Just acquired a low hours (150 hrs) 2006 Rancher that has not been abused but has been left outside and has had things like wiring damage etc from rodents in the past (mostly fixed now I think). Have spent the past two weeks reading everything online that I can find on ES problems, including here, and I have started working on diagnosing what's wrong. Fuses are good, battery is good. Have a shop manual.

When engine is cold shifting seems to work just fine, and reliably. From neutral to first or reverse, I do have to rock the bike a bit to get it to shift either way. I can throw it into reverse, then shift to neutral, first, run it up first through fifth, and then back down to neutral. Problems seem to occur once engine is warmed up, generally after 5-10 minutes of operation. Then no shifting at all, and no clicks/sound from the shift motor, just silence. I can use the manual shift lever to get it into first and back into the shop.

It had been throwing 3 and 8 codes, so I went ahead and replaced the angle sensor (only 30 bucks, seemed cheap enough). Now I no longer get error codes, but the shifting problems after 5-10 minutes of riding from a cold start are still there. I can ride it for a bit, throw it in neutral, and then the shift buttons don't work and no sound from the shift motor. Rocking the bike at this point makes no difference at all. Turning ignition switch on and off does not reset it. Seems like I have to wait until the engine totally cools down again before I can start it and have the ES work again.

Pulled the shift motor connector, contacts were clean but I added some anti-corrosion compound (Penetrox). I'll check the connections at the ECU next. I am prepared to start more systematically down the list of diagnostic steps in the shop manual but thought I'd check first to see if anyone has an idea specifically about shifting problems that only occur after the bike has been ridden for a while. I've seen other people online describe a similar scenario but I don't have a sense whether there are predictable causes for shifting problems that seem only to occur after the machine warms up or runs for a short time.

picture for interest:



anyway, thanks in advance for any advice, tips, or guidance you can send my way.
Jim

 

well, after a long afternoon of farting around with it, I think we may have figured out what the issue was. A friend of mine with more experience with these machines came over and listened to my description of the symptoms as outlined above. He keyed in on the 'after it warms up' part of the symptoms, asked if it jumped when shifting into gear with a cold engine. sure enough it did. He thought it was idling way too fast at startup and had me shift while he adjusted the idle speed screw to where it would just barely stay on with the cold engine. And then that seemed to fix it. Shifting was smoother and as the engine warmed up the rpm was no longer tricking the computer into thinking the transmission was in gear when it wasn't. He ran it for a bit, had the speedometer show 10 mph in neutral, played with the idle screw a bit more, and eventually put the machine through its paces with no problems shifting at all.

If that's all it was, I'm glad he was around to figure it out. He says he ran into this years ago in the opposite direction--hard starting when cold, no shifting when cold, then it would eventually warm up and shift fine. The other thing he said that made me feel better is that he had done similar searches online and didn't find anyone who talked about the throttle/idle speed issue as related to the ES problems, even though in hindsight it seems like a no brainer.

anyway. I'll see if this really makes the problem go away, but if this all it is, I think others might benefit from knowing that is one possible cause of intermittent ES shifting problems, rather than a faulty part or wiring problem.

 

There is no way the throttle could be responsible for failure to try to shift. OK, from neutral, the centrifugal clutch has to be going slow enough not to engage or you get that lurch, but once on the move, the throttle stop is no longer in use, so why would it's position make any difference to the ES system? My first guess would be worn brushes or oil in the shift motor, easy enough to check, though getting that shift motor back together isn't.

 

I may not have explained that the right way, not so much throttle but high idle, he thought that when it warmed up it budged the clutch enough to fool the ECU into thinking it was in gear and not in neutral.

 

Check charging system also