Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's How to shift Kawasaki 4-Wheeler into Reverse?

A buddy of mine passed away last month and I am helping his widow sell some of his possessions. There is a 1998 Kawasaki 300 4-wheeler that I had to move. It starts fine and operates fine in all forward gears, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to shift it into reverse.

There is a Reverse button on the "dash", but no combination of brake, shift pedal and reverse button seems to work.

Is there some sort of double-dutch secret password combination of actions that will accomplish this seemingly simple task?

The Reverse button is a throttle over-ride, so if you need more power while in reverse. On mine, you have to have your foot on the foot pedal brake & of course, be totally stopped before I can shift into reverse gear. Hope this is helpfull

So if you have it in neutral, you turn the knob to the right holding onto it, step down once on the shifter; nothing happens?

I have a '99 Kaw 300 Bayou. The reverse button on the dash blocks the gear shift so you can't shift to reverse by accident. You have to hold the button while you shift. Sometimes the pedal will hang up some and it's necessary to shift to 1st then back down again. On mine, it's not necessary to brake while you shift.

It's very possible that the clutch needs to be adjusted. Remove the trapezoidal shaped plate just behind the foot brake. Under it is a screw with a nut on it. Hold the screw and loosen the nut. Turn the screw clockwise until its tight. Turn the screw counterclockwise until it starts to get tight. Hold it secure and tighten the nut.

Another possibility is that the reverse knob cable free play needs adjusting. Trace the cable from the knob to its lower end under the gear shift. Turn the knob until the cable just starts to move the shift lever. Put a mark on the knob or watch the handle on it move. It should move about 2 to 3mm before the lever starts to move. If not, adjust the lower cable end with the adjustment lock nuts.

Thanks for the responses. It turns out the cable from the reverse knob to the transmission was broken...but it could be shifted by pulling on the end of the cable that was still attached to the transmission. I guess it would be a great anti theft device.