I recently purchased a '98 Sportsman 500 4x4 however it seems to be having difficulty getting into gear. It will typically go into reverse okay, however when going into high I can't go from neutral to high without grinding gears, I have to quickly move from neutral to reverse to high to lock it in place. Is this normal? It is similar with low where it can sometimes get stuck in low or grinds gears when trying to get into it. I lowered the idle on the bike however it didn't seem to help much.

I took the gear selector apart and the shaft is definitely worn down so I ordered a new one however I don't think the selector could cause the issue with the gears grinding when trying to get into gear.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

The gear selector usually is the main problem on the older machines. Even if you try to adjust the linkage you can get a good forward,bad reverse or just the opposite. Plus will sometimes"hydro" lock in gear,especially low range. I dont try to rebuild them any more because the parts that are usually worn cost more than the complete assy! OPT