Still have shifting trouble, 98 450ES
 

I have a 98 Foreman 450 ES. It seemed like it didn't have enough juice to shift gears, and someone suggested I put a new battery in it. So I pu ta new one in, and it worked great for a little while. I keep a tender on the battery to keep it fully charged.

Lately it started having a hard time shifting again, but I noticed that it is mostly when I am shifting down. Especially from 1 to N, or from N to R. It acts like the battery doesn't have enough power to shift, but it shifts fine up through the gears, just not back down. I have to use the limp home lever to get it to go down through the gears.

Can someone help me diagnose this problem? I'm not sure if it is a sensor, a shift motor, or the transmission. The only thing I know for sure is that it isn't the battery because it is brand new. Thanks.

Anyone able to help me with this problem?

Does your meter flashs? Is your atv charging ok?More history Thanks.

No, it does not flash at all. It does seem to drain the battery, so I always keep a battery tender on it to keep the battery full. I noticed before that it would slowly drain the battery, but I was told that the 98 and 99 models are hard on batteries, so I didn't think any more of it.

I did replace the rectifier when I first bought it also.

So did you check charging system? what is the charging rate? No 98 and 99 model is not any harder on battery.. The 98 and 99 models did have an recall on voltage drain thou.Had curcuit harness...But these model would drain batt. more if atv isn,y driven alot...I guess I would check harness at batt.. they are an single harness with an inline fuse that goes to charging system that could be blown if not charging,atv has to charge good on this es models....but may not be your problem if charging good... Borrow an meter and check charging... with an source volts start with battery at 12.4 volts then start atv up should throttle up til bout 5000 rpms and charging rate should be 13.4 to 14.1 volts... Then let us know what test is. than we do the next test....Does atv shift good when batt. is charged fully and hot??

My battery tender charges at 0.75 A. I am the 2nd owner, got this in 2005, so I don't know if anything was replaced from the previous owner, but I have only replaced the rectifier since I got it (and a new battery a few times). I checked the fuse, it is not blown.

Voltage reads just like you listed before, and while running. When the battery is completely and fully charged, it shifts good. But after 5-10 minutes, it starts having trouble again when shifting down. Shifting up through the gears gives it no trouble. I should mention that it seems worse when the weather is colder out, as I am using this for plowing. Especially when it is below 20 degrees.

Sounds like you could have an shift motor that is sticking or real dirty, that is located in front on engine at the bottom lower part of front case. IMO i would look there and maybe remove it and clean up .

Thanks, I'll try to take a look at it over the holiday.

In case anyone else is having similar problems to what I described, I did find out what the problem was. In my case, when I was plowing snow it would pack up and around the shift motor, and melt against the hot engine. Then when I park it in the garage, which is not heated, it would freeze in and around the shift motor. That seems to be what was causing all the trouble. I hung a trouble light right against the shift motor for about an hour and let all the ice melt and dry off of it, and it shifted perfectly for me.

Good to know in case anyone else has trouble.

Good you found it. I guess you should put some kind of shield in front of the shift motor.