Hi i just purchased my first rzr. Previous owner sold as is hard to shift transmission. He included the detent ball and spring from polaris saying thats what the problem was as right now the shifter goes all the way from park to high no resistance so its guessing if in gear…grind em to find em lol.
So i installed the spring and detent now i cant shift it allim guessing if i force it the detent will fall out into tranny kinda hos i got it a cut down spring and nodetent ball probably inside tranny….
My question is this going to be a new tranny issue? Also note the gear selector sensor only displays neutral i took off cleaned and dielectric greased it and no change. I jumped common to high at jplug and now odo shows h and awd would engage if i jack up back tires though odo showed no 4wd icon but if i take off jumper it disengages the 4wd prob separate issue but wanted to mention that.
any advice is appreciated as to my next steps. Tkx.

Did you drive the machine before digging into tranny? Was it grinding into gear or would it not go into gear?

 

No i haven't driven it except down my driveway he drove it onto trailer it didnt grind but that was like 50 yards. It will go in gear but i would describe the gear shifting as free floating no real detent ball feeling as to if your in a gear or not i just put sharpy marks on shift console so i kinda know where to stop, then give it a bit of gas to check if its in a gear.

 

So long as there is resistance when shifting now at least your detent is likely in properly. If it is overly hard to shift maybe just a stiff spring or wrong spring. If the original ball fell inside the trans I would do everything possible to make sure it is not in the case. If it is floating around inside there is a big possibility of pinching between a gear and the case blowing a hole in the case, not good.

 

Ya i will drain the pan try to find the ball. There isnt resistance shifting if i leave a new ball and spring i cant shift at all just stuck in first gear it hits. I was debating drilling out the main bolt 1-2 mm and putting a slightly larger ball to creat more surface area where the ball hits the detent plate inside the transmission as right now its either stuck shifter or floppy shifter. Im hoping a bigger detent ball would maybe still give some resistance but not get stuck in the detent plate??? Ideas?

 

I would go with trimming the spring before a drilling procedure. Try backing the tension bolt off of the spring a bit and see if that improves shift feel then if it does you would know how much to trim the spring. I have had these transmissions apart and think either the collar bolt the ball and spring ride in may be in too far or the spring is just too long. Sounds like the spring is getting coil bound.

 

Ya actually the previous owner must have tried the spring trick its shorter than the oem one. I tried backing the center bolt out in small increments then trying shifter i was almost all the aay backed out (probably 1/2” left in) and then the detent ball popped off the detent plate and it was like having no detent ball/spring so no real gear spots. Seems to be all or nothing like the detent plate holes are too deep? I was thinking if i could inject jb weld or something into detent plate to fill the holes a tiny bit.

 

Hi i just purchased my first rzr. Previous owner sold as is hard to shift transmission.

Since previous owner said it was hard to shift, you may want to check the shift cable and shifter mount

A buddy of mine has a 2008 that was very hard to shift (gradually got worse over several years), he pulled the cable and it was so gunked up with crud that the cable took extreme amount of effort to get it to move at all inside the sheath,
He also found that the shifter mount had cracked due to fatigue from hard shifts caused by cable and was moving around causing shift position to be off.

After he replaced the cable and did some weld reinforcement on the mount and now his machine shifts like new.

Mount was cracked in the area on both ends at the angle where it bolts to frame (actually broke into on one end)

 

So its only hard really more like impossible to shift when i install the detent ball and spring on the shifter side if i remove them i can move the shifter from p to h with 1 finger. I did check if detent ball and spring were still on engine side and they are. I actually removed that spring and installed the spring and detent on shifter side and was still impossible to shift.
Do you think the detent shifter plate inside the transmission in bent towards the detent ball causing it to be to close to it when engaged? Or possible whole internal plates are moved over because why isnt the engine side detent and spring giving any type of detent sense when i shift would that be possible to be off a bit?

 

I have a unit with less than 50 miles, let me know if any interest.

 

I will im going to try a few things see if i can just re engineer it a bit first. How much would you want for it if i have to go replacement.?

 

i solved it. Well just incase someone else is having same rzr 800 2008 shifter problems. I ended up putting a 5mm ball bearing into detent sleeve bolt. I drilled out bolt tip put ball bearing in end and put a dab of grease so it didnt fall out screwing in sleeve bolt. I screwed in, put spring into center and reinstalled the center bolt. Now my shifter has actual gear positions not just free wheeling. I tried it briefly in driveway yet to be seen if theres something else in gear case that has issues but working as of now. Once i can ride in the mountains i will update if this worked long term. Ps there was shavings of metal in gear case but maybe have been from grinding gears to find them time will tell. Cross my fingers.

 

Hey Joe Blowdough, sorry to necropost, but after a year how is the larger detent ball holding up? I hope you didn't have to blow more dough. I am thinking of doing the same thing on my 2008 but my detent ball is 7.8mm in diameter so I would have to upsize to a 8.5 or 9mm. I ordered a new ball (3234520) because I thought mine may have been damaged or something but the thing just doesn't want to let me shift unless I loosen the bolt so much that all spring tension is removed