Has anyone had any internal transmission linkage problems with their sportsman 700s. Here is a little story on mine and what happened. I live in a cold climate and sometimes I leave my atv outside if I plan on using soon. Well anyway one cold day I fired it up for a quick ride in the back 40 and could not shift it into reverse or any gear for that matter. I tugged on the shifter and it wouldn't budge. After investigating it looked like snow melted off the seat and the water dripped on the shift shaft right where it goes into the transmission. I took my heat gun out and warmed it up...Sure enough...It popped free. Well anyway. Same thing happened again this year and I warmed up the linkage with the heat gun and tugged on it...except this time something broke internal to the tranny. The linkage now moves freely moves back and forth and but there it sits stuck in park as indicated by the dash as well as the fact it doesn't move. The shift shaft is turning when I move the shift lever so it's definitely broken somewhere inside the transmission. Broken roll pin maybe? Stripped splines? Shift shaft is physically broken in half? I've never had one of these apart before. Any quick input would be great.

 

Are you sure it is inside? There is an aluminum part that the linkage is attached to that should wear out causing the lever to move but not actually turning the linkage in the tranny. It is east to see once you pull the shift lever cover off. I know I have had to replace mine and my neighbor has also had to repalce his. The area that the linkage is in comes severely under lubricatedfrommthe factory, it was amazing once I replaced the aluminum piece and put good grease in how much better it shifted. If it is inside the tranny hopefully someone will be able to guide you.

 

I cuncur with the above response. Take the nut off that holds the aluminum lever to the shift box. It sounds like you stripped the splines on it. Order a new one and as the poster Big600twin said, take the cover off and spray the gears down with white lithium grease. I used the CRC brand. It's available at almost any parts store.

FWIW, If you aren't parking on a slope, leave the shifter in the gear you plan to leave in. Then you don't have to shift it cold. Just fire it up and go. You can always use the parking brake if on a slope. Mines sitting outside right now on a slight decline, in gear, without the parking brake on and has been for a couple of days... no movement as far as I can tell.

 

Yeah..I took another look...Its definitely inside the transmission. The aluminum lever is not stripped and the shift shaft. However I looked at some parts break downs and it looks like there is some sort of gear drive mechanism? under the black plastic cover. I guess I will just have to take it apart and look.

 

Hey everyone...I figured out and fixed my shifter problem. I tore the thing apart and found rust on all the shift mechanism parts...As it turns out there is a gear hooked to the shift shaft that drives the shift mechanism. The splines got water on them and it rusted them and they stripped out...So easy fix...got out the welder, cleaned everything up and welded the gear to the shift shaft. Washed everything up with brake clean. Packed everything with fresh grease and it works like a million bucks...