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Customer wants a price on this transmission. But has other mowers if this is gonna cost too much. I've never replaced one. Looking up prices on Partstree, they're over $1,000.
Can these be rebuilt, are their aftermarket ones that are worth a dang and not as pricey?

Goes on a Troybilt 17BF2ACP001 I think it's a 2009. S# 1C16920092. 2010 and 09 are the same part numbers.

Superseded to 918-04431B which is the Hydro Gear ZC-DMBB-4DDC-2PPX and its list price is only $ 649.64. I recommend you Google the Hydro Gear PN.

Also double check the model of the mower posted it coming back as an invalid number.

StarTech said:

Superseded to 918-04431B which is the Hydro Gear ZC-DMBB-4DDC-2PPX and its list price is only $ 649.64. I recommend you Google the Hydro Gear PN.

Also double the model of the mower posted it coming back as an invalid number.

Click to expand...

AH, thanks. It's 17BF2ACP011

Or you could try installing a new center section.

Hydro Gear
71529 KIT, CENTER SECTION, W/ FILTER-LH
70723 ASSEMBLY, PISTON BLOCK - 7P10CC
70331 ASSEMBLY, PISTON BLOCK - 5P10CC
70853 KIT, SEAL

I watched a video of this procedure. But didn't really catch the reason for the pumps going bad. It doesn't look too complicated. Especially with the parts diagram he posted. Is this who you pro's do?

When you get one apart and see the damage done to the valve plate you will understand why they go bad.
The motor is almost identical except it has one less piston.
FWIW when I do one I degrease the tranny, then soda blast it then pressure wash it .
The rest of the work is done in the bathroom after the walls have been wetted down.
You do not need much dust to get inside to have a unit fail in a very short time .
As luck would have it there is a machine shop 1/2 hour away who specializes in rebuilding hydros.
He charges less for a rebuild than I can get the parts for wholesale so he does all of my trannies now .
I just charge the customer 2 hours labour to remove & replace the tranny + what he charges me for the rebuild & give them his receipt + $ 50 courier fees .
HE gives 6 months warranty & I would much rather they take any problems to him than me .
HE has done about 20 or so and to date no problems.
All he does is machine the valve chest and plate flat again then pack up the unit to make up for what was machined off .
Refills & seals the box then purges it.

I am amazed that in the USA some one is not offering this service .
Price is $ 400 ( Aust ) against $ 600 for a motor pump kit so it is a no brainer for me.
New trannies start at $ 1500 for the K46 and just go up from there.
The Chinese Husqvarna copy with the CHinese made Kohler 21Hp bucket engine sell for $ 1499 .

Now I didn't watch the full video but I am not much on watching you tube videos in the first place. I am more of a hands on type as I usually got technical questions that videos don't answer. I drove my instructors crazy at times.

It is fine pieces of metal getting caught between the slip surfaces or cavitation leading to grooving and pressure leaks. Personally I have never tried resurfacing the slip plates surfaces but time is usually time not on my side and the ones I have looked at are usually severely damage. Usually if I can catch a finger nail on the surface it is pretty bad. I do know those surfaces got to be perfectly flat and not skewed to one side.

As repairs goes it just depends on the time available and what it is worth to you rework the unit if the procedure doesn't work the first time around and the mower comes back. On repairs like I also consider how it is too as other parts like bearing could be near failure. I can send you the Generic ZC IPL just it is a little out of date but part number are valid but may have supersedes.

Either way $650 is a heck a lot better than over $1000 and I believe you can find one for around $540 with shipping included; although, I can get one for $442 from my my distributor. It is also the reason I don't bother with the rebuilds; unless, it is for myself where I can take a chance doing it. I need at five rebuilds under my belt before doing it for the customer. Now the Hydro Gear don't come with the wheel hub so you must reuse the current one.

This something you might want to check into later as they can run rings around Partstree on things like this. Partstree usually charges list of higher on parts. But the distributor do require you to have business license and make an initial minimum purchase. I probably can get a referral into them so they can contact you if you want to explore this route for your business. If items are in stock they can usually have it @ your door in a day or two but they don't handle Briggs or Kawasaki engine parts.

Bert, Don't be amazed even most of our engine rebuild machine shops are gone now. Really makes me mad when all I need is the cylinders oversized on my vehicle engine and all I can get is a shortblock and sometime that is not even available.

You get failure mainly due to two reasons. One if too much load is applied it overheats the oil causing abrasion, and two most of the cheaper hydro's don't have shock valves, and when you jerk the levers around it will build enough pressure to lift the pump off of the center sections, and when it relieves the pressure the pump slams against the center section causing metal to metal contact.

Also be aware Hydrogear will not warranty any unit not purchased from and installed by an authorized dealer.

I have over 40 yrs that every manufacture will find some excuse not warranty anything. I now having same problem with the Briggs group. Even when I buy thru their distributor brand new parts that fail right out the package. They want me to go through a local authorized dealer for warranty replace which in turn refuses because I didn't buy the part through them even I have I brought the part from the distributor.

So I basically warranty new items out of my own pocket and to h*** with the warranties. I also work for a fortune 500 company out of Dayton that their warranty was written by to where they covered absolutely nothing and it was 5 legal pages of 6 pt print. The only warranty I honor is my own nowadays.

Plus Hydro Gear don't want to provide with parts number anymore. At least I have the generic IPL for the ZC/ZD series; otherwise, I have to beg Hydro Gear for part numbers. They are just trying to force everyone to their dealers which employs just trainees most times like John Deere locally does. I know the workmanship of one of local Hydro Gear dealers and wouldn't carry a thing to his shop for I need to do a lot of rework of his repairs in my shop.

bertsmobile1 said:

When you get one apart and see the damage done to the valve plate you will understand why they go bad.
The motor is almost identical except it has one less piston.
FWIW when I do one I degrease the tranny, then soda blast it then pressure wash it .
The rest of the work is done in the bathroom after the walls have been wetted down.
You do not need much dust to get inside to have a unit fail in a very short time .
As luck would have it there is a machine shop 1/2 hour away who specializes in rebuilding hydros.
He charges less for a rebuild than I can get the parts for wholesale so he does all of my trannies now .
I just charge the customer 2 hours labour to remove & replace the tranny + what he charges me for the rebuild & give them his receipt + $ 50 courier fees .
HE gives 6 months warranty & I would much rather they take any problems to him than me .
HE has done about 20 or so and to date no problems.
All he does is machine the valve chest and plate flat again then pack up the unit to make up for what was machined off .
Refills & seals the box then purges it.

I am amazed that in the USA some one is not offering this service .
Price is $ 400 ( Aust ) against $ 600 for a motor pump kit so it is a no brainer for me.
New trannies start at $ 1500 for the K46 and just go up from there.
The Chinese Husqvarna copy with the CHinese made Kohler 21Hp bucket engine sell for $ 1499 .

Click to expand...

What do you mean "Pack up the unit to make up for what was machined off?"

Most likely what he means is shimming.

Marketing people LOVE warranties. Service people and more importantly accountants HATE warranties. Back in the old day job i was always the bad guy. Customer gets new machine then calls for any reason like it is a day that ends in Y. I go out and can't make them happy if i shit a gold brick and give it to them. They call again because the sun came up in the east. I go out under warranty again. Another gold brick doesn't make them happy. They call the dumbass salesman who promised them the world. In the end i am the guy who can't fix the machine, just as the sales rep. Keep playing that song over and over. Sooner or later mfgr warranties will be non existant.

StarTech said:

Most likely what he means is shimming.

Click to expand...

What was that quote ?
Two peoples separated by a common language.
IF you take .050" off the valve plate and 0.020" off the valve chest you have to make up that 0.070" or the two parts won't seal against each other.
Being over confident the first time I pulled one down I chucked up both parts machined them flat then tried to reinstal .
So then made some spacers to go in different places because the oil ways have to line up.
However it was a dismal failure because I made the two surfaces too smooth.
It sort of worked but you could hear it screaming three properties away , and the shop is on 1000 acres.
Gave up & bought a motor & pump exchange unit .
Teh new unit was not smooth you could feel the roughness with your finger.
I am guessing , and it is a pure guess that they ae honed to a specific coarseness so the two parts can wer in together much the same as the honing on a cylinder bore.

I am neither ambitious nor greedy so 2 to 3 hours + a delivery fee is enough for me to make on the job.
Let some one who knows what they are doing make a living as well .
I have athing about my suppliers , I like to see them making money because if they don't they won't be there & I need them .
SO I buy what I can from them and what I can't in many cases comes from their suppliers but I don't buy parts that my suppliers keep so they will keep on keeping them.
When it is all said & done , an extra $30 on parts is neither here nor there compared to the convienance of jumping on the bike & grabbing the part I forgot to order that day.

That surface finish might be for oil retention too, completely flat and smooth under high pressure and the oil squeezes out. I see crankshaft kits for auto engines have an odd looking surface finish too rather than a mirror look. Seems absurd to charge $1500 for a new hydro unit that was probably built out of the country.

Well & truly out of my pay grade Tom.
The bloke who dose them told me there was a very specific surface finish &i did not bother to ask what it was .
He gives me a small trade discount now days because I always deliver the units to clean & dry ready to be split.
Even if I did nkow the finish grade I would then need to buy the gear to measure it then relearn how to use it cause it is probably a little different to what they tried to teach me in engineering drawing back in 66