Has anyone ever had this happen. I have a 2003 sportsman 500ho. This morning I went out and backed it out of the garage and that was it stuck in reverse so i took it into the dealer were i got it
and they pried it lose and said they had never seen this problem before. After that I went to another
dealer that sells both yamaha and polaris to trade in the bombardiers to get the girl friend a new
kodiak 450 to ride. I asked the polaris mechanic there if he knew of this happening he told it happens
and when it does take out the 4 10mm bolts on the shifter and pull it out to get it lose. What's up
with that can anyone shed some light on this subject. Thank you in advance.

John

2003 sportmans 500ho ( my ride )
2003 kodiak 450 ( her ride )
2003 yamaha breeze ( sons toy )

 

My friends '00 RSE had this happen. The dealer insisted something must have hit the linkage. Not the case according to friend. When its severely cold outside my '99 will stick in whatever position I last left it in, until it runs a few minutes and warms sufficiently. Not quite your case, but I have seen it before. BTW, my friend was on a ride when his stuck. Had to sit on the front rack and drive in reverse...

 

Thanks for the reply. My 500 only has 21 miles on it so you can understand my concern. Who wants
to trailer an ATV for 12 hrs. Then have the thing get stuck in reverse. Time to buy a service manual
on the sportsman and start reading.


Thanks again.

John

 

Is the motor running when it is stuck?If so the idle is too high if not check the linkages to be sure they are tightend properly and while your looking at them oil the pivot ends.If that isnt it you may need to put some oil in the shifter.

 

flwflh yes to both the sportsman was running and the idle is two high.
howd you know it would stick if the idle was to high. I didn't think that the idle being
to hi would jam things up. well i'll have it all fixed up soon.
Thanks

John

 

Just for your info, My 500HO jammed in reverse on its first time out. What had happen was somthing had hit the shift linkage and bowed it a little. Just enough so that when I would try to shift, the linkage would just bow rather than shift the transmission. All i did was straighten out the linkage arm and it hasn't happen since. Just something you might want to check. Watch your linkage as you are trying to shift and see what it does.


Mike

 

The shift linkage can be marginally out of adjustment when new, and could occasionally need readjustment. It is not a big deal if it gets stuck.........just look at which way the shifter is trying to pull/push the little arms on the tranny, and use a screwdriver to gently pry them in the correct direction. You don't want to use so much force as to bend anything, so be careful. It happened to me on my sp500 twice, and that's what I did to fix it. Good luck.

Waylan

 

i have a 99 polaris 500HO just got it man said never had a problem with it so i took it out riding and after trying to back out of a creek it begain to be stuck then shut off and took forever to crank back up but once cranked back up it ran and i was able to shift again i drove a few minutes ahead and once again stuck and this time stayed stuck had to ride in reverse the whole way back and then on to my trailer where it continues to sit now any one help me ?

 

Mine is always tough to shift. Any ideas?

 

I've had to do this multiple times to help stop locking in gear: remove side panel,loosen lock nuts on both linkage rods at shifter box,remove 10 mm nuts on bottom of linkage rod ends,remove BOTH linkage arms from shift box,pop gear box back into neutral, TURN in or out linkage ends to where they just drop STRAIGHT in the shift box arm with NO binding,then tighten lock nuts and reinstall 10 mm nuts and tighten. This should help take up the slack as machine wears and gets slack in shift box and trans arms. I have to do this several times a year on quite a few,mostly 500 Sportsmans. If this doesn't help,then you might have to address any problems with the shift box. Also as mentioned Hi idle can contribute to this along with improper gear shift(that is trying to go from low to reverse/reverse to low at an angle instead of the way of the shift pattern,I do believe this is the main reason the new models are straight shifting(eliminates this old problem) My main problems were on the 99-04 machines. OPT (look at the date of the above posts!)