Another Slipping Pony

bertsmobile1 said:

In photo 5 there is still some grass under the pulley , it should just blow off.
The two sides join together along the split line you can see, it s flat so that is as long as the bolts will be.
You will need to remove the brake by undoing the two small nuts on the outer edges, leave the big one alone.
Take a photo of where the lever sits and the springs anchor as it is not apparent when you go to refit it.
Inside the caliper are 2 very short rods, a steel shim brake plate the disc then another brake ( Puck ) another steel shim.
These bits tend to vanish into an alternative dimension when you dissassemble them so pop a carton underneath the brake to catch them .

The gap in the cases at the join line in photo 5 is a pry point to split the 2 halves, there are a couple more of them, they all look the same.
Gentle is the word, the joint face is usually held together with silicon but splits well if you have some long pry bars ( screwdrivers etc ).

Inside will be a revolting mess of grease so it is glove time.

The type of clutching mechanism where two parts with slots lock into each other is called a DOG CLUTCH don't know why ,
One side is fixed and the other slides.
The sliding part is called the DOG or Sliding Dog

By now you should have the Peerless ( Tecumseh) manual and read the relevent bits.
Some need to come apart upside down and others right side up.
You will not do any damage but loose parts can fall out causing confusion.

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This is what I am looking at, and of course more pics can be taken if needed.

I see some round over, on the edges, not so much on the dog slide, but still some. The only thing I realize I didn't do, is keep up with which gear was fwd, and which was reverse. To see if the fwd, had more wear to it.

Does this look like my problem? I am not an expert in any of this, but I do know gears usually have to have a good interlocking connection to work. But, I would have thought there would have been more wear.

Outside of the reduction gear, should I replace all the other parts? spacers, shims, and gears?

Thanks for helping me out with all this to everyone who has been contributing

JJ


**EDIT** After further review, I only had 1 washer on the right side, opposite the brake.

All three parts in your pictures are worn and will need to be replaced. The reverse gear is the same as the forward gear so it doesn't matter which one goes where. I would check the axle bushing if it has them and make sure to clean everything good and put in new grease. Also replace any seals that you find on the brake shaft, and wheel axle. Also check the shift fork to make sure it isn't bent or badly worn.

ILENGINE said:

All three parts in your pictures are worn and will need to be replaced. The reverse gear is the same as the forward gear so it doesn't matter which one goes where. I would check the axle bushing if it has them and make sure to clean everything good and put in new grease. Also replace any seals that you find on the brake shaft, and wheel axle. Also check the shift fork to make sure it isn't bent or badly worn.

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Do you have any idea if this Pony takes a seal on the reduction gear? I did not pull one off, but, I am also not sure it hadn't dried and rotted away either.

The MTD manual presented to me earlier, says to replace the seal, but when looking at parts tree, and partswarehouse(?), and even the parts manual presented on the 1st page, nothing mentions a seal.

thanks

JJ

I put this trans back together, all seemed fine, until I bolted the casing together. I couldn't hardly budge the pulley. So, I loosened it back up and still, everything turned fine.

I noticed, even with the slightest of pressure on the casing, that, it was a little hard to turn, and in neutral, it seemed to grab, and spin the axle.

So, something in there is tight, I am guessing? I didn't add any washers, but should I have to remove one or more? Maybe now since its got thick fresh grease?

I am at a loss. I really don't want to take it to someone to fix. So, I am hoping I can get it done on my own

thanks

JJ

huskerfoos said:

I put this trans back together, all seemed fine, until I bolted the casing together. I couldn't hardly budge the pulley. So, I loosened it back up and still, everything turned fine.

I noticed, even with the slightest of pressure on the casing, that, it was a little hard to turn, and in neutral, it seemed to grab, and spin the axle.

So, something in there is tight, I am guessing? I didn't add any washers, but should I have to remove one or more? Maybe now since its got thick fresh grease?

I am at a loss. I really don't want to take it to someone to fix. So, I am hoping I can get it done on my own

thanks

JJ

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Yes, some thing is binding.
Slather grease over everything , bolt it up with a few bolts then pull apart without turning anything.
Where it is binding will be clean as the grease gets pushed away.

Without being there It is hard to advise but t is easy to get things in the wrong place, or pinch one of the thin spacers washers ( if you have them ).
Sitting on the bench, turn the shafts as if the pulley was powering the box, change the gears and see if some thing pops up cause it is in the wrong place.

Good job for 14 y/o boys who seem to revel in the muck. :laughing:

bertsmobile1 said:

Yes, some thing is binding.
Slather grease over everything , bolt it up with a few bolts then pull apart without turning anything.
Where it is binding will be clean as the grease gets pushed away.

Without being there It is hard to advise but t is easy to get things in the wrong place, or pinch one of the thin spacers washers ( if you have them ).
Sitting on the bench, turn the shafts as if the pulley was powering the box, change the gears and see if some thing pops up cause it is in the wrong place.

Good job for 14 y/o boys who seem to revel in the muck. :laughing:

Click to expand...

Ok, this is where I'm at. I'm on mobile so mistakes may happen.

I tried many times to not have the gears not get stuck. Sitting on the side of the F-n-R gears, every time I bolted up the right side, it binded up. Took apart, adjusted many, many times. Finally, decided to try my old bearings again. Well that worked. I can't figure out why, but tightening the right side down, was putting some sort of pressure on that sleeve, and stopping the reduction gear from turning.

So, as of now, the only new items i have replaced are the 2 gears and the collar.

EDIT** My concern here, is that initially, I showed to be leaking grease, and am concerned with it leaking now. I am unfamiliar with the properties of grease, and not sure if old grease will leak, and new grease be thick enough not to leak.

So, I'm guessing that sleeve was warped enough to cause the issues. Or, there is a slight difference in the 2? I have no idea. I have not put it back in yet, but plan on doing that today or tomorrow depending on work.

Thanks for the help everyone

JJ

Re: Another Slipping Pony **RESOLVED**

Ok, I was able to ride the mower around the yard last night with no grinding. I even tried to add my thinnest washer (020), just to see if I could take out some of the slack to keep this from happening. But was not able to seat the top of the transaxle even by hand. So, I wasn't going to force it down.

I still can not figure out why my new bea rings would not seat on the right side. But, I'm not gonna complain on losing out of that $12 considering it would have cost probably 200, or more, to have someone do that for me.

Is it good practice to change the grease occasionally? I know you can't get it all out easily, but would think replacing majority would be good.

Thanks everyone who chimed in with suggestions, help, questions, etc... And I hope this helps someone else in the future.

JJ

Congratulations.
Grease is a mixture of a powdered lubricant and a liquid to allow the stuff to move or be pumped.
Over time the carrier ( liquid ) dries out and the grease goes hard & cakes.
In this condition obviously it just sits there occupying space
Thus it is good practice to change grease on occasions.
Nowhere near as often as oil as it does not wear out burn or get contaminted with the by products of combustion.
On these types of boxes I usually take out the bulk of the really hard grease and put some lighter grease in.
It gets a little tricky unless you know what you are doing because you can not mix different types of greases together.
When you are next is a auto parts store or real hardwear shop have a look at the greases.
You will see they are labled as being "lithium" "Molly" "graphitic" or Clay.( there are others but these are the common ones )
These are the powders that do the work and what can not be mixed.
After that there is generally a number from 000 through to about 9.
That is the sloppyness of the grease 000 is thinner than water and 9 is a bar of soap.

Some greases are suspended in waxes so as they get hotter they flow more
Some are suspended in oil ( most common )
and some are suspended in water or alcohol ( graphite & teflon ).

I thought I had responded to your previous post about binding but I don't see it here.
Where the edge of the bushes sit on the shafts , the shaft tends to wear up a lip.
Mechanics generally run their fingernails along the shaft to feel for some thing that catches it.
If there is a wear lip big enough to catch your fingernail then it needs to be removed with a fine file or some emery paper wrapped around a paddle pop stick.
When you assemble the box if the little lips have not been removed they catch and can cause shafts to bind.
The old bushes have worn to the shaft ( & visa-versa ) so the lips make no difference to them.
Also some times a bush wears oval and allows say a gear to mesh at an angle and replacing the bush then causes the gear to mesh square on and that can cause binding as well.

What you see leaking out of the box is the carrier fluid and a little bit is nothing to worry about.
Over time of course they all add up and the loss of carrier makes the grease stiffer till eventually it can not move at all.
A lot of the older boxes had a grease nipple and they get 1 or 2 strokes of a grease gun a season to keep the grease fluid.
That is about a 1.5" length of toothpaste by volume to give you an idea, not really much.

Once again congratulations one of the things that get our rocks off is when some one who has never held a spanner, takes on a big job they think they can not do then gets it done.