Hi everyone and Merry Christmas! Hope that doesn’t offend you… anyway….I have a 1999 trx 300fw that I purchased a few months ago. Everything ran great until I decided to replace the clutch cover gasket about a month ago. When I pulled the cover a few parts fell out such as the kickstarter gear and a few other things. Since then I’ve learned that putting the atv on its side makes it much easier to work on – for all the critics! Btw I’m not a mechanic nor do I have any significant training or experience.

Ok, long story short I’ve had the clutch cover on and off probably 6 times since I started the project. Every time except the last time I’ve had issues getting the kickstarter in correctly so I had to tear it down till I figured out how to correctly install it. Turns out I wasn’t locking the tab into the groove at around the 3 o clock position.

Here’s my problem now – everything has been put back together and for the first time the kickstarter seems to have the right feel when I kick it. However, instead of it turning the engine over, it actually rolls the atv backwards a few inches. Furthermore, when I try to shift gears using the foot clutch, it doesn’t want to shift up or down and doesn’t feel anything like it used to. It’s very stiff and doesn’t spring back into position.

I’m happy to give more details if anyone thinks they know what is going on. Any advice, pictures, diagrams, etc would be very much appreciated.