hello all a friend of mine has a 97 polaris 500 alot of miles on it he bought it new whe he tries to shift to hi range it scrubs gears he has messed with the linkage but still the same is there anything in the transmisson he can adjust or replace a new tranny is 1600 dollars he is a pretty good mechanic on these bikes and am trying to help him out any information will be appreciated thank you

 

You say he is a good mechanic, so I am assume the idle speed isn't too high.

 

Hello--I had a similar problem with our 03 700. I know it's newer but the 97 500 does have these "dog" gears in them.Copy and paste this thread title in the search block and you can review what suggestions people made.(03 sportsman 700 trans problem-Help) There is probably a way I could have linked this but my computer skills are limited. My problem was with 2 of these dog gears and after pricing them plus a shifter fork I went and purchased a used trans out of an 04 700 for less than the price of the 3 parts I needed.Hope this helps.

 

Sorry just tried it in the search block and title is to long or something,you can find thread by entering this (03 sportsman 700 trans)

 

To correctly adjust linkage, put tranny in nuetral, take rod ends off of tranny, make sure there not worn with alot of play, adjust rod ends so they are perfectly straight up and down on both ends. If this doesnt fix it he"ll have to pull the tranny and see whats worn out. Some had the snap ring come off the shifting fork shaft, easy fix, if not something is wore out, chain , shifting forks ect.