Help Please! - my problem is similar to everyone else's, but with one symptom I haven't seen mentioned. I have a 2003 trx 350 ES. Won't shift, but the reverse indicator is always dimly lit. I can use the emergency shifter, put it into Reverse and the indicator light will glow brightly.

It has sat for a year outside uncovered. Bad, I know. Battery is shot, won't hold a charge, so everything I'm doing is either with a charger connected, or with it running. When I started it this summer, I could get it to shift up, but not down. I started by taking apart the handle bar shifter switch to clean that. Everything looked clean and shiny. After that, I couldn't get it to shift at all. I pulled the angle sensor, sprayed the wire connector with Electrical cleaner and applied dielectric grease. No improvement. I pulled apart the shift motor and cleaned the copper commutator and sprayed the brushes with electrical contact cleaner. Cleaned the old grease off and applied a white lithium grease. No improvement.

I pulled the wire connector for the shift motor, sprayed it clean and applied the dielectric grease. I have tried, and tried to get the connector apart for the handle bar switch, but I can't get it to budge. Same for the plug connector on the ECU.

I did stick pins into the wire harness for the shift motor and tried touching it to the battery charger. I got a quick spark at contact, but no action from the shift motor at all.

What else can I try? Does the constantly dimly lit reverse lamp mean anything? I have looked at buying a bolt on lever to turn it into a manually shifted machine, but the only place I have seen wants $77 bucks for it and that seems crazy expensive for what you are actually getting. Anyone have suggestions on a good manual shift conversion that would cost less?