My 2000 Prarie is becoming difficult to engage low gear and disengage low gear. Reverse is better, but still not as smooth as I'd like.

Any ideas? Does the button on the shift lever have any adjustment because maybe it isn't working as good as it should?

Thanks.

Jim

 

a shifter I don't miss... things I used to do was replace the bushings. leave it in gear and start with the brake on, turn Idle down on bike say some choiced words and hope it would shift. Mine was worn out and it was used. I had about 16000km on it before it was getting really cranky. Never had the button on mine but I know the button would cause problems because other people had them and they froze etc...
I always kept mine oiled and it helped. There are adjustments on the linkage you can do.

 

Had the same problem on my 300 as many others have had. Take the shifter apart there is a whitemetal piece that works as the lockout that the button disengages. I just removed it as it was sort of messed up from wear anyhow. Just becarefull now as you can easily go from forward to reverse without the lockout button and if you go into gear while machine is moving you will toast the trans. If you have any mechanical ability you will see how easy the fix is when you take the shifter apart. Be sure you have the linkage adjusted correctly when it goes back together. My shifter has worked smooth as silk since that repair 3 years ago.

Airshot

 

Thanks guys. I tore into it some today and here is what I learned.

The belt deflection was a little tight so I added a shim to the driven clutch. It has a newer Carlisle belt.

With the driven clutch off, I could turn the gearshaft easily by hand. The shifter would work fine sometimes and sometimes not. I don't think the button on the shifter is the problem because when I would turn the shaft by hand it made it easy to click into gear.

Once in gear, I could take it in and out of gear, no problem. If I went from reverse to Neutral, then rotated the shaft, then it wouldn't go into drive sometimes unless I rotated the shaft a little. Once in drive it would go in and out of drive easily. Same with Low gear.

I didn't pull the tank and stuff off to check the alignment of the shift arm, detents, etc., but I'm wondering now if the shift forks aren't bent and what kind of a job that may be to correct.

I will have to test ride it first to see how it works. It has never been real smooth in shifting but I recently installed a Comet Clutch and new belt so maybe the belt was putting too much pressure on the driven clutch and causing things to bind a little more than usual.

Jim

 

I do not have direct access to your machine so you will know better than I do, but your problem still sounds like the shifter mechanism to me. With mine when the shifter was disconnected everything worked great including the shifter itself. Only when connected did it act up. I am not sure I understood your post, can you shift the transmission easily without the shifter hooked up? On mine I was able to feel the positive indent when the transmission was in gear by using the shift linkage itself. In fact the alignment holes for the shifter on my machine are off, I just set the trans in the appropiate gear and adjusted the shifter to match. Did this check in each gear and mine now works very smooth without the little metal lockout as this will cause a drag and missalignment in the shifter when it wears down. If you have difficulty shifting the transmission directly without the shifter attatched then you may have bent forks.. The only problem with this trans that I have ever heard of is caused by shifting while the machine is still rolling. It has to be stopped dead when shifting !! Good luck and let us know what you find.......

Airshot

 

I haven't tried shifting without the shifter hooked up. The tests I was doing was with the drive and driven clutches removed.

I'll have to pull the tank and see if it shifts well without the shifter being connected. That will have to wait till next weekend.

Thanks.

Does anyone know how hard it is to get to the shift forks, if that is the problem? I have a shop manual but would like to hear if anyone has done it themselves. Looks like a lot of bolts, etc. to remove and possibility of other unexpected things that may happen if I pull the case off.

 

Actually the tank is quite easy to remove if you want to check out the shifter. By turning the handle bars you need to remove two phillips head screws then the two mount bolts at the rear of tank when seat is off. Remove
gas cap to get shroud off and pull tank toward rear slightly then lift and twist off to side. Don't even need to remove the fuel line, but you can to make more room. Only one main bolt holds shifter mechanism and two small bolts for gear selector plate. I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all but this is much easier test than working up a sweat over forks. If you review these forums back to beginning I have never saw a shift fork problem on these machines but have seen a lot of shifter problems and they most always come down to that cheesy white metal lockout piece causing the problem. once you get your problem solved, may I suggest switching over to Amzoil full synthetic oil,
it will make the trans shift even smoother as well as the motor running better, stronger and cooler...

Airshot