MTD TRANSMATIC SLOW CLUTCH RETURN

Hi, I have a 1987 MTD 137-667-611/F307H, its the typical transmatic with the variator pully. My issue is when I Clutch in and select the higher speeds the pully seems to struggle to return back unless you pull the clutch pedal back. Now, I have removed the belts and lubed everything up and all the mechs operate fine and moves as it should but then its all conected it sturggles. I have found that spraying WD40 on the pulley and belts while the machine is running temporary cures the problem until it dries up and evapourates.

Does anyone know the permenant solution!

cheers

ps the variator itself spins freely the middle section moves up and down with ease and the needle bearings are all good!

If you have been putting WD 40 on the belts then they are now stuffed and will need replacing
You replace them as a pair and only with original MTD belts
MTD belts are a different shape to std belts and std belts just will not work on the variator system.

While the sliding sheave might slide easily, it can still be worn to the point where it twists slightly so jambs.
Check the springs , all of them , front and back also check the mounting points for excessive wear.
Also check the pedal pivot points foe wear. if they are flogged out oval, under load they can jamb.

Finally WD 40 is not a lubricant it is a good dewatering fluid , mediocre penetrant & bad lubricant as it shifts any remaining lube and leaves a clean sirface to wear excessivly or rust.

Get a can of dry lithium grease, also called chassis pray grease or white grease.
Use this to lube every place where one piece of metal rubs on another

Hi, thanks for replying! bit brutal about the belts, thankfully they are still running fine for now at least anyways. well being 30 years old the metal on metal linkages are not in there prime, you are quite right there. But took the variator bracket off the chassis, the shaft with the 2 plastic bushes and although the unit did spring back and forth, this shaft was siezed solid. Bashed it out cleaned it all up and jobs a gooden. Pretty much works as it should though would benifit from some new bushes. Pressure washer it all out and will check other linkages for same issues and lube it all up.

Belts are some of the least understood part of a mower and believe you me it took a long while for me to get my head around it.
The wedge angle on MTD belts is not the same as std belts so std belts do not grip the pulleys properly.
Mower belts use a different rubber compound and different belts use different wrapping materials which give the belts different drive charasterics.
I ride 100 year old belt drive motorcycles so I thought I knew belts, till I started to repair mowers and found out I knew nothing at all.
Belts come wrapped in pollyester , cotton, nylon, pollypropelene , kevlar and various mixtures of the previous.
I have had mowers that were "fixed" then came back in 1/2 dozen times as a free warranty repair because they worked fine when I did a 1/2 hour test mow but failed when the customer tried to do a 2 hour mow at home.
In more than one case it ended up being nothing more than the aftermarket belts I had fitted.
We used to have an MTD agent locally who closed down ( bad divorce ) so there are a lot of MTDs in my service run.
Very few that come in with a frozen variator pulley were successfully put back into service without replacing the variator assembly which ain't cheap.
The tinest amount of tilt in the sliding member will cause it to jamb.

However that is not your problem right now as the pulley does not pull back the pedal, the springs do.
Domestic grade MTD's were built down to a price which is why MTD survived where most of the quality factories have failed in a 99.9% price driven market.
Thus they require a lot or regular lubing to prevent things like your problem happening.
Also remember that the clutch pedal is also a brake pedal and a jambed brake will also cause the pedal to return slowly as will a heavy build up of debris under the linkages although that is most common on YTH Huskies and other mowers built on that chassis.