So I took my 02 Sportsman 500 HO out for my first day on duck season last week, and after I laid out my decoys in the flooded fields, my atv was stuck in reverse. This happened to me last month in my driveway and I took the linkage apart banged around on it, but ultimately thought I had determinded I was low in fluid. Last time right after filling it it went right into neutral and shifted fine after that. I kept an eye on the fluid before taking it out this last weekend and every was and still looks to be clean and full. I banged around on it and checked the fluid again, but ended up having to drive back to the truck in reverse. I brought it home messed around with the linkage again, with no success, and then for what ever reason one of the times it easily went back in neutral and is now fine. I'll be using this for the next two months every weekend and don't want this to happen again. What can I check and fix???

 

mine was doing goofy things like that about a year ago. i took the shifter apart and cleaned it and put in new fluid(motor oil and just enough to cover the shift rods), then adjusted the linkage. The linkage adjustment has to be done with the vehicle in nuetral. put in nuetral ,then remove the front rod and see which way you need to adjust , the lil tie rod should be adjusted so that it will fall straight into the shifter linkage.

 

+1
When mine got stuck in reverse it had to do more with the adjustment of the rods. When I had them off the shifter they worked fine.

 

As states adjust rod ends so they go perfectly straight into the holes when in nuetral. might have also gotten a little moisture in shifter causing it to freeze, they do come apart for cleaning and re-oiling