Transmission binds downshifting

PineyPower · May 23, 2024

Friend of mine got a warrior to rebuild, previous owner stripped out the output gear. My friend had the motor apart, replaced the stripped gear and the highly abused clutch and got it running.
Now that he has it back together, we are finding that the transmission binds up downshifting into 1st. I wasn't around for the rebuild but it's safe to assume nothing obvious jumped out at him and he reassembled it the same as it came apart, but he isn't the first person in this thing. Thinking there's an undiagnosed issue that caused the previous owner's catastrophic failure.
Anyone have a similar problem? Anything specific he should be looking for?

ag2560 · May 23, 2024

What do you mean binds up?

YamahaNutz · May 24, 2024

Assuming you can't shift to first without excessive force and basically stopped. Recheck the clutch adjustment. If it's not releasing all the way, this could happen.

If that checks out it could be worn shift drum, forks, the gears, or all of it. The drum could be gouged where the fork pins go. The forks can be bent or worn in many ways. The gears have tangs that engage and could be worn.

My first '87 warrior had a few shims missing and had similar issues. I took apart a '93 lower and made a good one from the two. I also had a clutch cable housing break(sharp bend and starting to split open). Adjusting it to fully engage ment it wouldn't disengage 100% and it was difficult to shift.

Another small item to check is the clutch cam itself. Had a trashed one on a parts motor. The flat that pushed on the clutch pin was very rounded.

PineyPower · May 24, 2024

I finally got to put eyes on his clutch and ride the quad myself. Filed the hub and basket smooth and made adjustments, it gets into all the gears and I haven't gotten it to bind up in first like it was but something still isn't right. As you ride it you can hear and feel it in the foot pegs something pops and cracks in that case as the load on the motor changes. I'm thinking there's a shim missing and the transmission gears are rubbing faces or something is wrong with that shift drum like nutz says. Hoping to dive I to it the next couple days

PineyPower · Jun 21, 2024

Update: it was missing the shims that go between the transmission gears and the case. When my friend replaced the output gear he didbt notice them missing and put it all back together just like it was. He wasnt the first person in that motor, whe. I was helping him i noticed alot of fresh parts including a wiesco piston. If i had to guess the guy did the piston, went for a rip, blew it, and put it for sale.
Luckily our testing wasnt so rough, aside from some witness marks on the inide of the case (edit: and a chooched up gear from a circlip bending) everything is in good order. Gonna get the shims (and ****) and put it back together