86 Kawasaki bayou 185

[gatorschevy]

I have an issue with shifting this atv,

It shifts great 1st,2nd, 3rd if you're not getting on it goes into 4th but slips into 5th when you give more throttle but if you're getting on it just skips 4th and goes into 5th gear. would this be a shift fork issue?

[Mech]

It sounds like shift, or worn engagement dogs on the gears. I've never seen shift forks so worn they allowed changes to occur though, but worn drive dogs under load eject themselves out of one gear, and into another.. often..

If the engagement dogs are worn it will be effected by throttle quite a bit, it'll jump out of one gear and into the next with a crash/bang under load, generally throttle loads, but also sometimes heavy overrun loads. But if it's dodgy shifters it's as likely to just rattle into the wrong gear because you cornered or were driving along with no load and things could move. Not necessarily the shift forks, but the shift drum or shift linkages.

You don't actually say that heavy throttle causes the problems, and it could be that when you are driving briskly you just don't change as carefully, but I'd guess the engagement dogs have rounded shoulders, and that it's heavy throttle that's causing a gear to be spat out, causing it to slide into another gear. Either way, whatever causes the changes under load, the shoulders on the cogs will soon be rounded anyway, or could be now.

I'd drain the oil and dredge through it with a magnet looking for bits of steel. If there is steel shards then it sounds like a strip down, but if the oil is pretty clean, noting but metal dust in the oil, then I'd pull the side case and inspect the shifter mechanism and the shift drum/barrel for end float.

[gatorschevy]

ok thank you I now have a idea where to start