My Sportsman 500 got stuck in reverse in the first two miles I drove it. Had to drive back to the truck for two miles in reverse. I took it to the dealer. They took the linkage apart, wiggled the shifter, and bingo, it worked again. Back out to the trial I went, only to have it do the same thing again. I took it back. They replaced the shifter box, and it hasn't occurred since.

I did a search and found this has been a fairly common problem with the 500. Lots of people have theories on what causes it--mostly linkage adjustment. I'm pretty certain mine had a shifter problem because when I tried to push the shifter forward, it was sending pressure to the "low range" rod. The Sportsman is a great ride, but the pre-2004.5 shifters are a joke. I read all the posts on this thread, and I kept saying to myself, "Oh yeah, uh-huh, yep, mine did that..."

 

Mine had the problem when I first bought it. I was being to hard on shifting it and broke the aluminum part that comes between the linkage and the rod that goes into the trans. Cheap and easy to fix. If this is the problem, make sure to not overlook adjusting the linkage just right. It should easily go into forward and reverse. If it can easily go in one and not the other, adjust the linkage till you get it right. That aluminum peice can't take to much force and it apartently wasnt designed to do so. I guess it is better to break a $10.00 part than to pull the trans. I would give you a part # for the part in question but partsland.com doesn't seem to list it. Maybe I'm overlooking it.

 

Most often the problem is the belt dragging and not allowing you to shift gears. There are many post on this forum as to the fix. In short the driven clutch needs to be shimmed out 0.030".