'04 Trailblazer...lost reverse
 

My son has a 2004 Polaris Trailblazer 250. The other day when he tried to back it out of the shop he didn't have reverse gear. The reverse indicator light comes on, but the thing won't back up. The transmission makes no noise and the little arm/bellcrank on top of the transmission is tight and not stripped out. Any ideas?

Had this happen on my wife's 03 blazer. OPT would be the one to give you the info on it. That's who fixed ours. :nod:

Wanting to say it was a bent fork, but since he was doing the work, he could tell you better than I could.

If you still have forward, the reverse gear circlips(2) could have have jumped the shaft slots,though unlikely. If they did, the reverse gear itself could move far enough back that the slider gear dogs couldn't engage into it properly. The slider gear locks in both forward and reverse with the one shift fork.Forward drive is chain driven,reverse is gear to gear.Plus not uncommon to find a reverse gear broken in half at the bottom of the case.I've had that happen before and who knows,may have been Scooter's??
Forward gear#4, slider gear#6,reverse gear#8.Dirt Cheap Yamaha, Honda, Arctic Cat & Polaris OEM Parts & Accessories – Cycle Parts Warehouse
Plus you can remove the shift linkage and see if you can engage reverse with a pair of vice grips. If you can,may just need linkage adjustment.

It still has forward gear. I tried the vicegrip trick and still nothing, so I guess the transmission will be coming out. Does the swingarm need to come off to get the trans out or can you just drop it down and get it out?

Clutches have to be removed along with the gear case mounting brackets to be able to slide out the gear case.Dirt Cheap Yamaha, Honda, Arctic Cat & Polaris OEM Parts & Accessories – Cycle Parts Warehouse
Best if you have a manual as it goes step by step on tear down and assembly and shows you what to check for. Best 5 bucks you could spend.2004 Polaris Trail Blazer 250 Service Manual PDF Download

Nothing broken on mine, OPT. I believe whatever part it was, was just bent. Options were to replace it, or bend it back and it may hold forever, may go out again first time I needed to back up. Went with the bending back option and if it was running now, would still go in reverse.

A little update...I downloaded the service manual and ordered a primary clutch puller. Got the transmission out and disassembled on the bench tonight. The only thing wrong was the snap ring holding reverse gear on the shaft had jumped out of its groove, so reverse wasn't engaging. I ordered a new snap ring, seals, and a new chain. All gears, bearings, shift fork, etc. look pretty good.

Couple of questions for OPT. According to the manual there is no gasket between the transmission halves. Just supposed to use some sort of sealer....is this just RTV or what do I need to get? Also looks like a center to distance tool is needed when tightening the transmission bolts to maintain the correct distance between the clutches. Can this be purchased or will I have to try and borrow one from the dealer?

Hoped it was just a circlip jump and not a broken gear. We always used Three Bond 1104(close to the same thing as Yamabond),but think all that's made now is 1194 which is okay or any good case sealant.Just clean the cases up and apply a thin coating to each side. After cases are together and sealant has cured,excess can be scraped off.Never used the tool as the mounting holes for the transmission especially the two 9/16" bolts are not adjustable. Just make sure the belt rides center of the clutches. If it doesn't you can always get extra shims(from behind the rear clutch) from any hardware store to align the clutches. Dirt Cheap Yamaha, Honda, Arctic Cat & Polaris OEM Parts & Accessories – Cycle Parts Warehousehttp://www.cycletreads.co.nz/product...al_sealan.aspx