Honda Rancher ATV maintenance questions

Gator

Gator

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Long story short-

My wife's sister and her husband live in Florida. Two years ago they bought some property just south of Forest City, planning on building something there. They have been making regular trips up to work on the property since they bought it. BIL had some equipment he had stored in a shipping container / storage trailer. Property borders on the Second Broad River. The heavy rain we had 2-3 weeks ago overcame the banks of the river and made it up to his storage trailer.

One of the items that got wet was a 2024 Honda Rancher ATV they bought on their last trip up here. Not sure if it was totally submerged or not but I'd say the water was up to the handlebars. I just pumped a half gallon out of the air filter box. BIL told me when they loaded it on the trailer that water ran out of the exhaust. Brand new ATV, 2.7 hours on it. It was not running when it got wet and has not been cranked since.

He asked me to take a look and flush the fluids and see if I can get it back in proper operating condition instead of him taking it to the Honda dealer. I am mechanically inclined enough but this is something totally new to me.

Good news is the owners manual was strapped under the seat in a zip lock bag and it's totally dry. So before I get in this too deep is there anything I should be aware of other than what you may call "the obvious"? I don't want to do something stupid.

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Being that new id take to dealer. Anything you do is liable to void their warranty. With that being said

Change all fluids. Those things get submerged on the regular during use(thats what youtube shows me) so it should be ok as long as the water didnt go in the motor. Plugs will need to be removed and motor turned over to get that water out. Then a good dose of marvel mystery fogged into the plug hole and some more turning over. Dont forget an additive in the gas as well and only non ethanol if you can.

Good luck.
 
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Drain all fluids, tip/rock it back and forth to drain as much as possible. Un plug all electrical connections, blow them out with air, be careful to not send any gaskets airborne, spray something like DeOxit (@nhusa can chime in) into both sides of the plugs & let them stay apart for at least a day to fully dry out.
You can spray the ride down with WD-40 (Water Dispersion formula #40), it’ll help displace the water in the nooks and crannies, don’t spray the brakes.
 
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Like mentioned up above, you can change the fluids, plugs and filter. I’d have some quarts of cheap oil on hand, I case the fluid is milky. If it is, cycle it until it’s clean then put in the OEM oil. Being that it wasn’t running when it got wet, I’d doubt you have any serious issues. I’ve sunk a rancher 420 more than a couple times.

Also I’d avoid taking it to the dealer. Even if he bought a service plan, they’re not going to cover it with that few of hrs on it and will charge Insane prices for easy work.

I managed to to this a few months back after a monsoon.

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Just a few pics for reference. Looks like the water may have stopped just before it went over the fuel filler. I took a few fuel samples from the bottom of the tank and didn't see any water. Probably going to drain the tank anyway.

Definitely water in the oil. My garage floor is sweating so bad today I'll probably wait until tomorrow to drain the oil.


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I wouldn’t take it to the dealer. If they see it was submerged they’d likely void any remaining warranty it came with. They won’t care how or why it got wet, or that it wasn’t running at the time
Do as suggested above. Replace all fluids, more than once if needed, and give it a good bath.
If you have access to compressed air blow all the dirt and water out of all the electrical connectors and apply dielectric grease.
Should be good to go.
 
Pulled the drain plug on the engine this evening, water at first then milkshake. I'll let it drain good for 24 hours or so.

The connecting pipe between the air filter element and the fuel injection unit is surprisingly bone dry.

I pulled the spark plug. The piston is down in the cylinder a bit but you can see the top of the piston, no water.

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Gator said:
Pulled the drain plug on the engine this evening, water at first then milkshake. I'll let it drain good for 24 hours or so.

The connecting pipe between the air filter element and the fuel injection unit is surprisingly bone dry.

I pulled the spark plug. The piston is down in the cylinder a bit but you can see the top of the piston, no water.

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You may have gotten lucky they are usually pretty good if water never gets above the intake which is just under the gas tank neck usually. Still change all the fluids as soon as possible couple times. Bad thing maybe it sitting in the water and electrical issues being its newer down the road.
 
Jp8819 said:
You may have gotten lucky they are usually pretty good if water never gets above the intake which is just under the gas tank neck usually. Still change all the fluids as soon as possible couple times. Bad thing maybe it sitting in the water and electrical issues being its newer down the road.
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Yessir, that's where the DeOxit/water displacer sprayed into the disassembled connections will replace the water, and leave a protective coating on the jacks/pins and the wire ends they're crimped to. Filling the plugs with dielectric grease after they've dried out for a few days will help keep any future moisture from getting in.
 
Any suggestions on the "proper" way to dispose of 3-1/2 gallons of skunky gas?

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Definitely change the oil 2 to 3 times! With oil filters EACH time.

Won't be cheap...but a whole lot cheaper than a new atv. I'd replace plugs too! Of course new air filter, new fuel filter, rear axle oil etc
 
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BIL has been home in Florida for a while, may be a few weeks before he gets back up here so there's been no rush.

I've been careful to try not to disturb much so as to disguise my work in case this ever needs to go back to the dealer for a possible warranty issue. Initially I tried to pump the fuel / water out of the filler hole, that didn't work. So I disconnected the fuel line from the fuel injection and used the fuel pump to pump out about 1-1/2 gallons of fuel. It had some water in it.



water.jpg

Then I refueled with fresh gas and it fired right up.

After 4 oil changes the oil was cleared up. It actually only took 3 but you don't really know it's clean until you drain the third one. So now it has fresh Honda brand oil and filter in it.

Once the oil and fuel was fixed I took it for a ride, 2 laps around the block, maybe 1/2 mile. Pretty much ran fine but there's an issue at idle.

After a minute or two on a cold start up the idle will start going up and down in rpms, if you come off idle just a bit, it smooths out. Throttle response is great. But if you slow down to make a sharp U turn at idle speed it's tough because the throttle is not steady.

I pulled the plug off the IAC, it looked dry but I blew it out with air, gave it a shot of Corrosion X and some dielectric grease. No change. The IAC is supposed to just lift out after removing two screws. It came up about 3/8" and stopped. I didn't want to force it and cause a new issue so I gave it a shot of electronic contact cleaner and put it back together. Still no change.

So pretty much the ATV is all good except for the idle issue. I have pulled most of the electrical connectors and they have all appeared dry but they all got a dab of dielectric grease.

BIL is appreciative of what I've done so far and has no problem taking it to the dealer to get the idle fixed. He's not due back our way for several weeks so I'll do some more Googling and You Tubing, maybe I can get it figured out.

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