The shifter pulls on the cable when you shift to Low and pushes it back into the housing when shifting towards Park. So at the trans, the cable extends towards Park and pulls in for Low. I would start by moving the shifter as far towards Park as it will go, then seeing if the lever on the trans will move any further. If the actuator lever moves, start examining the shift, the cable and the linkages at both ends of the cable. The heat shield blocks your view, so you might need to just go by feel. I'm estimating that the actuator lever points at about 1:30 in Low and about 11:00 in Park. (The camera is angled to get a view up under the heat shield, and that distorts the 1:30 / 11:00 estimate.)

If the lever moves full range and you still don't always get Reverse, it is internal to the trans, which means splitting the engine case. That's beyond the ability of most of us.

You didn't mention Park. Seeing what happens in park might give a clue as to where the problem is, since Park works by engaging a forward gear and reverse at the same time. If you can reach Park (confirmed at the actuator lever) and you can roll the car, something is not right inside the trans.

 

Awesome thanks I'll give it a try park seems to work when I was out in the dunes but it's also a little hard to roll with paddles In the sand, but I'll jack it up and see if can get the tires to spin with it in park since I have it in my shop now. Not looking forward to splitting the cases, I'll do it if I have to just don't want to.

 

Update on the reverse problem. So i drained the oil today and let's say no bueno. So now the motor is coming out and coming apart yay

 

Ugh.

I had my engine out and apart recently. I reinstalled all of the coolant hoses on the engine without paying any special attention to them and I've been chasing a couple of minor leaks for the past few days. I'll put more emphasis on each fitting and hose next time!

I had a dog-ring racing transmission blueprinted many years ago by a really, really good shop that specialized in racing transmissions. They put an undercut angle on the engagement dogs on the gears that they claimed would help pull the dog-ring into the gear. My Wildcat will sometimes chatter a few times before engaging and I've wondered if there might be a slick little modification that would make make the gear engage easier / more quickly like that racing transaxle. Not enough to want to split a case, though.

 

No doubt that would make it nice mine does the same thing so I always blirp the throttle to make sure it is fully engaged before I smash the go pedal. I would love to stuff a different power plant in this thing and go to a seperate transmission. There's just something about shared oil for a motor and tranny that doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy. Would love to stuff a z1 motor in it, but by the time you get done you can buy something with adequate power already. That's my only complaint on my wildcat is really just the motor I love the low center of gravity and how it handles just never have been impressed with the motor except for the sound. The sound is great I love the evolution powersports muffler very nice rumble.

 

Update - motor is pulled. So I pulled the pan off, a little wear on the bevel gears but not near as much damage as I thought there would be with it locking up the way it did. What it looks like is the shift fork is not shifting it into reverse. So I don't know if it's a detent or spring issue. Does anyone know if you can pull any of the secondary transmission gears without splitting the cases? I have yet to pull the shifter apart or the clutch housing off. Was just trying to see if anyone else has dealt with this area at all?

 

Did you find out the problem? Im currently having the same issue.

 

fyi, desert crawler hasn't been on the forum since december 11th, 2019...

 

1000WC, with most any transmission problem on these, the first thing to do is check the shift cable. It attaches to the engine/transmission several inches forward of the oil dipstick. If your cable has stretched, it might not be able to pull the lever on the transmission far enough to select reverse.

Another piece of data would be if you can get it into Park. If the trans will shift into Park (not the shift lever, but the trans), then the problem with reverse could be inside the transmission.

 

1000WC, with most any transmission problem on these, the first thing to do is check the shift cable. It attaches to the engine/transmission several inches forward of the oil dipstick. If your cable has stretched, it might not be able to pull the lever on the transmission far enough to select reverse.

Another piece of data would be if you can get it into Park. If the trans will shift into Park (not the shift lever, but the trans), then the problem with reverse could be inside the transmission.

I will look into the cable but I think my problem is in the transmission its self. My problem started but the machine randomly grinding while driving forward almost like it was putting itself into reverse while moving forward. Now it will not move when shifted into reverse but it still moves forward when shifted into high.

 

I harvested all of the internal trans parts from a low mileage '16 engine when the case broke. Splitting the case and rebuilding the trans is not for the faint of heart, but my "kit" might be able to save you some $$.

I'm reasonably confident that bevel gear problems affect forward and reverse equally, but I have those as well.