one more thing...to go into reverse...I turn a **** by the key and press down on the shifting lever while in neutral and then I'm in reverse. It also has a little red light letting me know I'm in reverse.

 

can you post a pic of the left side view of your engine?

 

oops didnt see that pic ya posted. mine is a '97 and it has the high low. go to your local yamaha shop and find out if that is the original motor.

 

http://www.bikepics.com/pictures/307011/

this is a 99, I'm thinking they started coming with a hi/lo in 99 as I cannot find one on a 97 or 98.

 

I think it was the 97 or 98 model year when Yamaha redid the big bear, and they got rid of the dual range transmission (bad move, IMO) and went to single range like the wolverine (the wolvy and BB shared bottom ends from the 97/98 revamp till the BB went to a 400cc engine). Your 98 won't have the range selector. The 400 kodiak had the dual range tranny from introduction up to 1998, as 1999 is when they went to belt drive.

I wish yamaha, kawi, Zuki, AC, or honda would show some nuts and give us a dual range manual transmission in a 700cc ATV. I HATE belt drives.

 

http://www.lowvillesport.com/usedatv013.jpg

http://media.canadatrader.com/compan...8705730421.jpg

 

Son-of-b@#$%

That has to be the dumbest move in history then. I'm tired of going through all 5 gears within 10 seconds.

Hopefully someone local will want to trade. Live and learn I guess.

It is a beautiful ATV in my eyes but it just needs better gearing.

 

One last question.

Would this tranny even have the setup to be able to switch to HI. I don't see how it's efficient for Yamaha to build so many hi/lo big bears and then not put that tranny in everyone they build...ESPECIALLY a 4x4 model.

I wonder the guts of my tranny has the ability to do it.

I would call the Yamaha dealership but I'm afraid calling them would be like trying to talk to the Wizard of Oz.

 

Your Big Bear is just a Wolverine with drum brakes and worse suspension. You only have a single range, but it would appear that they geared it down from the Wolverine model. You could check some online microfiche and see if the rear diff. is the same part number. If it's not, I would suspect that this is where the gearing change was made. It is probably cost prohibitive, but you may be able to change to a Wolverine rear diff.

 

it must be there somwhere maybe the *** got broken off? i am really stumped on this, my cousin has a big bear that has high/low and its a 91' i think and my friends nabour has a 87( i think) and it even has high/low if i were you i'd put it in the back of the truck and bring in down to the dealership it'll take them 5mins to tell you where it is, it wouldnt make sence if there wasnt a high on it especially considering its a 98' which isnt too old