About a month ago, I purchased a used 2014 Rancher 420 ES. It had 75 miles on it and 24 hours. The guy I bought it from LITERALLY never took it out of his 1/2 acre yard. He kept every piece of paper he received when he bought it and gave them to me when I bought it. He purchased it in June of 2014. A year and a week is all he owned it. He used it to move one of those little lawn mower trailers around his yard. He never even got it dirty. It was stored inside the entire time and looked brand spanking new.

The day I bought it, he told me they were moving to Florida and when I pulled up he was using it to haul some stuff. So, it was already warmed up when I test drove it around the neighborhood. The test drive was flawless (again, 75 miles – basically brand new at that point). Brought it home on the trailer and by the time we got home it was dark. Took it off the trailer and on the way to the barn it didn’t want to shift from 1st to 2nd. Strange. Thought maybe I was doing something wrong. Put it in the barn and just forgot about it. Next day I bought a battery tender for it and have kept it connected ever since except for when riding (of course).

A day or two later the wife and I decided to ride some. I let it warm up for 10 minutes or so (as hot as it is here that was probably not necessary) and proceeded to drive off. When I went to shift from 2nd to 3rd, I had to hit the button several times in order for it to shift. Nothing happened on the dash, no lights, dashes or anything. It just kept showing 2nd gear until it finally went into 3rd and showed 3. I could hear the shift motor each time I hit the button trying to shift. Didn’t think much of it. It shifted fine from 3rd to 4th and then to 5th. Once I had ridden it for a while, seemed like it was shifting just fine.

A couple days later, same exact scenario. Now, I read the sticky here about the grease on the shift motor. So, I took off my shift motor and there was, literally, NO grease on the shaft sticking out. I greased it liberally with white lithium grease and even squirted most of the tube of grease inside the case where the shift motor gears are and buttoned it all back up. Took it for a quick ride last night (it was dark so I could only go a couple of miles) and at first it did exactly what it did before, I had to hit the button SEVERAL times when shifting from 2nd to 3rd to get it to shift. 4th and 5th were no problem. After riding a half mile or so, worked fine.

It seems to me that the shifts are kinda hard when they do happen. I have a 2014 Rubicon and a 1997 Foreman 400 as well and they don’t seem to shift that hard. I can hear a CLUNK when it does shift. Probably normal but at this point I’m paying more attention.

It will shift into Reverse, First, Neutral just fine with no hesitation and no strange noises. It’s the 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd shifts that seem to be problematic. Like my wife said when I was telling her about it – "Well, heck, the guy you got it from probably never shifted out of 1st gear the whole time he had it and if he did, he sure never got past 2nd". She’s probably right. I also have no idea if he kept the battery hooked to a maintainer or not. I assume not as I went ahead and installed a pigtail with a plug to match my maintainer that sticks out the back so I can hook it up really quickly when I get back to the barn.

So, what’s my next move here. What item is next on the list of fixing shifting issues after greasing everything? I’m going to put some miles on it and see if it just needs to break in. Maybe the wife is right and that’s it – still stiff from being new. If it doesn’t improve, what’s next – battery? angle sensor? What’s the next thing to check or replace? I’ve only put about 30 miles on it in the month I’ve had it so it may just take time but I would like to know what my next step is. If replacing the battery will fix it, then I’ll go get one today. If it’s the angle sensor, then I can replace that. What else could it be?

Thanks and I hope you all are having a great day!

Neil

About a month ago, I purchased a used 2014 Rancher 420 ES. It had 75 miles on it and 24 hours. The guy I bought it from LITERALLY never took it out of his 1/2 acre yard. He kept every piece of paper he received when he bought it and gave them to me when I bought it. He purchased it in June of 2014. A year and a week is all he owned it. He used it to move one of those little lawn mower trailers around his yard. He never even got it dirty. It was stored inside the entire time and looked brand spanking new.

The day I bought it, he told me they were moving to Florida and when I pulled up he was using it to haul some stuff. So, it was already warmed up when I test drove it around the neighborhood. The test drive was flawless (again, 75 miles – basically brand new at that point). Brought it home on the trailer and by the time we got home it was dark. Took it off the trailer and on the way to the barn it didn’t want to shift from 1st to 2nd. Strange. Thought maybe I was doing something wrong. Put it in the barn and just forgot about it. Next day I bought a battery tender for it and have kept it connected ever since except for when riding (of course).

A day or two later the wife and I decided to ride some. I let it warm up for 10 minutes or so (as hot as it is here that was probably not necessary) and proceeded to drive off. When I went to shift from 2nd to 3rd, I had to hit the button several times in order for it to shift. Nothing happened on the dash, no lights, dashes or anything. It just kept showing 2nd gear until it finally went into 3rd and showed 3. I could hear the shift motor each time I hit the button trying to shift. Didn’t think much of it. It shifted fine from 3rd to 4th and then to 5th. Once I had ridden it for a while, seemed like it was shifting just fine.

A couple days later, same exact scenario. Now, I read the sticky here about the grease on the shift motor. So, I took off my shift motor and there was, literally, NO grease on the shaft sticking out. I greased it liberally with white lithium grease and even squirted most of the tube of grease inside the case where the shift motor gears are and buttoned it all back up. Took it for a quick ride last night (it was dark so I could only go a couple of miles) and at first it did exactly what it did before, I had to hit the button SEVERAL times when shifting from 2nd to 3rd to get it to shift. 4th and 5th were no problem. After riding a half mile or so, worked fine.

It seems to me that the shifts are kinda hard when they do happen. I have a 2014 Rubicon and a 1997 Foreman 400 as well and they don’t seem to shift that hard. I can hear a CLUNK when it does shift. Probably normal but at this point I’m paying more attention.

It will shift into Reverse, First, Neutral just fine with no hesitation and no strange noises. It’s the 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd shifts that seem to be problematic. Like my wife said when I was telling her about it – "Well, heck, the guy you got it from probably never shifted out of 1st gear the whole time he had it and if he did, he sure never got past 2nd". She’s probably right. I also have no idea if he kept the battery hooked to a maintainer or not. I assume not as I went ahead and installed a pigtail with a plug to match my maintainer that sticks out the back so I can hook it up really quickly when I get back to the barn.

So, what’s my next move here. What item is next on the list of fixing shifting issues after greasing everything? I’m going to put some miles on it and see if it just needs to break in. Maybe the wife is right and that’s it – still stiff from being new. If it doesn’t improve, what’s next – battery? angle sensor? What’s the next thing to check or replace? I’ve only put about 30 miles on it in the month I’ve had it so it may just take time but I would like to know what my next step is. If replacing the battery will fix it, then I’ll go get one today. If it’s the angle sensor, then I can replace that. What else could it be?

Thanks and I hope you all are having a great day!

Neil