What's up today (bullchiting) thread.

Do you mean Coco Jambo?

 

Ugg, mowing the lawn for the 3rd or 4th time this year and the transaxle seems to have gone in my cheapo MTD lawn tractor.
All of a sudden no propulsion after about half the lawn done, and the tranny just stopped. The motor runs great, deck runs fine. It acts like the belt broke, but it's in tact and all where is supposed to be. Linkage for tranny is fine. I think the transaxle took a dump.

Does anyone knowledge of these? I assume if the transaxle is shot, then I will need a different tractor. It's probably not worth my time to fix it unless it's something simple at this point.

I've had the mower since 08. Outside of the drive belt that broke last summer, and a different head on the 16.5 go motor, it's been good to me.

I could always drive up and get my parent's ariens GT garden tractor. It just won't fit in my shed as it's a 48" deck and the mtd is I think a 42". They've been trying to give me the ariens tractor for a few years. I just don't have the garage/ shed space for it.

 

Lessee... free mower... hmmmmm...

 

Between yesterday and today I made a lot of progress on the pile! Love it when my son helps stack.

 

I'd verify that the input shaft is actually driving. I've heard of cases where the key/keyway strips out. I think most of those have a cheap stamped belt pulley. You maybe could get lucky and find someone selling a mower with the same TA for cheap...be about the only way it would be worth fixing.
Sounds like you need to do some door mods on your shed there buddy! Or maybe a good excuse to get a bigger shed (ahem garage ) 2 birds 1 stone kind of thing...

 

Now the baseball game is over (Jays won!) and the sun has been shining, campinspecter is waiting for the grass to dry so he can cut it. It is like waiting for paint to dry - right. Boiler tunnel has been in the oven for three hours now. A few more hours to go. I finished one assignment so onto the next.

 

My bride has started to watch baseball on TV lately. Never saw her do this before. Did you have a talk with her?

 

The ariens is actually a garden tractor. Front, center, and rear pto's. The mower deck is wider and actually cuts the swath they advertise, and it has the 48" dual stage snowblower attachment. The ariens is a really well built unit unlike the MTD that I knew was basically a throwaway unit.

I'd like to stop in that soon, but they are 3.5 hrs away, so it's going to have to wait until this weekend at best.

Thanks for the heads up re the shaft. I'll have to see how I can verify that. Maybe jack up the drive wheels and see if they spin at all under power. Maybe just the friction of the pulley/shaft will show me it works or not?

Your theory sounds more plausible than it just getting low on oil in the TA. There's no leaks on the TA at all. Of course there's no drain plug.

I'll try to add a little 20w-50 per the hydro-gear brand, through the vent tube. It can't hurt it any more of it's snapped a keyway or shaft.

I did try to let it cool off, and attempt to try to get it to move after a while, and that didn't work.

I was mowing for a while when this happened, even going slightly downhill, so it's kinda odd, but it is what it is.

The shed for the tractor is on its last legs. A door mod will suffice for a while, unless I get that 3 bay wood shed built soon. Then I can get the bigger garden tractor under shelter under the 3rd bay, as I have the wood to put in 2 of the 3 bays. That'll work.

 

That would be a good start, get an eyeball on it. If everything looks OK, then take a sharpie and make a witness mark across the pulley/shaft, then drive it and see if it moves. Chances are it is not low on oil unless you can see where it was leaking.
I had Hydrogear drives (2) on my Toro ZTR. I was pulling a lawn roller when it went out the first time...it just got weaker and weaker on the left side. I was able to rebuild it (basically a new pump and motor) for about 33 % the cost of a whole new unit. 7 years later I noticed an oil trail when sidehilling the ditch across the road...turns out the axle carrier bearing puked and took out the seal. That was the last straw for me dealing with non serviceable hydros...I did drill and tap the bottom of the case for a drain plug before I sold the mower...at least the next guy has the option of changing the oil now. It was replaced by a Hustler ZTR with some high quality White brand divorced type (separate pump and motors) that is serviceable and has an actual filter!

 

Brought enough firewood in to get us through the next three or four nights. About a third of a cord which is a mix of Ash, Pine, and Maple.

 

It is a great time to knit or do projects that are time consuming and repetitious. There are enough pauses to get something done between the action. Football is good too. Come the fall, you might want to suggest football watching as well.

I actually started watching baseball many, many years ago when my brand new husband worked on the weekends and I would do housework with a baseball game in the back ground. Having only two channels to watch pretty well limited the viewing content so sports it was.

 

My awesome neighbor is going to lend me his 1 year old big simplicity lawn tractor to finish my mowing tomorrow after work. What a nice guy, huh?

 

That's a great show. There's a lot of messed up humor in it.

 

Huh? Not enough messed up humor on here for ya?

 

Been tryin to behave...

 

I need inspiration sometimes. That, or I need a reminder for pg-13 ratings at most.