Troubleshooting a Yamaha Kodiak I have I believe a 2000 kodiak 4 x 4 fresh battery you have to move the shifter around to get a neutral light to come on now it won’t come on at all any suggestions?

Is it in neutral even though the light isn't on? If so, it could be a bad light switch.

But it won’t start won’t turn over

Could be a bad neutral safety switch. It's probably 1 switch that turns on the light and also allows it to start.

Anyway to test that?

You may very well have an electrical issue caused by mice. Your problem sounds exactly like how my Rhino acted and, upon close inspection, we found field mice had nested in the battery box and chewed a good many wires on the wiring harness. They had also chewed the wire into on the thermostat sending unit causing it to give a false overheating warning.

You guys are talking me into keeping my old air cooled Kawasaki with the two starting systems and the foot shift. Not starting would be a major inconvenience back in the woods somewhere.

My '03 Kodiak starts in Park or Neutral, but the gear indicator light has to be on. Sometimes I need to shake the rig a bit to get the light on. I agree with the others - you may have a switch or wire that's gone bad.

My Kodiak wouldn't start the other day. Checked the battery terminals for contact. They looked very clean. Tried some other things. No go. Went back and scraped the contacts and posts with a knife. Solved the problem. Never thought that this would happen.

Same here, for my '03, neutral or park, light must be on.

Alternatively, if I pressed the rear brake pedal (or squeezed the handle), I could start it in gear. Had to tear the front end apart to replace the coil pack, and got something out of adjustment when putting it back together, because now I can't do the brake pedal starting, it must be in neutral or park now.

Does the brake light work?