John Deere Gator Won't Go Into Gear

If you're John Deere Gator 825i and 620i won't go into gear there is a fairly simple fix for the issue.  Recently we ran across the problem on a 825i that had ran out of warranty.  The Gator had under a 100 hours of light use and had already been back to the dealership once for the problem.

This particular Gator 825i would shift between the gear ranges fairly easily with the UTV not running.  Once started it had to be forced into gear and was fairly obvious the synchronizers were taking a beating.  The problem seemed to get worse and worse until at last it had to be shut off to get it out of gear.

THE FIX:  After first checking the shift cables and console mounted shift mechanism itself we pulled the belt guard located behind the driver side rear tire.  After removing the cover and cycling the primary and secondary clutch through their motion it was obvious the primary clutch was not fully disengaging when idling.  The primary clutch is connected to the engine's crankshaft.  As result of the primary clutch not fully disengaging it was turning the secondary clutch.  The Gator 825i secondary clutch feeds into the transmission gearbox and the transmission was actually performing as it was designed, not allowing the Gator to pop out of gear when under load.

As for the fix, lightly spray penetrating oil on the primary clutch slides.  Start the Gator and again cycle the clutches by going from idle to full throttle and back to idle a couple times.  We then applied a thin layer of motor oil with our fingers to the slides.  Be careful not to get the belt or sheaves (area the belt rides in) oily.  The video below demonstrates the entire fix process on a Gator 825i.