Have an '08 gator xuv, about a week ago I noticed the front wheels will not engage into 4wd while in reverse. Rears start to spin and fronts do nothing. Works great going forward in 4wd. Dealer wants to take the front end apart
Any others out there with same
Here's a suggestion to try...
Jack the vehicle up so that all four wheels are off the ground. Block it up so it will be safe to work around it without any danger of it falling.
Engage the 4x4 and put it in a forward gear and give it a little throttle. Hopefully the front driveshaft to the front axle is exposed, so you can see it turning. (If it's not exposed, then this little experiment might be futile. If the front driveshaft is not exposed, maybe there is an access port that you can remove to verify if it is rotating or not??) With some throttle applied, the front tires should turning as if moving in the forward direction.
Assuming you can see the front driveshaft rotating, now put the vehicle in reverse with 4x4 engaged. Obviously you should still see the driveshaft turning but in the opposite direction now. And if everything was perfect, you should also see the front tires rotating as if going in the reverse direction.
Here's the thing you should try and determine; if you can see the front driveshaft rotating while in reverse, but the front wheels are not turning, then the problem does appear to be in the front end as your dealer suggested.
If the front driveshaft is NOT rotating while in reverse (with 4x4 engaged) then the problem would appear to be somewhere in the transfer case, or maybe there's an actuator or solenoid not working to engage the 4x4 in reverse.
I don't know anything about the gators, but the procedure above is pretty standard for most 4x4 drive systems. Good luck!
