General Chat

I think all is good now except my pride.   It all started last year.  One day while moving my ATV it just quit.  Turns out it had blown the main 30 amp fuse.  I figured there was a short somewhere so took side plastic off to examine as much wiring as I could.  Pulled and twisted on harnesses as much as I could without ever finding anything obvious.  Put another fuse in and it fired up and ran for rest of last year.  Started a few times through the winter without issue.  Got it out the other day to move an aluminum boat and trailer.  Nicely hooked up and moved about 6 feet and died.  Fused blown again.  This time I was determined to get at every possible wire and connection so started by taking the racks off so front and rear plastics could be removed.  Popped all the plastic fasteners off and realized I had to remove the battery, starter solenoid, fuse box and other things before plastic could come off. (never done this before)   As I was handling all these components still attached to the harness I noticed chaffed wires that has to be rubbing on the solenoid bracket. (metal)  Put the test light between the negative cable and negative battery post and low an behold it did not come on as it done previously.  Had I taken these components out first I would have saved myself a ton of work putting everything else back together.  Lesson learned.  Rule out all the easy stuff first.  I had it in my head that the rectifier may have been bad and that is what I was going to ask on this forum.  No need now but I see this forum appears to be a very good source of information and many people willing to help.   Thanks for asking wheelsquad!

Machine runs off of oil pressure, but that hydrostat turns gears, and the gears seem to be your problem.  Before you start pulling things apart, let's check the easy stuff first.   And yes, you need the wires on those brake switches.  That's what allows the engine to start in gear.  It will only do so when the brake is applied.

Thanks @jeepwm69!  This is a great start, I'm really hoping not to have to tear any further into this machine but maybe I'll just plan on pulling the back cover off tomorrow.  I tried turning the engine over with the right lever pulled and that didn't help, also with the pull cord.  I noticed that under the right brake lever two wires that hook in and one was not connected, is that a neutral safety switch or something?  I might just keep this thing jacked up on stands and try and get it running as a starting point.  I'm not too mechanically skilled just know the basics, so I'm hoping that these initial issues aren't all related and causing the thing not to even want to run.    How much oil is going to leak out the back cover when I pop it off?  I guess I'm basically looking to see if the shift drum is free and not jammed up, and it's engaged in a gear (doubt I will know what gear if it is).  Does these run off oil pressure or just a straight up mechanical operation?  

@rich250rracer -- You are right -- there is nothing wrong with the gear position switch -- there is NO hot voltage on the gear position switch -- all 7 wires are grounded one at a time as you go through the gears.

Gear indicator on the dash indicates every gear, so I don’t think there is one.