Rock & Roll on my Rubicon - Difficulty Shifting

[East Coast Honda 1]

Hello all,

 

2013 Rubicon FPA (with EPS etc). I am new to owning an ATV - I am finding that the machine often resists being manually shifted between R-N-D-L gears. The stick meets resistance (I don't try to force it) and it happens quite often. I find if I just touch the throttle, it will fall into position to be shifted. I also find if I give the ATV a good rock back or forth, it will fall into position the same way.

 

So my question is simple for all you guys that have owned you machine for sometime, and perhaps have owned multiple - is this normal? Is the rock back/forth the "official" way to fiddle it into gear? My main concern is that I don't want to be doing something that could be causing damage. If this is something that needs to be looked at by a mechanic, I would certainly take it in.

 

Thanks

 

Mike

[shadetree 5,553]

with it being a auto ?, I have no clue other than I would not own one !..lol. if it was a manual shift ?, I would tell you to re-adjust the clutch setting. fully auto tranny's are very high dollar complex machines , if one part fails in the tranny ?, its over with, honda does not service any part inside them, it then calls for a whole new tranny, which is more than what you may or may not have paid for the atv ??. unless its any other simple problem ?, I will tell you to take it to a honda dealership, as myself knows nothing about them, cept they are junk in my book !. please keep us posted on what you find out !.

[shadetree 5,553]

also, I did read in places, those models had issues with the oil pump going bad, or defective ?, just some thoughts for you. 

[toodeep 1,737]

That's normal. Your shifting the subtransmission which is gear to gear so the engagement dogs have to line up. 

[East Coast Honda 1]

Thanks for the fast replies guys. You seem to have a great community here.

 

I will be sure to give the oil pump some attention in the spring - I didn't realize the FPA Rubicon was so unpopular with some! Has been a pretty good ride so far for me. Ill cross my fingers that the transmission doesn't give me grief!

[jeepwm69 7,233]

27 minutes ago, East Coast Honda said:

Thanks for the fast replies guys. You seem to have a great community here.

 

I will be sure to give the oil pump some attention in the spring - I didn't realize the FPA Rubicon was so unpopular with some! Has been a pretty good ride so far for me. Ill cross my fingers that the transmission doesn't give me grief!

 

Only the early models 01-04 had the oil pump issues.  For a long time I was leery of the Rubicons with the Hondamatics, figuring that it was just too complicated to last in the environments that we use these things, but several of my buddies have them and they've put them through heck and so far, so good.  My father in law has an 06 with 14K miles on it, and he abuses it every time he's on it.

 

I'm an old school carb'd/footshift/air cooled guy, and I actually picked up an 05 Rubicon a while back.  Great trail riding machine.

 

They do have lots of electrical sensors on them which can give you fits (which is how I ended up with this 05, which was fixed with a new/used wiring harness), but they're good machines.

[01RUBY500 1,253]

8 hours ago, toodeep said:

That's normal. Your shifting the subtransmission which is gear to gear so the engagement dogs have to line up. 

Agree. Normal. Mine does it too, never gave it much thought, I have always just finessed the throttle a little and in it goes. 

[oldmxrider 71]

Just a thought !  Not an expert on this machine, just asking, what is Your idle rpm ?