work since April. So extra $$$ on tools was not part of THIS equation.

I offered (3) area Honda shops each $25 to pop his auto clutch off with their tool. Never could get past the uptight service writer. I figure pitching a straight $25 for 5 min work would be a great in for the service writer tech relationship.
Best offfer I could get was drop your engine off and we can tag it and get it back to you in 12 - 15 days. My family ran a Harley shop until 1988 ~ Man how things have changed.

[Whitfield]

Even worse then the clutch repair...

Rebuilding the rear. Everything is relativle easy and straight forward EXCEPT pulling the pinion needle bearing. It has a spring clip holding it locked in place. Nothing beats carbon arc gouging a thimble sized needle bearing race in a blind hole aluminium case. Not preaty but it is out and the new pinion bearing are inplace.