By Harry Dusseau (Dirtyharry) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Hopped in my Max yesterday. Went to take off and the T-20 made this horrible squealing sound. Tried to shift into reverse, and could not get it out of forward. It's locked up tight. I muscled it a bit, but didn't want to do more damage, so I stopped after a couple of minutes. Stuck in forward now. Won't shift into neutral. Won't shift into reverse.

I've never had anything like this happen before. T-20 has always functioned flawlessly. Any clue as to what's going on here, people????? I am stumped. *SIGH*

HELP!

-Harry

By David Keeso (Argomag) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Did you put oil in the transmission. I don't know the MAX vehicles very well at all, but moving parts need to be lubed.

By Fred Sowerwine, Montana's Max Dealer (Fred4dot) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Hi Harry, You didn't say, but I'm guessing you haven't used your max for a while. And I'm also guessing that maybe you were in some gunk and put your machine away a little wet and dirty. I think the squeal was your drive belt getting the tranny to turn and I think your shift collars have gunked up so they won't move.

Vacuum it good and clean it up well so stuff doesn't fall into your tranny. Pull the pin that makes the connection to the shift collar and Shift it by hand at the shift collar (if it will shift OK, it is something else). If the shift collars won't move, remove the plate that holds the shift collars in (one on each side of the tranny where the linkage hooks in). pull the shift collar straight up by hand (might need to pry with a small wrecking bar, but should be able to do it by hand (be careful not to ding it up). Once it is out, look for crud or rust on the collar and the tranny casing. Stuff some paper down the hole and use steel wool to buff the case and collar down. Vacuum the hole out real well so you don't get any tailings in your tranny and pull out the paper wad. Re-lube the o-rings with Vaseline and goop a bunch above the o-rings slip it in letting the Vaseline fill the gap. It should shift like new.

By John Martin on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Harry, I'm with Fred on this one, I bet money that is what has happened. I've had the same problem a couple times. I have gotten alot of crap down in my little MAX and it has caused the shift collars to jam up in forard gear and sometimes in reverse. To get it going when I'm on a ride, I just pull the rear hatch and use my left hand and snake it down to each side to assit the shift collar (careful--can pinch the heck out of your fingers) and give the shift selector a little bump with my right hand. You want to be very careful and don't try too hard to shift it or you will bend the linkages going to the shift collars, if you have already bent the linkages then you need to straighten them back up because you screwwed up the ability of the lever to properly shift the T-20, they are out of whack so to speak. It pays to keep the machines clean and use them often. Goodluck!

By frank on Unrecorded Date: Edit

John:

The long rod that goes from the shift lever to tranny is bent on the left side causing my right side not to engage the gears. Should I just bend back that linkage rod? Thanks, Frank

By Attex Bob on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Frank: You can do what I did after bending my rods back in shape about 10 times. I went down to the wrecking yard and got some torsion bar rods off of a deck lid on a car. They are made out of spring steel so they won't bend!!!! I heated them up and made the bends and drilled some holes for the cotter pins and now I don't have to put up with the bending crap every other ride. give it a try, you will like it!!!!!!!