P700 Camshaft replacement help

[DG Rider]

This one was never abused driving by my wife mostly around the place for work. No EFI car produced requires valve adjustment as a standard maintenance that I know of. And if you research this problem on the Honda MUV700 it is a lot more common than you think.

The are plenty of Japanese EFI cars that have valve adjustments as maintenance.
@Farmer also had a lightly used machine with the issue. It goes all the way back to the Rincon. Again, it'd be nice to know why it happens. Honda has never said, and probably never will.

 

[mt1950]

yeah I had a Honda Foreman ES what a great machine 2005 never ever missed a beat. Sold it to my son and now he rides it never any problems. One question I had when I talk to Honda is the new cam better harder whatever they needed to do to fix the issue they couldn't answer the question so I guess time will tell. You Pay 11k for a side by side and get 6,000 miles on it payed 30k for my 2500HD chevy 200k plus zero problems weird right

 

[DG Rider]

yeah I had a Honda Foreman ES what a great machine 2005 never ever missed a beat. Sold it to my son and now he rides it never any problems. One question I had when I talk to Honda is the new cam better harder whatever they needed to do to fix the issue they couldn't answer the question so I guess time will tell. You Pay 11k for a side by side and get 6,000 miles on it payed 30k for my 2500HD chevy 200k plus zero problems weird right

If you get an answer, it'd be nice to know.

Someone said that they were told that it might have been a bad batch of cams that weren't hardened properly...but across that many years, that's hard to believe. Others were told it was improper warm up. Weird thing is, the cam sits in a little tin "bath tub" of oil, so dry starts would be impossible unless you flipped the machine.

 

[mt1950]

I have heard that on different forums on the cams. The repair manual don't say and I will if I don't hear different when installing a new cam do you lube it with cam lube like a car engine. I will also look at the casting and oil pan(I ordered a new on because I read you should) to see if there is an oiling problem even if flipped if it didn't run for an extended time it shouldn't be a issue I do know it is very very sensitive to oil levels and I thought it was because the transmission is the same oil as the engine. This engine was never over heated never flipped and I am pretty sure the 500 miles I put on it driving it more aggresively than the wives 5500 miles didn't do it. Hell she even starts it and lets it run five minutes before she takes off.

 

[Farmer]

Honda should be ashamed of themselves from the most trouble free powersports to one that can't even go 6000 miles and needs the cam replace and the valve adjustment is considered maintenance oh yeah I have to replace mine also Honda was no help at all. The dealerships around me have a 4-6 week waiting period to even diagnosis it...

Well, mine went out around 700 miles so you might consider yourself lucky??? Most of the bad cams were low miles. Nowhere near your 6000 miles.Yeah @DG Rider ... my dealer finally came out this spring and said it was bad hardening blah blah blah. But, I'm with you thinking that's one hell of a batch of cams if it dates back to the Big Reds and the Rincons. It does seem to be early machines though. I was told the 2015 cam had a different part number than my 2014 and that was the only insurance they gave me. I can't remember them all but I think I've heard of a couple bad 2015's and maybe a 2016. But they could be some different problem or maybe even the new guy pulled a bad one off the shelf to finish out the day. Who knows? I'll never forget though....the dealer I took mine to asked if I had bought the extented warranty.... I looked him right in the eye and said "no, I bought a f**king HONDA!!! I shouldn't need a warranty at 700 miles!" Now I have a bar under the bed completley rusted out and the insides of the main frame are doing the same. It's never seen salt or been submerged. Hell, it's only got around 1000 miles. My 86 TRX 350 4x4 doesn't have ANY of these problems. But thats life as we know it now and I'd still rather be riding a Honda over a Polaris.

 

[DG Rider]

Well, mine went out around 700 miles so you might consider yourself lucky??? Most of the bad cams were low miles. Nowhere near your 6000 miles.Yeah @DG Rider ... my dealer finally came out this spring and said it was bad hardening blah blah blah. But, I'm with you thinking that's one hell of a batch of cams if it dates back to the Big Reds and the Rincons. It does seem to be early machines though. I was told the 2015 cam had a different part number than my 2014 and that was the only insurance they gave me. I can't remember them all but I think I've heard of a couple bad 2015's and maybe a 2016. But they could be some different problem or maybe even the new guy pulled a bad one off the shelf to finish out the day. Who knows? I'll never forget though....the dealer I took mine to asked if I had bought the extented warranty.... I looked him right in the eye and said "no, I bought a f**king HONDA!!! I shouldn't need a warranty at 700 miles!" Now I have a bar under the bed completley rusted out and the insides of the main frame are doing the same. It's never seen salt or been submerged. Hell, it's only got around 1000 miles. My 86 TRX 350 4x4 doesn't have ANY of these problems. But thats life as we know it now and I'd still rather be riding a Honda over a Polaris.

I may be the bearer of bad news. I wasn't aware of it until I got a service manual for the new models, but the cam specs and changed for 2015 and up. That probably explains the different part number.

Water literally poured out of my rear cross member behind the engine when I pulled the skid bolts the 1st time. Surface rust in several locations. And this on a machine that spent all of its time in the desert. They ain't your dad's old 300, that's for sure.

 

[Farmer]

I may be the bearer of bad news. I wasn't aware of it until I got a service manual for the new models, but the cam specs and changed for 2015 and up. That probably explains the different part number.

Yeah I'm guessing it's all your fault because of your early altidude problems! I see your listing a 700 again for a ride. Whadya get?

 

[DG Rider]

Yeah I'm guessing it's all your fault because of your early altidude problems! I see your listing a 700 again for a ride. Whadya get?

P700 - X2 (no wolvy)

...as in two times.

hondasxs.com

I would wanna hope...dream...wish it was to help get a bit more grunt (and maybe it was), but I think it probably had more to do with emissions than anything. And people continue to complain about it on the newer one.

 

[mt1950]

Well WTH i put a new cam in and less than 50 hours and I think it is bad again. So I am getting ready to check it but act like it did before no power cuts out at half throttle. How do you tell it the new cam is hardened correctly?

 

[DG Rider]

Well WTH i put a new cam in and less than 50 hours and I think it is bad again. So I am getting ready to check it but act like it did before no power cuts out at half throttle. How do you tell it the new cam is hardened correctly?

That's terrible. Did you clean out the oil pickup?

 

[Farmer]

Well WTH i put a new cam in and less than 50 hours and I think it is bad again. So I am getting ready to check it but act like it did before no power cuts out at half throttle. How do you tell it the new cam is hardened correctly?

Did you look into the part numbers? Quite frankly......if it's not hardened correctly it will shave itself off in no time. Mine was round.

Did you get any good run time out of it before the symptoms came back?

 

[JimmyA]

Got everything put back together this weekend and man that thing is a whole new machine. I bought it used from one of my buddies and it has WAY more power than when I bought it. I let my buddy drive it and he said its got more power than when he had it. Leads me to believe this cam shaft has been going for a long time. Thanks HondaTech for all your help it was greatly appreciated!! If anyone has any questions about this feel free to shoot me a message and I will try to help I feel like I know my way around this machine now!

Nice work

 

[Pepprdog]

I have a pioneer 700 that appears to need a camshaft. No power, pops & cracks when accelerating or revving in neutral. Does anyone know of an aftermarket cam to spice up the power a little or am I stuck having to get a factory unit?

 

[Farmer]

What year is it? How many miles?

 

[Pepprdog]

Sorry, 2014, about 2,000 miles. Pulled it apart, cam is almost round on both lobes. Farm worked but never hard, mostly riding along the Ohio River and creeks.

 

[Reloder28]

This one was never abused driving by my wife mostly around the place for work. No EFI car produced requires valve adjustment as a standard maintenance that I know of. And if you research this problem on the Honda MUV700 it is a lot more common than you think.

Which problem, the valve adjustments or bad cam?

 

[Pepprdog]

Bad cam…..

 

[Pepprdog]

Got my Pioneer back together and running. Cam was "really" bad! It's hard to believe the difference in the power level and drivability. I did clean up the ports, especially the exhaust by blending the casting to the valve seats then did a slight polish of the exhaust port and matching the port to the pipe. Also took the sharp edges off the machining in the combustion chambers.
Next question is can you adjust ignition timing, I would like to advance it at least a couple degrees.

 

[Pepprdog]

Got my Pioneer back together and running. Cam was "really" bad! It's hard to believe the difference in the power level and drivability. I did clean up the ports, especially the exhaust by blending the casting to the valve seats then did a slight polish of the exhaust port and matching the port to the pipe. Also took the sharp edges off the machining in the combustion chambers.
Next question is can you adjust ignition timing, I would like to advance it at least a couple degrees.

 

[Samre]

I have a question if anyone can help. Does the 2013 MUV700 have a decompression part on the camshaft?