Ok, it's a 2001 Honda Rancher TRX350FE. It's the Electronic shift model. I bought it used a few months ago, after only a few weeks we noticed that it would get stuck in gear after you've been riding it for a while. You would have to turn off the key and back on and it would shift again, for a while. I feel like this may have started after riding through some bigger puddles, but I'm not sure.

The problem has progressively gotten worse where now you can only ride for a minute or two until it stops shifting. Of course, turning off the key while your in 3rd or 4th gear requires you to then rock the quad while pressing the downshift button to get it back down to neutral so you can start it again. Another point, often when it would stop shifting and your cruising around in 3rd still the speedometer would read 0mph. This is what got us looking at the sensors. We used an ohm meter to test the shifting buttons and the angle sensor (just below the shifting motor on the front of the engine). The angle sensor reads good in its two positions, all wiring seems good, the shift buttons are good. We didn't know how to test the speed sensor and thought it was the likely culprit, but as you know that hasn't changed things and in fact the problem seems to still be getting worse.

Before I got the speed sensor I spoke to a Honda guy and he virtually cut me off mid sentence and said he guaranteed it was the battery, I told him the battery tested good with a bold meter, but that didn't change his mind. He said once you get going it pulls more voltage and the battery is probably to blame, after that he would go for the angle sensor. I replaced the battery, no change. The guy I bought it from mentioned that he had the angle sensor replaced at one point when he was dealing with a shifting problem, Honda charged him $300 and now he knows you can buy the sensor for $70 and do it yourself. It was almost like he was warning me now that I think about it.

We noticed also that when it does get stuck in gear, and your hitting that downshift button you can hear a weak attempt by the shifting motor. Also, it seems like when it gets stuck in gear you can still up shift, which I avoid doing because then it's harder to rock this thing back into neutral to start it back up. I can't say if it always is able to up shift or if that is intermittent. Along that same thought process, I've noticed that shifting from neutral to reverse doesn't even give you the weak attempt from the shifting motor, and yes I've tied off the safety on the underside of the engine so I don't have to manually pull the left brake lever with the reverse button pressed to allow a shift into reverse. I'm trying to get this thing working for plowing season up here in the northeast, lots of folks tie off that lever to make plowing faster.

Sorry for the length of this explanation, but I just wanted to be thorough incase anything rings a bell for you.

Thanks so much for your help,

Justin Ohm

 

I have a 2012 Rancher 4x4 and I had a similar problem but I tore down the shifting gears and I slightly bent the shifting fork. first thing is to get a services manual. where the shift motor mounts to under that plate is some gears I would check there. maybe you stripped some teeth off one of the gears. the speed sensor should not let you shift when the rpms are up. the services manual will tell you how the test the shift motor and check the speed sensor. before you replaced anything  hope this helps good luck

 

i used to have a 2002 model that did the same thing. i just make it a foot shift and tehre was no more problems. rode it that way about 3 years that way until the engine went. i simply made a foot shifter out of some rebar and a 14mm black steel socket and welded it onto the output shaft on the bottom of the case.

 

Hey brother, I'm new to the site, and don't know when you asked the question about your ES Honda not shifting properly. But I would like to give my two cents. My 2001 trx350fe was doing the same thing... shift up fine, but not down. I tried everything including a clutch adjustment for some reason. While trying to adjust the clutch, the set screw broke in half, and I had to order a new one and remove the front cover to replace it. While doing so, I found something very interesting, the gears inside the front cover, turned by the shift motor, were slightly out of place , causing incorrect teeth engagement. After I set everything back in order, I put it all back together, and lo and behold it worked like a champ. It's not a bad process and can be done by someone inexperienced in atv repair... Like myself. So if you ain't got it fixed already, I'd definitely give that a look. Hope this helps