'98 Xpress 300 won't engage in forward after secondary clutch removal

[Will Trepanier]

Hi,

Last year my son received a 98 Xpress 300 as a gift from his uncle. It worked fine, except the starter didn't work and it grinds in reverse. Reverse isn't important, but he purchased a starter and we just finished putting it in. We had a lot of trouble getting the secondary clutch off (I bought pullers for both clutches) but it finally popped off after shortening the puller and filling the hole with grease. It was tight enough that the puller actually flattened a bit on the end of the spindle. In an effort to get the puller out, we actually took the clutch apart to potentially heat the shaft, but ended up getting it out with a BIG impact gun. We put the secondary back together on the 2-1 setting and put it all back together. Without realizing it, when we were first working to pull the secondary we had it in gear. Once we realized it we put it in neutral and blocked the secondary. It was substantially harder to get off than any clutch I've ever pulled from a snowmobile... It was my first time pulling one on an ATV.

Now the problem we have is it doesn't seem to engage in forward gear. When we put it in reverse, it stops the secondary when it engages (as I would expect) and still grinds when going backwards, though not quite as bad as before. When we put it in forward the secondary just continues to spin with virtually no resistance. I can see the primary engage and pull the belt into the secondary, but it does not seem to engage the gears. If we push the lever forward we do hear some clicking. It's almost as if it is out of alignment, but having never worked on the gearboxes I thought I'd ask for advice before I started adjusting anything.

With how hard we had to turn the puller to get the secondary off, could we have bent or caused something to be misaligned? The boy is really disappointed right now and itching to keep working on it, but I really wasn't sure where to go next. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Will

[Ajmboy]

It sounds like something is misaligned but this is a bit out of my realm, but maybe @davefrombc or one of the other members would have better info. I'm bumping this topic for you. 🙂

[Will Trepanier]

Thanks! I did find a service manual with some troubleshooting steps. This week I plan to remove the linkage and see it it engages by manually pushing the studs. Should help tell me if it’s something in the gearbox or a linkage adjustment.