Swerv,
Did you ever find an answer for the hard to shift/will not shift out of gear once it is in gear and running... I have the a 34342 that is having this problem. Please let me know if you found a fix. On the creeping the there is a nut on brake lever that needs to be tightened...a quarter turn or so a a time. it will fix the creep.
Cfs
Yea I did fix the issue. I no longer have the mower, but I had it running like new before I sold it. All my issues came down to bad/ worn belts. So when you released the throttle the worn belt was sticky, not allowing the belt to slip past the pulley completely so the mower would creap forward. Then once you released the top “blade engagement” lever, a brake would apply which would then over come the belt slowly creeping the mower forwar and it would come to a stop. So because the worn belt would always cause the mower to move, that then made it hard to shift gears because the transmission was on the move. It was all related in one way or another.
Another reason for the shifting was my shift rod wasn’t sitting correctly. Trying to remember exactly how it goes because I’ve sold it and can’t 100% remember, but there is a cottar pin of some sort that goes into the shift rod and holds it at a certain height. Also only alouds you to go into reverse if you raise the rod and twist. That pin was missing on mine, causing the linkage to “sag”. That cause it to be harder to get into forward or reverse gears.
Careful with adjusting the nut for the brake like you said. I tried this and it did stop the creeping, but all it was doing was applying the brake more. Adjust it to much and your brake will drag the whole time and you will smoke it. Check your belts before adjusting the brake. You should have to touch the brake in my opinion.
Hope his helps, let me know if I can help you more.
Evan