Hi all, hoping you folks can help me out with this one. I have an 02 Polaris Trailblazer 400, automatic with the cvt tranny. Anyway, I got it used not long ago, test rode it a few times, all worked well foreword and reverse. It's a little bit of a bugger until it warms up, it was piped and jetted by the previous owner, other than that everything seemed fine. So it sat on my trailer in the garage for a few months, I thought i'd run it around the block a few times today, get it warmed up for a ride this weekend and I couldn't get it to reverse off the trailer. I let it run a while in idle, and every time I put it in reverse the engine would sound bogged down when I hit the gas to make it move...so I pushed it off the trailer and tried forward, no problem, I held the brake and put it in gear and it lunged foreword, then I try reverse and the same thing...as the engine chugged the bike would move tiny bits in reverse, but that was it, like it wasn't catching the gear, though when it's in idle and I put it in reverse, I can feel it catch. I'm not sure how it works in the transmission housing, i just know that foreword works fine. Am I in big trouble, or is this not a big concern, I don't mind not having reverse, I just don't want to do any damage, and a full tranny repair job would cost more than the bike is worth so I'd like to fix it myself if I can...any help or advise would be great.

 

Ok, now it gets weirder....so I went back out to look at it again, and tried pressing the reverse overide button while gassing it, and walla it reversed just fine...so it works with the button, but without it sputters, I am thinking it may be an issue connected with it being jetted and re-piped, not sure as I'm no mechanic, but I know now that the transmission is fine, this is a power distrobution issue...kind of...I think...thoughts anyone?

 

it's supposed to do that. it's a safety switch deal,polaris put those on because too many people were falling off or crashing them in reverse with full power on.

 

4getful2 is correct. Its supposed to be like that. Many people bypass it so you dont have to hit the button for full power.

 

my question is how high is the idle set on that bike?? sounds like you have a clutch kit in the bike w/ a high engagment spring and since the override does not let you go much aboe idle in reverse you willl need to push the override everytime to back up at all. like mentioned above it's working the way it was designed to.

 

I had thought the same thing, the reverse works fine on the other 2 bikes I have, both are trailblazer 250's and have no aftermarket mods. And it seems that I will always have to use the overide to reverse...oh well, at least I know that the transmission is ok.

 

I have the same issue with my scrambler 500. I called EPI because I am not happy at all with my new clutch kit, and that was the first ? they asked me.

 

Unhook the black wire from the rev limiter, it will stop your problem, with the machine clutched and piped the rpm's are up enough that it's engaging the limiter .

 

From the words of fthwth, "disconnect the black wire from the reverse override" this is happening because of the reverse override only allows it to rev to a certain rpm, with a clutch kit the clutch will not engage until a higher rpm, thus not allowing the atv to even move in reverse. This is completly normal, ps careful going fast in reverse, it gets hairy fast! Good luck

 

did it and it works like a champ