I just picked up a hammerhead 250 today. A buddy had it sitting around a couple years. Was his daughters, but she's of driving age now, and now it's my daughters toy. Just took some fresh gas and a new battery to fire it up.

The buggy ran great, and we were having a blast on our property. We were maybe an hour into riding it when all forward power stopped.

We were in some mud doing donuts. I stopped in the middle of some soggy ground and mashed the pedal to kick up some mud. It spun maybe a second and just stopped. No weird noises, no clunks. I honestly thought we were just stuck at first.

The buggy went into reverse with a hard clunk. We drove it home in reverse.

After some internet searches, I attempted adjusting the shift linkage with no help and then I pulled the cover to check the belt and it is intact and appears in good shape.

Watching the belt with the cover off and giving it gas, the belt and pulleys are spinning and the belt pulley was movingside to side with the Rome. In forward.

In reverse the buggy does move. Although it did seem to be slipping badly when I backed in up into the garage. Just seemed to take a lot of power to get it to move.

The wife isn't about to let me live this one down. Seems to me the clutch is out? But honestly I know very little about these and this is my first kind of any toy I've ever had.

Any ideas? Easiest way to check the clutch?

Thanks in advance

The fact is reverse is geared lower than the forward gear is. It may be the clutch pads are shot. Pull The nut off the back clutch remove the bell or outer cover and look at the pads. Make sure the clutch arms are not frozen up. There are three and they are spring loaded so you will need to use a screw driver to pry up on the end opposite of the pivot point.

Guess I should have asked this first, does this have the hi/low transmission or the single speed forward?

The shifter knob shows LHNR, but I can only feel 3 positions on the selector on the trans. My friend never mentioned anything about more than 1 forward hear when explaining its operation to us. Perhaps someone has just switched the knob over time?

I'll pull the clutch cover this afternoon. If it is the clutch, how hard is that to swap?

How many bolts are holding the clutch cover on? If only two then it is a CN250 with just f&r, if it has a series of bolts all around the perimeter then it is a Cf250 which should be a hi/low transmission.

2 centrally positioned bolts held the cover on.

Still haven't popped the bell off the clutch. I'm trying to finish up a playset I've been building for my girls before the rain sets in.

I appreciate your help.

Ok then it may be in the transmission but check the clutch first.

Clutch seems good. Friction pads are about 1/4" thick and in good condition. Good normal looking wear on the bell. Swing arms don't seem to be sticking, they move with a little help from a screwdriver.

I don't think I like where this is going...

Ok you can check the gears on the area behind the clutch which is much easier to check than splitting the reversing box. This gives you a excuse to change that gear oil any way. Make sure everything there is in good shape. If all is well there the next step is pull the passenger side housing off the reversing box. It may be something as simple as the shift fork is broken. Be careful when you open that up and make sure you get the shim washers back on the shafts just like they are. Some boxes have a cover plate on the right side that you can pull and remove a snap ring so you can slide it off the output shaft coming out of the clutch housing but some don't and you have to open the case up to get to that snap ring.

I pulled the cover behind the clutch and all looks good. So now I need to pop the passenger side off? Any tips? Seems super intrusive from what I see? Remove muffler and axle? I don't see an access cover like on the clutch side...

It is a small cover on the passenger side towards the top if there is one. It is held on with three or four screws. Yes it is a lot of work to open that up that is why I said to check the other stuff first. I take it that you have tried to move the shift arm on the transmission back and forth to make sure it is working. If you have the wheels off the ground and the CVT cover off you can turn the clutch bell to see if there is any change when you move the shift arm back and forth.

Yes, my initial check was to first disconnect the linkage and try and put it in forward at that shift arm. The forward position resulted in no forward movement. Reverse still worked.

Before I started disassembly, with both wheels off the ground, I put it in each gear and spun the tires. In reverse, I got spinning of the clutch. In forward, the clutch would not spin and I could hear a slight noise in the case.

The only thing attached to my transmission on the passenger side is the shift arm mechanism. 4 bolts. Is it behind it?

No that is just the bracket for the shifter. That was a good test spinning the tires to see if the clutch moved. The sound in the case is not a good sign. So It looks like you need to open it up.

I'm assuming I'll have to pull it completely out for that fun?

Since it doesn't have access to that snap ring externally you will have to open it up in place. This is doable by just removing the right side axle and raising it up enough to clear. I think on the HH you will have to remove the rotor assemble as well.

I have pulled the right axle and control arm, rotor and caliper, all 3 rear mounts, and the shifter lever. Behind the shifter lever was an access panel with 4 screws, and behind it was a snap ring on the, I'm guessing, input shaft? Either way, I removed that snap ring. It was in the round hole in the attached picture.

I don't see any real possible way to open the case without removing the whole gearbox assembly, and I have tried every way to seperate the gearbox to remove it. Even removed the radiator. I can't seem to get it to seperate from the other half for removal. Should it slide free of that long block arm? Where the gears behind the clutch are? Sorry, not 100% on the correct terminology...

Am I missing something?

Also, I've been playing with it as I'm tearing it apart. It's almost definitely a sheared gear. Or partial? I can get it to grab and turn the axles in forward for brief periods of time and then you can feel it slip for a few rotations before it repeats the same process. Are the gears available separately? Or should I go ahead and start looking at a gearbox assembly?

You will have to remove that flanged hub that the rotor mounted to so you can slip the cover over the axle shaft to pull the right half off. Yes that round hole under the shift bracket should be the one with the snap ring you need to remove so you can slip it off the engine output shaft. I personally have never had one just like that and have always had to just split the case in place to remove them so not sure just how much fun that will be.

As for parts not sure what is available for it. Open it up and see just what is wrong I may have what you need if not someone else may have them.

The rotor hub had a set screw on the base I removed, but I couldn't get it to slide off. Is there something else hiding it on or should I try using a puller?

Really appreciate your help so far.

Make sure there are not two set screws, and you will most likely need to use a puller.

I can only see the one, I'll look better though because the puller didn't want to budge it.

I'm also still having an issue disconnecting the gearbox from the clutch housing area. I removed the snap ring behind that access cover. The input shaft seems to want to slide out of the clutch housing and come out with the gear box. There is something prohibiting it. I can hear it hit what I guess is another snap ring that is hidden? All I see at the back of the input shaft on this side is the black seal. Is there a snap ring behind it? Seems to be a pressed in seal as it doesn't seem to just pop out. Really don't want to cause any more issue..

Not sure but think there is a snap ring on the clutch side of the shaft too. But can't remember if you can pull that shaft out with the reversing box. I always had to split the box in place as mine never had the snap ring under that small cover.