2015 American Landmaster LM500 Stuck in gear

[Chris Miller]

Good Morning Folks..Happy New Year, I have been having some intermittent issues with my 2015 American Landmaster LM500 not going into neutral. Seems if I shut the engine off it would pop into neutral. Yesterday I was splitting firewood with a 500 pound log splitter that I pushed to my wood area up a slight grade. I was not able to get it into neutral which I assumed was due to the pressure of the weight of the splitter pushing back. after I finished splitting wood, I used the weight of the splitter to roll back down the hill to my driveway. I unhooked the splitter but still could not get it to go into neutral or start. I dragged it back into my barn with my mower as I don't leave anything outside over night. I am at a loss what to check to try to fix this. I use my UTV (Eustas) every day that I am at my place where I keep it and will be lost without it. Thoughts? 

[Chris Miller]

Well folks I am not sure what I actually did, but I unplugged a few things and adjusted the one cable at the gear selector...I noticed a click sound when I turned the key...for grins a nd giggles I put the battery charger on the battery and the started started clicking...I removed the cables and cleaned everything up and with the charger on the started would spin...I removed the battery from my tow behind trail cutter and installed it in the UTV,,and HE IS ALIVE!..dont know what happened to the battery since I started him up yesterday afternoon and he started right up as usual...stranger things have happened....Happy New Year!

[kenfain]

Glad to hear that you have it all sorted out. I was going to suggest checking the transmission oil. If it has any, some do, and some don't. That's always a good place to start. But a cable adjustment would make sense too. 

[vaughn]

  My Bulldog has a neutral safety switch that can get a little finicky. You might have inadvertently adjusted it. Either way, glad you got it going.

[erickat]

I have a similar issue with my LM500 - apparently, the shifting is tied to the idle speed.  Mine won't come out of gear into neutral or reverse unless i cut the key for a second - just before it dies, i turn it back on. That seems to be just enough to allow the shifter to slide into neutral.  While it's not optimal, I've learned to use this method to make shifting much easier.  When i stop, I can't just put it into neutral, as it is often still in forward, even though the shifter is in the neutral position.  I cut the key off & let it almost die - and you can feel the shifter drop into neutral - then i turn the key back on & hit the gas to be certain I'm in neutral - otherwise, it won't start again, until I manipulate the shifter to get it into neutral.

I'm sure there is likely an adjustment I could make, but this method works fine for me & doesn't cost me a visit to the mechanic (which by the way - if I'd known how few & far between the dealers are, I likely would have bought something more mainstream.

The LM500 was discontinued - even though mine is a 2015 model (so I was told).  I got it for $500 a few years back & it had many upgrades (windshield, dump bed, roof, lights, mud flaps, winch, plow

It's been a good vehicle, but I  had to put a new carburetor on it last summer. After that, it runs great.

[kenfain]

If it has a carburetor, then yes, it should be a simple adjustment. No specialized service center, or factory trained technician needed. Any qualified mechanic would likely have it fixed in moments. You can easily do it yourself if you're careful.

The idle itself can be tuned on some equipment, on others, an adjustment to the air/fuel mix would be the fix. It's the fuel injected, CPU controlled vehicles that are more complex, and require more extensive knowledge, and tools. 

[Travis]

does it have the 479cc  Briggs Vanguard engine? twin cylinder ?