hydrostat transmission

[ancient11]

This is my first hydrostat transmission and although I have had it a while I am still becoming acquainted with it.My lawn is terribly flat and so there is never any strain on the transmission well until yesterday. I decided to take in another 30 feet to the backyard and there is a slight decline for the first 4 feet. When I say decline, it is a major overstatement for it is hard to see. My lawnmower does not want to pull it.

I had to breakout my old manual transmission riding lawn mower and it could pull it idling in high gear. I realize for the convenience of not having to change gears you will have to give up power but this is ridiculous and cannot believe it is normal. When on the perfectly flat (I mean chessboard flat) it is perfectly fine but I did notice when you turned hard it would really slow down.

I know absolutely nothing about this type of transmission so if one of you can give me a hint or thought she would be greatly appreciated. I would like one year that I didn't have to spend $400 on this thing.

 

[Carscw]

Look at your belt And it would help a lot to know what mower you have

Sent from my iPhone using LMF

 

[ancient11]

Please accept my apologies for not including the pertnant information that I should have. It is a Poulan Pro PB22H54BFX. I started out to check the belt and my wife said "Oh no you don't, its Sunday" so that will have to be tomorrow :smile:.

 

[poloman]

Make sure the spring hasn't come off your idler pulley.

 

[hitmanharleyk]

Please accept my apologies for not including the pertnant information that I should have. It is a Poulan Pro PB22H54BFX. I started out to check the belt and my wife said "Oh no you don't, its Sunday" so that will have to be tomorrow :smile:.

Good for her!!!!!

 

[ancient11]

I have downloaded the manual but there is absolutely no diagram or pertnant information about the drive assembly. There are 2 idle pulley's, one spring loaded the other seems to be fixed but I cannot see it, only feel it. I can see the plastic pulley though on top of the unit under the fan.

 

[LabDad2]

I had a similar problem last year on my John Deere L110 where it wouldn't climb even hills with minimal grade. I ended up having to rebuild my transmission. (I could backup the hills but not drive up them)

The transmission on most hydrostatic transmissions for lawn and garden tractors seem to use the Tuff Torq brand trans. I did lots of reading on the problem and found another forum where they had step by step guide/descriptions as well as videos of what needed to be done to rebuild the trans. After watching the step by step videos about 3 times and the guides I finally decided I should be able to handle the rebuild. :wink: I think it cost me around $300 or maybe a bit more for the kit and it arrived in about 3-5 days. Tuff Torq's website is: TRANSMISSIONS|LAWN GARDEN|MARINE|OFF_HIGHWAY|INDUSTRIAL HYDRAULICS

I called their tech support and the tech was very helpful to make sure I had all the parts I thought I needed. The rebuild was a snap. I figured if I could do it almost anyone else could. I've never don't anything more than the normal maintenance ie.change my oil, spark plugs, air filter, belts, etc.

Rebuilding a trans I thought would be a pain but it really wasn't that bad, just a few hours of work disconnecting all the associated parts connected to the trans (ie. belts, wire connectors, freewheeling control arm, etc), jacking up the rear of the tractor and making sure it's securely held in the jacked position so it doesn't fall on you or someone else , pulling the back wheels off the tractor, taking the trans into my shop to make it easier to work on, pulling off the oil and vent valve caps so the old oil can be drained (make sure you order these even if you don稚 think you need them as they seem to need replacing from time to time especially if you rip the rubber material when removing them), splitting the case, cleaning any residue or metal shavings from inside the case, pulling out the appropriate parts to be replaced, cleaning the sealing gasket surfaces to removed any remaining gasket and oil from the surface, replacing the parts, putting new high quality RTV gasket material from an auto parts store, sealing and torqing the bolts down, letting the gasket material cure 24 hrs, filling the trans up with Synthetic 5-30W oil to the correct level, remounting the trans back on to the tractor, reconnecting the belt, plugging in the safety wire which prevents backing up without disengaging the blade or pressing the disable override switch, reconnecting the freewheel control arm and reinstalling the wheels. (Note: Everything is much easier to do with the mower deck removed )

If it's the trans, some on the other forum, have suggested draining the original OEM oil and then replacing it with synthetic 5-30W while others said they still had the issue even after replacing the oil. I elected to just go for the higher cost option and be done with it. :smile:

Knock on wood, I completed last season痴 mowing, about ｽ years worth, and am into this season's mowing by 5 cuttings and all seems to be working just fine. All kinds of power. This past Saturday I even dug out two bushes using a hand shovel not the tractor :wink:, hooked up my John Deere trailer and then hauled the bushes (root ball and all) down the quite steep hill in back of our house (making two trips) and had no issue at all. :thumbsup:

Hopefully this isn't the issue you're seeing but just thought I would post my experience with rebuilding the Tuff Torq hydrostatic transmission on my L110.

Good luck with figuring out what the issue is!

- Jeff -

This is my first hydrostat transmission and although I have had it a while I am still becoming acquainted with it.My lawn is terribly flat and so there is never any strain on the transmission well until yesterday. I decided to take in another 30 feet to the backyard and there is a slight decline for the first 4 feet. When I say decline, it is a major overstatement for it is hard to see. My lawnmower does not want to pull it.

I had to breakout my old manual transmission riding lawn mower and it could pull it idling in high gear. I realize for the convenience of not having to change gears you will have to give up power but this is ridiculous and cannot believe it is normal. When on the perfectly flat (I mean chessboard flat) it is perfectly fine but I did notice when you turned hard it would really slow down.

I know absolutely nothing about this type of transmission so if one of you can give me a hint or thought she would be greatly appreciated. I would like one year that I didn't have to spend $400 on this thing.

 

[ancient11]

I am at the point of talking to the man across the road and asking him if he could fix it for me and then sell this lemon. I will never buy another hydrostat or Poulan again.

Then I will ask him to make the old Western Auto like new again but with a few changes.