foreman 4x4, no power to rear?

[sandalanalyst]

working on a friends foreman 450 es, only the front tires were getting power? its solid shaft in the rear with shaft drive. so i started at the rear end, figured it might be that rear transfer...? all looked good, spacers, bearings, axle, all the splines.. so then im thinkin its in the motor, so since its shaft drive, the shaft goes through the swingarm, so i remove it to find bad swingarm pivot bearings, those were a b****. got em changed tho, and figured the power issue was still in the motor, except, i lifted the wheeler and started it, the output shaft spun, so im thinkin, well what about when its under a load, i put a 24" pipe wrench around the u-joint on the output shaft (so i dont screw up the spline), started it again, put it in gear, and all is great, awesome power comin out, even under a load... but when this machine was all together, pull it up to a tree, and only the front tires spin, no power at all to the rear end. im puttin it back together tomorrow, because i dont see a thing wrong with anything, theres power comin out the rear of the engine, driveshaft and splines are all great, bearings are good, rear transfer works properlly, and the final drive axle is good too with good splines everywhere, its all direct drive sh**.. i dont get it, im stumped, ill put it back together, if anyone has ANY idea what is actually up, pls reply, something electrical? no blinking on the dash, that i noticed, i've just been reading about all these codes n stuff for the foremans? also i signed up to hondaforeman dot com, and i cant even post on there, site sux far as im concerned.. i own a 00 440ex.... but i've been a small engine mechanic helping my uncle for over 10 yrs now and this is just retarded.. thanx in advance for any help.. sry for such a long post

[sandalanalyst]

nevermind, got it, if anyone else ever has this problem buy a new axle and ring gear it'll cost ya about 500 all together from honda, but check ebay, i got a brand new armor tech gear and axle for like 242, course ill do the work myself, pretty simple. could cost some money at a garage.

[scdirtdobber]

Hi,next time jack it up on all 4's and slide the boot back to take a peek at the output shaft,you can start it and watch it spin,it will save you alot of time!!The output shaft is one solid shaft that goes straight through the engine to the front driveshaft. I'm sure you checked the splines in the yoke as well as the driveshaft that goes into the differential.It's not hard to crack open the diff to take a look inside,as stated by sandalanalyst,the odds of it being bad is pretty good and it's not bad to replace,just be sure to replace the axle tube bearing/seal on the left all o-rings and the brake housing bearing and seals.I've done a ton of them and if you take your time it's not a bad fix.

[atv_repair]

Didn't feel like reading all that but by the time i was done with the first sentence i knew what your problem was, and I'll tell you why in the 450 and 500 foreman the splines on the axle are made from a softer metal than the ring gear. Easiest way to check if the axle is stripped
1. Remove cap from rear diff
2. Jack up rear end (if full time 4wd lift front end too)
3. Take good flat head screw driver stick it in your rear diff and hold ring gear
4. Turn your wheel over if the axle turns your axle is stripped make sure the ring gear is not turning