HELP!! Or its back to the shop AGAIN. I got my SP500 stuck in the snow, and when going back and forth etc. the lever stuck in reverse. Not real fun having to back-up 3 miles to my house in -20 degree temperatures. Anybody ever have this happen to their Polaris, I was kinda hopin' I was not the only one whos ever had this happen. Otherwise its back to the shop again for warranty work. Also going to have the carb jets checked as I have seen a lot written lately about jetting.

 

You probably bent the shifter rod somehow and only need to lossen up bolts and re-adjust.

<A HREF="http://www.godigital-design.com/96Polaris.html">Schultz Motorsports</A>

 

I'll second the shifter rod scenario. On of the magazine tests mentioned that as on of their problems on a test quad. Seems like people need to take it a bit easier on the shifter to keep it from bending or loosening up.

 

Connecting rod is not bent...I actually tapped on the end off the rod where the drive pinion goes into the casing and she's rock stiff. Somethings jammed in there, and I don't feel like tearing my warranteed puppy apart.

 

SWAC, I closely recall something exactly like this happening to my Uncle's '97 Xplorer 500! First day he got it we went riding with it, there was a lot of snow out at the time, and after 20 minutes it would not shift decent anymore. We got in the woods and came to a tight spot where we needed to turn around, and the Xplorer wouldn't go into reverse, so we had to turn it by hand! Not too fun in deep snow moving a 700 pound machine! When we got it back to the yard, it wouldn't shift into any gear. We called the dealer up and he said to take an adjustable wrench and try putting it on the shifter lobes that the shift rods are connected to and try turning them, if they don't budge, then the transmission is screwed up. Don't put a lot of pressure on them though, just a little will tell you if something is wrong. It didn't move, so it went back to the dealer. Turned out there was a missing bearing in the transmission. I wonder if that's your problem?

 

There is a thread on this, that I started about a month ago. I had water in mine, and it froze, hence the selector lever not moving. Try to heat the box(that the lever goes down into) up with a torch and see if it frees up.

hope this helps
Jeremy

99 sp500


[This message has been edited by JeremyB (edited 01-18-2000).]

 

Engine was plenty warm when it happened, and I tried to 'wrench' it. Even jacked up the rear and spun the rear wheels, jimmied the selector handle, and still the rear case is jammed in reverse gear. More than likely its off to the shop. Hopefully this won't take 2 weeks to fix like last time with an oveheating problem.

 

Still sounds like you jammed the gears or the shift mechanism and I'll bet it needs adjusting. Have someone rock it back in forth while you work the shifter. After you get it free, you'll need to adjust the length of the adjuster rod to compensate for whatever you did. It works.

<A HREF="http://www.godigital-design.com/96Polaris.html">Schultz Motorsports</A>

 

I had the same problem, but as JeremyB said, the box where the shifter goes into, froze up. The engine was plenty warm at the time. I used a torch and it loosend up again. Upon returning home, I disassembled it and found there was water in the box, from one of my previous water expeditions. I recoated all the moving parts with grease and reassembled it. Now it's on my list of things that I service regularely, especially before the cold weather hits.

 

UNSTUCK the pawl! Seems the rearward pawl was stuck and it wrenched free. Linkage was retightened, checked and seems okay. Thanks for the feedback!