I bought my Rancher back in 2000 and it had 54 miles on it, about at 150 miles the reverse went out i would press down on the red button pull back break hit the down arrow and nothing happened. So i said well im not worried about it i took out the little tool in the back and on the lower left side you put it on a little octogon shaped thing and press foward while holding break and red button down and it went into reverse. So i havent touched it and i have about 1700 miles on it now and one day i was going through a chop real slow and went to go into 3rd gear and nothing happened so i got to looking around and there is a plug on the lower front of the engine and i pluged it back up and it worked. So about 1600 miles i took it to the honda shop and they said reverse could be anywhere from $100 to $700 so i said screw that and just epoxied the plug. Well now since the plug has came loose im going to take it to the kawasaki shop here in town they work on anything. The kawasaki guy said he has had several honda came in with same thing and he said it would probaly be about 100 bucks. Was the honda shop trying to **** me outta some money or are they just stupid? But my point about all this is has anyone else heard or had these same problems??

 

I have a 2001 Rancher 4X4 es with 800 miles and haven't had any shifting problems. Not too sure on where the problem originated but it sounded like the plug housing cracked (you said you epoxied it) I'd say maybe you hit something, but not if it has happened on other machines. On the Honda shop note: I have worked as a full-time auto mechanic for a looong time now, and the dealers will almost always charge you more, because they know that you think they're the best people to do it because they're "factory certified" and who better to work on a Honda than a Honda dealer! Well, not necessarily true. They feel they can stick ya because they are a Honda shop and all they do is work on Hondas. If you can find someone who works on ATV's and will do it cheaper, go to him. I have fixed a ridiculous number of cars for a lot less than the dealers have quoted the customer, because a car is a car, and an ATV is an ATV. Being a dealer means close to nothing to someone like me, who has been in the business for a while. Best of luck to you.

 

I think the Honda shop was maybe giving you a good and bad scenario price. If you give them a budget to work with then they can go on that. I always tell them to troubleshoot the problem, price out how much to fix, and call me before they do any work so I can give them the Yay or Nay to proceed. You shouldn't get burned if you go that route. I haven't yet.