# Electric Shift problems



## BleednGreen68

Workin on a 450 Foreman with the electric shift and also a newer rubicon 700 with the same prob. The foreman seems to shift up better than it does shifting it down. But right now it is really intermittent. You have to manually shift it now. Any insight on what to check before I dive into this?

The 700 Rubicon electric shift doesnt work at all. It flashes the D1D2 code on the dash. The auto trans seems to work but seems like its slippin. Not a lot of power. Reverse barely works. Barely pulls itself in reverse on level ground. Any insight on this one too? Thanks guys!


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## lilbigtonka

rubicon 700 wow now thats a rubicon lol....and for the foreman my gf's does same thing upshift easy not so easy down, im also looking for the answer


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## Polaris

yeah i had a problem with my friends 450 foreman because it has a low battery and we had to pull start it and the battery didnt have enough juice to shift it.


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## BleednGreen68

Polaris said:


> yeah i had a problem with my friends 450 foreman because it has a low battery and we had to pull start it and the battery didnt have enough juice to shift it.


I replaced the battery probably 3 or 4 months ago cause it had low voltage and it wasnt shiftin. It worked good for awhile but now its back. Shifting down you can hear the solenoid trying to work but seems to be weak. Wondering if its the solenoid goin bad. I cant get it to shift up at all now. The rubicon is gonna be a lil tougher since its got the esp and the hydrostaic trans. We've replaced a few of those hyrdo trans assemblies and they are PRICEY! Not a big fan of this electric shift junk. Water, mud and electronics dont mix. When it does work it works great though! haha


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## BleednGreen68

lilbigtonka said:


> rubicon 700 wow now thats a rubicon lol....and for the foreman my gf's does same thing upshift easy not so easy down, im also looking for the answer


Guess we will all learn somethin here. I do have a book on the foreman and its actually a honda repair manual, just havnt workd on the atv yet. Tryin to bypass me doin ALOT of diagnosing. I hate doin electrical stuff!


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## lilbigtonka

they dont make a rubicon 700 lol


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## BleednGreen68

Well thats what they told me it was haha. What is it then?? I know its a Rubi though haha. You can see I aint a Honda guy haha


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## 08GreenBrute

its a 500 Rubi, Ive seen them have problems with an angle sensor or angle solenoid something like that


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## BleednGreen68

Thanks green brute! I will look at those sensors first. You know where they are located? Im hopin its somethin stupid simple.


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## 08GreenBrute

It looks like its at the front of the motor near the clutch adjustment. But im not 100% sure on that


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## JPs300

IIRC the angle sensor is right beside the shift motor on the foreman. 

The rubi is a totally different animal.


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## BleednGreen68

Not lookin forward to diving into these projects. Im not mr. electrician. But the book def helps alot. Thanks for all the help guys! I will keep postin as I diagnose it.


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## mrkd1

There is a "Honda ESP Shift System Troubleshooting and Repair" might help in the download section.


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## rubiconrider

if the rubi barely moves and feels like its slipping then i'd have to guess its the transmission oil pump. you have to get some special pressure gauge to check if its good tho. never had any problems with mine but have heard of it. you might wanna look at hondaforeman dot com, its a honda forum and a pretty good one at that.


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## lilbigtonka

ours shifts up fine like perfect but when riding it sometimes shifts down fine sometimes gets stuck in whatever gear i have it in and cant go down at all i can hear it click but doesnt go down will go up fine though but if i turn the key off and back on without starting it it will downshift perfect then i can go riding again but will eventually get stucj again and cant go down....everything works just not perfect i dont unerstand it....


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## BleednGreen68

lilbigtonka said:


> ours shifts up fine like perfect but when riding it sometimes shifts down fine sometimes gets stuck in whatever gear i have it in and cant go down at all i can hear it click but doesnt go down will go up fine though but if i turn the key off and back on without starting it it will downshift perfect then i can go riding again but will eventually get stucj again and cant go down....everything works just not perfect i dont unerstand it....


Thats what the foreman was doin too. My dad unplugged the angle postion sensor and cleaned it and put dielectric compound on it and so far its workin good. I drove it around a lil and no probs.


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## BleednGreen68

rubiconrider said:


> if the rubi barely moves and feels like its slipping then i'd have to guess its the transmission oil pump. you have to get some special pressure gauge to check if its good tho. never had any problems with mine but have heard of it. you might wanna look at hondaforeman dot com, its a honda forum and a pretty good one at that.


Yea it jsut doesnt seem to have the power it should. Takes forever to get up to speed. And reverse is pretty much usless unless you got someone pushing you backwards. Its like the reverse overide button on my brute isnt pushed in. Just retards the timing really bad.


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## BleednGreen68

mrkd1 said:


> There is a "Honda ESP Shift System Troubleshooting and Repair" might help in the download section.


I will check that out thanks! I do have books on both these machines. Every little bit helps.


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## rubiconrider

lilbigtonka said:


> ours shifts up fine like perfect but when riding it sometimes shifts down fine sometimes gets stuck in whatever gear i have it in and cant go down at all i can hear it click but doesnt go down will go up fine though but if i turn the key off and back on without starting it it will downshift perfect then i can go riding again but will eventually get stucj again and cant go down....everything works just not perfect i dont unerstand it....


 yeah my buddys is doing that. if we're flyin down the road for a long time his sticks in 5th and he has to shut it off then back on to get it to work. he sold the bike last week so i never got a chance to figure out what was wrong with it. i've heard its common just never heard a solution lol.


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## rubiconrider

BleednGreen68 said:


> Yea it jsut doesnt seem to have the power it should. Takes forever to get up to speed. And reverse is pretty much usless unless you got someone pushing you backwards. Its like the reverse overide button on my brute isnt pushed in. Just retards the timing really bad.


 well the way you say it now it sounds like it really has nothing to do with the trans. and more toward runability issues? is it boggy/lacking power. like how does it run when you go throught the rpm range in neutral?


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## BleednGreen68

rubiconrider said:


> well the way you say it now it sounds like it really has nothing to do with the trans. and more toward runability issues? is it boggy/lacking power. like how does it run when you go throught the rpm range in neutral?


It runs fine in neutral. Idles perfect and goes through the rpm range no prob. You put it in D1 and D2 it will move but there isnt much difference between the two gears. Electric shift part doesnt work at all. doesnt even try to do anything. I thought I had a book on it but it was for the older hondas. I need to get a service manual for it. Anyplace on here i can look at one?


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## rubiconrider

well if your book is on the older rubicons it will work. they didn't change the hondamatic trans. the manual i use for mine is for the 02-04 rubicon and have yet to find anything different mechanical wise.


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## BleednGreen68

rubiconrider said:


> well if your book is on the older rubicons it will work. they didn't change the hondamatic trans. the manual i use for mine is for the 02-04 rubicon and have yet to find anything different mechanical wise.


Well thats what I thought too but the code that its throwing says ESP D1 D2. Its not in the older Foreman electric shift manual. We need to get a newer repair manual for the rubicons anyways for our shop.


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## rubiconrider

well my angle sensor crapped out this weekend lol. just after i said on here i had never had problems. it threw up code 5 which is the angle sensor code. wouldn't shift outta 1st gear and just flashed ESP D1 D2 and reversed wouldnt work. i got it into D1 and drove it a bit but it just kept irratically shifting up and down so i put it into esp and limped it home in first. got one ordered


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