'92 Swisher Ride King, any experts out there?

Well, I guess when there's no forum for your brand on this website, its not a good sign! I've got an old, approx 1992 Swisher Ride King, was wondering if there is anyone on the board who is familiar with these? Mine has always had an issue with the transmission grabbing/stopping when the power is removed - best case you get jerked out of your seat and it loosens the chain adjuster, worst case it shears the pin on one of the tranny gears. Had it apart a million times, everything looks good (seems to be very low time mower). Its pretty hard to get the tranny to lock up on the bench, but under load it does it all the time. Calling it a transmission is generous, one speed, just a box with two gears in it. Would love to save it, cool old mower. Thanks for any help.

I had one for about 13 years but never had a problem with shearing pins or anything like that.

Mine had a 2-speed belt/pulley arrangement. If you can turn the gearbox easily by hand, my guess is that it's the 2-speed thing that's out of adjustment or something. The gearbox only turns one direction--reverse is when you do a 180 with the wheel.

Mine was a great little mower. It served us well as the original 'zero turn.'

They're still in business. Maybe they can direct you to a source of parts and expertise. https://www.swisherinc.com/

Thanks - yes, they're still in business and thankfully have parts. Just haven't been able to get to the bottom of this one. But thanks for the info on it only going one direction - which mine does (mine is one speed but the same idea - engine drives pulley drives front wheel). Its an ingenious design, like a bumper car! Just can't figure out why it locks up when I take it "out of gear"

Discovered that the worm drive gearbox gets pretty hot during operation. It freewheels when cold, locks up when hot, so wondering if my general purpose gear oil is an issue. Swisher spec'd an extreme pressure gearbox oil (with lead), and they had their on special oil for this which is no longer available. Any recommendations? Looking at Super Lube 54632 Synthetic Gear Oil ISO 680. Thanks

If the gearbox itself is what's locking up, I would think you'd notice the engine laboring harder after the gearbox gets hot.

Question: After you've had one of these 'lockups,' can you resume mowing immediately?

Second, I was under the impression the gearbox is a worm gear arrangement. I never had mine apart but this would make sense, as the mower had no brakes. Worm gear drives are such that the input shaft can drive the output shaft, but not the other way around. If it was a regular bevel gear setup you'd have no way of stopping the mower on a slope.

Yes, its a worm drive. And great observation that if the gearbox were tightening up, seems like the engine would labor - and from what I can tell, that's not the case. It still runs fine after its hot, but it grabs when the power is removed instead of a slight coast to a stop (there are no brakes on this thing).

Going to get the worm drive oil and see if it makes a difference.