[Tim420es]

I have a 2008 420es TE. The rear wheels are locked, as in they wont spin. It will not move at all. If you turn the key, it indicates gear 4. The electronic shifting buttons will not do anything. The shift motor doesn’t make a sound unless you bypass everything and put leads directly to the terminals, then it will spin but still not change gear. When operating the manual 8mm gear shift shaft, you can feel the gears change, but the dash indicates “-“ for everything other than 4th gear. It will not recognize any other gears. Neutral light or reverse will not illuminate. Ive taken apart the shift motor assembly and made sure none of the teeth on the gears were worn. All bearings were in great shape also. Ive checked continuity between all wiring and everything seems great. The quad will only start and run in “gear 4” and not in “-“. I’m trying to decide whether its an internal transmission, gear position switch, or pcm issue. Angle switch has already been replaced. I had the 24 code and ran through the troubleshooting. It leads to the pcm as a last resort. Any ideas?

 

[subzerosoundman]

If you feel the gears change, do they really change? If they do you should be able to get to Neutral, spin the wheels, and prove it is a gear position switch problem. If not, you need to remove the front cover and inspect the shift plate linkage. Instructions are in the youtube video: Rancher ES Shift Problems by Bubba Baryl.

 

[Tim420es]

You’re right, its not really shifting. I have the front cover off and i can manually shift it between 4th to something else. But only between those two. If you try to shift past that point, you can see the mechanism grab but not turn the cam as it gets extreme resistance from something. I tried to shoot through the gear position sensor just to see what gear it was in and it keeps reading that its in reverse no matter what. I tried to rotate the tires manually as I mess with the shifter to get it to move, but its really bound up. Shift fork bad?

 

[subzerosoundman]

It is more likely to be a broken tab on the shift plate, or a loose star wheel which is under the shift plate.
You will have to try to get the nut off the clutch, to move it out a half inch, to get the shift plate off.

 

[Rocketman5144]

The 07 and 08 Ranchers are known to have 4th gear problems. They updated the transmission in 09 I believe. Most likely you are going to have to split the cases and get into the tranny to check it ou.

 

[Tim420es]

Heres a video of it attempting to shift. From fourth, you can hear one distinct clunk of a shift and then it gets stuck. And same if you go back the other way

 

[subzerosoundman]

That is a good video. You can see the star wheel try to turn after a few tries. But it looks like the transmission may be stuck in 4th gear, so rocketman is probably right.