jvh

hey @jeepwm69 thanks for that piece of advise - interesting option. But then there is no bearing on that end of the shift drum any more - doesn't that matter? Or did you do something else there too?

Just in case anyone else comes across this post... Got a friend to help me out with this and finally got back to it. The bad news is that the shaft on the shift drum is broken. You can tell by gently turning a flat-headed screw driver in the slot shown in the pic. Now we have to take the engine out and crack it in half to replace it.

Thank you @retro for the info and advice. This is making much more sense now. I'll have to get that rear crankcase cover off and see what's really going on in there.

Thanks for the reply @shadetree Not that familiar with working on this type of engine... Yikes. Maybe you guys can walk me thru some of this to get ramped up. I found the 2000-2003 service manual and on page 20.7 it outlines some continuity tests for the gear position switch. I assume that's what you're getting at? Is there anything else to check on that, other than the 2 wires, before moving to the next step?

Hello Guys, First post here... appreciate all the advise/posts you guys are all doing here. Lots of amazing help going on. So hoping to tap into some of that. 🙂 I am the second owner of my '01 trx350fm bike since '03. Great machine, and as been super reliable, just doing regular fluid maintenance. I use it around the farm for snow plowing and towing a grass/field mower & sprayer in the summer. This plowing season, started noticed some weird shift & dashboard light behavour. Let me outline in point form: Starts up normal in neutral; green light on - all good Plowing and normal shifting up/down in 1st & 2nd gear - all good. (neutral light is off). At the end of the driveway, drop down in neutral, green light is on - all good. (it's really in neutral). Drop into reverse - red reverse light on, neutral light off - all good. (it's really in reverse). After reversing, up-shift to neutral - red reverse light is still on, green light not on - not good, (and yes, it's really in neutral). Up shift into 1st gear - red reverse light goes off, green neutral light goes on - not good. (I mean, good as it's really in 1st gear, but bad since the neutral light is on). Up shift into 2nd gear - neutral light goes off. Sometimes, I have to play with it a bit to get the neutral light to turn on, when it's really in neutral. (I mean, up shift a few gears, and then down shift into neutral). And I have also noticed that sometimes it's difficult to upshift into 2nd if I've been running for a while in 1st. (Not, sure if this is related or not, but just in case). It seems (or feels) like something inside the transmission is not rotating back properly after using reverse. But at this point I'm not sure if this is really a mechanical problem, sensor, or something else. Couple of other notes: the battery is good & fully charged up, and the gears all seem to work properly. Anyone ideas what's happening here? Thanks! jvh