2002 TXT won't lock into gear until clutch engages

[mxfan2]

I recently started working on this cart. It's been sitting for about 2 years. Looks like it's had minimal maintenance. The rear end was almost completely out of oil, air filter was caked with dirt, starter belt was cracked and falling apart, dried mud all over the undercarriage, etc. I've replaced anything I've found that's worn, changed fluids, spark plugs, air filter. It's running great now. But when you initially put it in forward or reverse it doesn't seem to lock in. With the seat off you can see and hear the lever on the axle move when the clutches engage. Then it jerks into gear. After that it's fine until you move it out of gear. Any ideas on where to start with it?

[ORTitan]

Sounds like your cables are not moving freely. Also check where the cables attach to the shifting linkage on the rear axle there should be springs on the cables there. Lastly the shifting mechanism inside the differential uses square cut "dogs" to engage the forward and reverse gears. When the cables do not work smoothly it will act like you describe.

[mxfan2]

It seems to me that it's internal to the transaxle. I can't grab it and make it go into gear without moving something in the axle. I.e. rolling the cart or turning the driven clutch. Is there an adjustment in the transaxle that can be made?

[ORTitan]

There are no adjustments inside of the transaxle. There is a "fork" for the slider gear attached to the shaft that the cables hook to. I have seen this fork crack before. It is riveted to the shaft. It is possible that the rivets have loosened. Since the slider gear for selecting forward and reverse is a coarse "dog" type it would be normal operation to have some movement before engagement. Have you disconnected the cables and established that things are moving smoothly?

[mxfan2]

I haven't checked anything with the cables unhooked. I'll try that out tomorrow. Is it possible that not having enough gear oil has caused some damage or at least something to get sticky?

[ORTitan]

Maybe, but I would think that there would be other problems in there before the shifter part was affected. If you can find an exploded diagram view you will see the forward/reverse selecting slider gear and how it works. Do you think that this thing may of had water in it? The slider could be hanging on the splined shaft that it moves on. IF you get brave they are not all that difficult to disassemble with normal hand tools to have a look see.

[ORTitan]

Oh, and I was having a brain fart earlier. The governor fork is riveted to its shaft. The shifting fork is welded to its shaft. It could be bent or the weld had broken and the fork is moving on the shaft.

[country1982country]

I would like to know what you do find causing this problem I have a couple older carts that are hard to shift into gear and would like to know the root cause of it

[mxfan2]

I have the single cable setup on mine. Unhooked, the cable moves freely, and the actuator on the input shaft exhibits the same problems. I went to a shorter drive belt because I'll be adding a lift and larger tires. This helped some bc it moves the secondary enough to fully lock in at a much lower rpm. No fix yet. I probably won't do much more with it until winter.

[Tommybh]

Was this ever solved my cart has exact symptoms yours does