I completely agree. Removeing some material where it’s pened would have helped. I likely would have not bent my punch or would have had to use heat. I can say forsure the pin is a interference fit and the pene is so it won’t just fall out if it somehow works loose.
Preaching to the choir. It has been debated many times.
Now I'd like to see what the innerds of the 700 front diff looks like, since the 500 appears to use the same housing minus the extension on the passenger side (which presumably houses the locking mechanism). It must use a different carrier set-up. Time to go look at some parts diagrams...
I believe this has been checked into and the Foreman is different.
on the 700 models item#19 slides back and forth locking the passenger side drive axle to the carrier. here is pic of where it locks onto on the carrier.
Right...and I'm guessing that splined area is missing from the 500 carrier? Not that there's a reason for it to be there...just thinking for simplicity, maybe Honda just had one carrier for both the diffs (being so similar) and 500 guys could bolt on the extension and related parts and at least have that part taken care of if they could move the diff over to the driver side a few inches. And take care of the (now angled) front drive shaft. And get the proper length CV's...and...
I agree completely. Moving diff over to give space for drive axle to move would be the very best way to solve this.then they could have just kept the 700 diff in all of them. I am thinking as soon as Honda wanted to market a 50 inch machine they basically started narrowing by any means possible.
Air hammer time, if it were easy everyone would do it lol.
I have done some research on this, and yes, the only difference between the 700 diff, and the 500 diff, is the gear ratio, and the lack of the locking components bolted to the side of the diff case. The cases, and carrier are the same. So you could take the cover off the passenger side of 500 diff, and bolt the locking assembly to it. I just looked for and found a used complete 700 diff for about $600. So move the diff over, add a u-joint to drive shaft- have to change length too. If you're really lucky, the short axle from the passenger side will be the right length for the drivers side. But, if the distance is too short, you could move all the front suspension out a little bit by welding on new extended mount points for the control arms, and lengthen the tie rods the corresponding amount. You can also buy the front locker cable and shifter for about $30 on e-bay. Like you said, a ton of work and aggravation. What's really annoying about all of this, is that as you said, Honda could very easily offer this on the 500, with parts off the shelf. It would be worth the extra $600 bucks that Honda should charge for the option.
I was thinking the same thing about the passenger-to-driver axle hopes.
I'd like to know why it won't work- mostly out curiosity- there's no way I would ever spend that kind of time and money just for a locking diff that should have been there in the first place. I'm starting to wonder if the part #'s are wrong in the diagrams cuz they certainly show matching #'s between the machines. Still waiting for Torq-Masters to send me a locker....
