1998 Sportsman 500. It had a dead battery after sitting a few months got it started and now it acts like its stuck in reverse. The trans shifts fine between hi,lo and reverse but the reverse light on the speedo pod is always on and the back up light stays on. The machine will only go foward (in hi or lo) when you keep the overide button in otherwise its like your in reverse. Any easy fixes or thing to check? Typical it was fine when I parked it but now I need it in a hurry...........................Thanx.

 

Your override button is shot, it acts like it is always on. It dosen't hurt anything, actually its nice, not having to use the override button. Take the bulb out of the reverse light or get a new switch.

 

It sounds like you could have a number of things wrong. I would start at the battery first make sure you have at least 12.5 to 13.5 dc volts in the battery with no draw on the system, any thing less will cause havoc on system. If that checks out you could have a bad shifter switch ,a reverse override,or shorted wires
If you can push the reverse over ride button in and the bike run fine, the button is fine.
nomaly what i have found if the reverse over ride box (located under the front cover below the front rack) dosent have enough power or if it is bad it will act like that
you can test it but i need you to test battery votage first
maybe leave the battery charger on the battery over night on a 2 amp charge
before testing

 

Didn't check the charging rate yet. But I think it's ok because all of the lights are working fine and they dont dim or flicker so it might be a short in the wiring some place.

 

you can unplug the reverse override by unpluging the black wire that would tell you if the problem is there or not ,the reverse override is a black box 1/4 inch thick and about 3 in sq there will also be 3 or 4 more wires coming out of it, and it is bolted on by two torx screws

 

I agree with Koerbs

 

Quote from the above post (I agree with Koerbs )

The button works fine. It just won't move unless the button is pushed in. So you must use the botton not the other way around.

 

Here we go. I chared the battery for a while and when it's running I have battery voltage on my meter 10-11volts rev it up and it drops to about 7 v. Also with the charger on the charger meter swings from 2 amps to about 20 amps and continues to do that. Battery?

 

the switch on the trans is bad!!!!!! it is telling the ecm your in reverse therefore you have to push the overide button in!!! if ya take the switches off the trans youll probably find pieces of the plastic laying on top. mine broke also .... i had to splice the wires together to make ecm think i was in hi gear. all worked after that but i have no reverse or nuetral lights on the dash....... if your battery is not charging check the wires at the regulator in front of the rad and also the small wire coming from the battery +terminal ...........hope this helps

 

Colt thanx for the reply and thanx to all. It appears to be a bad switch at the shifter that where the switch is not on the trans like the newer ones. I cut the purple wire and it runs like it should. When we get back I will order a new switch. As for the battery that was nothing that a new one couldn't fix so we are ready to ride. Thanx again to all.