HydroGear EZT Transaxle

7394

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That to me is puzzling, why would some be serviceable (Oil & filter change), & others sealed ? Both Hydro-Gear units.
 

bertsmobile1

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That to me is puzzling, why would some be serviceable (Oil & filter change), & others sealed ? Both Hydro-Gear units.

Read post 29 ;-

Addind and external replaceable filter adds a lot of cost and source of contamination.
Clearences in a hydro are very very fine.
Oil filters like o run low pressure high volume and a hydro pump works on low volume high pressure so to work properly you have to add a circulation pump as well as the pressure pump.
Experience has shown than on average the sealed hydros outlive the engines and extended warranty.
You have obviously never pulled one apart.
Do this and you will understand the reasoning
 

BlazNT

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They are non servicable because the sealing is very good and the units are made in a sterile clean room.
Clowns drain the oil find an old grubby funnel then proceed to fill the box with dirt , dust & grass clippings.
When I do one of these , I clean every thing in an ultrasound unit followed by either & blow dry.
They then go into the bathroom ( I work out of an old house) after I have hosed down the room & walls.
Dust down as low as 0.5 micron size will kill the unit in no time flat.

Start with my son worked at Hydro-Gear and built the EZT and others. Yes they are built in a clean room. Here comes the bad part. They are shipped dry. The lawn mower manufacturer then adds oil to the unit. No clean room. They are mostly filled in a dirty manufacturing line. This is one of the reasons for EZT failures that I hear about on this and other forums. The other is they do not use the recommended oil to fill it with. John Deere is the worst of the offenders. They want to sell their oil and put it in instead. Hydro-Gear builds all their units with spects from Castrol 20w50 motor oil. If the manufacture uses that or at least 20w50 in a simi clean area then your EZT will last a long time. If not the failures will happen.

I love this forum We get to share all sorts of knowledge,
 

bertsmobile1

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Now I am always happy to be proven wrong, but I was under the impression that all of the small JD's were built elsewhere for JD to JD's specs.
The 100 series smells highly of being assembled by AYP and the small ZTR looks very much like it came out of the same factory as the Craftsman,& McCulloch, with the only difference being the fitting of the "edge" decks.
The mainframe of all the 100 series D, L, LA have all the same redundant holes in the side as every Husqvarna , McCulloch , Rally , Roper, Poulan etc,etc,etc.
 

BlazNT

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Yes that is true but the most important thing you said is"to John Deere Specs". We have a John Deere plant that takes their old used alternators and starters and rebuilds them, right here in Springfield. It is a wonderful plant that runs well and turns out lots of produces for them every year. But John Deere did not own that plant originally. It was a company called SRC. They built it ran it and turned out lots of finished products for John Deere. They where so impressed that they bought the plant. Not the company and started doing it them selves. All good right. Wrong their production went down 50% and they had to call in the original owners to get them back on track. It has been 3 years and they still can not keep the production up to original specs. They now call the numbers they get as good and are leaving it alone. John Deere is a great manufacture of large farm equipment but as for the small stuff I believe you are correct that AYP/Husqvarna is now the manufacture of most of their lawn care products. The welds on the mower deck is what make me think it most. You Info on the frames seems to reinforce my thoughts. But once again John Deere tells them what they want in them. So it is still John Deere oil.
 

Carscw

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The sealed unit is the best way to go. Cheaper to buy and maintain. By the time a sealed unit goes out you would have replaced every part on a pump and motor unit.
I have sealed drives with well over 4000 very hard hours on them. I have never had one fail. I don't think you can find anyone on here that has had one fail.
 

RDA.Lawns

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Everyone has a different take on it. I'll stick with the serviceability of the separate pump and drive motors.
 

7394

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Well, this has certainly sparked some interesting posts.

And to Bert- I build Harley engines & trannies, by appt only.

And growing up as a Diesel mechanic with years in a machine shop, I don't think a EZT or EZ hydro pump would be very intimidating. You're not the only one that can turn a spanner, or has a "clean room" for assemblies.
 

bertsmobile1

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Well, this has certainly sparked some interesting posts.

And to Bert- I build Harley engines & trannies, by appt only.

And growing up as a Diesel mechanic with years in a machine shop, I don't think a EZT or EZ hydro pump would be very intimidating. You're not the only one that can turn a spanner, or has a "clean room" for assemblies.

Depends upon what sort of precision tooling you have on hand.
Replacing parts , where available , is no problem but when you have to machine the valve chest or base plate down to 5 micron finish it gets a bit daunting. And way out of my league, even measuring flatness to that precision beyond the tooling I have on hand.
Just sent a Murry back , perfectly good mower in excellent condition bar the fact the Tecumseh hydro unit is stuffed,
Looked OK but clamp the pump together and work the pistons and the base plate has more leaks than a confidential cabinet meeting.
They dont sound like much and are bog simple construction but getting a 4" block spinning on a plate with a few holes in it to be virtually oil tight is not as simple as it sounds.
particularly when what holds it together is the return springs inside the valve ( piston if you preffer ) block and they are free on one side and fully compressed on the other.
Each piston only pumps between 1cc to 10 cc of oil so at the lower end you don't need much of a leak and you have no drive.
 

7394

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:thumbsup: Not a parts changer, specialty is stroker engines, & putting 5 or 6 forward gears in old 4 speed H-D gearboxes. :wink:
 
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