Hey y'all,

Bought a 2001 bear tracker 250 as a starter 4-wheeler for myself a while ago off CL and it's been driving beautifully up until today. While in third gear riding today, it suddenly stopped throwing power to the rear wheels and i came to a rolling stop. Now it refuses to move the bike while in any gear, and while in any gear it makes a grinding/rattling noise (and appears to be) somewhere further back than the engine even when idling in gear (progressively louder/more grinding when going up gears/revving in gear). Neutral has 0 bad noises at all even while revving all the way up and reverse has them as bad as 5th gear. No problems w/ starting, idling, shifting into gears, lights, battery, brakes ect.

TL;DR: ATV makes grindy noise while in anything but neutral and won't move

 

Probably the rear axle splines have gone in the crownwheel. Other possibilities are a UJ gone between transfer box and diff, or the splines gone, or the diff bearings gone allowing the pinion to get out of mesh. If you can see the crown wheel through the filler plug hole, roll the bike forwards and backwards, in gear, engine stopped. If the crown wheel doesn't turn, it is the axle splines, if it does, the problem is further forward and can be found once the diff is removed.