Ok fellas, i've done a bit of searching and i've seen a lot of people questioning the angle sensors and so on.
Well here it goes.. I have an 01 Rancher ES.. I JUST! put a brand new battery as well as a new regulator (2 days ago) So I rode it in the back yard yesterday, everything seemed fine.. Well I'm selling the machine so I was getting ready to load it up on the truck and figured i'd give it one last run...

as i'm going up the hill, the electronic shift fails to respond once i'm in 3rd gear I believe it was. In order to get the machine back into neutral, i need to shut it off, and then it allows me to downshift the gears. Other than that once I hit third, it won't let me down shift or upshift, absolutely no noise comes from the machine when I try to shift once i hit third gear. Anyone have any ideas what it could be? Thanks for any help, I'd like to fix the problem ASAP so I can get rid of it and move on to something else!

 

It could be one of several problems. Either buy a service manual or find someone who has one to properly diagnose the electric shift. Part replacement will get expensive in a hurry if are guessing and replacing good parts. Have replaced angle sensors and a couple of speed sensors on Ranchers in the past. I have also seen broken wires directly under the recoil. The wiring for the gear postion sensor and speed sensor route under the recoil and if they come out of their holders can dangle and get damaged by whatever scrapes along the engine skidplate.