Lawn Tractor Transaxle 415663

[PTmowerMech]

CRAFTSMAN 917.289081
Transaxle 415663


What is up with this Craftsman Trans? I just got this in yesterday. Got it running (except for the surging).
Gotta push the shifter all the way forward for it to go. And it goes slow.
Put in reverse and it does nothing.
No smoking and squealing when I engage the transmission. No smell of belt burning. First things first, this morning, I'm gonna pull the deck and check the belts.

Main question: What's the purpose of extra stuff on this transmission? It looks like an overkill. Are these trany's junk? Just looking for some expertise info.

 

[tom3]

If not for the axles I'd say that's a power unit for a washing machine. Sure weird for a mower I think. Gentrans unit.

 

[PTmowerMech]

If not for the axles I'd say that's a power unit for a washing machine. Sure weird for a mower I think. Gentrans unit.

This mower is 10 years old. First one of these transmissionsI've seen. That's what makes me think they were not very good.
Or hopefully too expensive to manufacture and still sell at a decent price.

After inspecting the belt, it looks new. None of the pulleys are locked up. Looks like they're routed right.
Not a good sign. This mower has a good paint job. Would be easy to sell if the transmission is good.
Hopefully I'm just over looking something.

Btw, with the brake released, the belt gets tight.

 

[PTmowerMech]

There's a short belt just on top of the transmission, you can see it in the picture I posted above. It's in real good shape. But loose. According to the pic, it looks like it's supposed to be lose. There's nothing that tightens it (spring or lever). When I rotate either the pulley it's attached to, the wheels roll forward or backwards, depending on which way I rotate the belt.

Also, when I have it in reverse, like I said before, nothing happens. Except, when I dump the clutch/brake. It engages the tranny for a split second.

 

[ILENGINE]

This may help you out with the general transmissions unit in the mower



http://services.generaltransmission...ormation/Service Manuals/39008-D1 RS800 P.pdf

 

[PTmowerMech]

I just found a youtube of these. The video makes these sound awesome.

But, watch it from youtube site and check out the comments below.
https://youtu.be/T8ZLoCMrtTs

 

[ILENGINE]

I just found a youtube of these. The video makes these sound awesome.

But, watch it from youtube site and check out the comments below.
https://youtu.be/T8ZLoCMrtTs

One of the clips in the posted video explains it all. France Reducteur which MTD used a few years ago in their self propel push mowers, and at our update showed us what the inside of the self propel unit looked like but told us if we open it we will not get paid for warranty replacements. Also there was something about if you turned the drive pulley backwards it would break the gears on the inside of that drive unit.

 

[tom3]

And I thought the K46 was a cheap piece of crap.........

 

[PTmowerMech]

I just had a lady contact me about buying a used engine. I think I'm going to sell her the one off this mower. And stay away from this transmission headache I can feel coming on.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Actually Tom it is a brilliant piece of engineering using different materials to their full potential.
It is in reality nothing more than a vari-drive unit re-enginered.
The plastic housings require no machining if moulded properly and will come out of the mould to a tollerance of 0.0001".
Weather it works in service will depend upon just how good the engineering was that went into the design.
The part that wears and thus limits the service life is a single belt that is easily replacable and the variators which are also bolt on units.
No reason to ever split the box.
The Europeans have been using them in their RER's for near 20 years.
However restrictions placed upon them by the bastions of free trade ( the USA Government ) meant that you could not get them till they were made in a USA factory.
Just about all of the RER's down here have been using them for decades.

They only advantage that a hydro has over them is transmitting a lot of torque at very low speeds , some thing that a mower is never needing to do.
The hydro drives we are used to working with date back to the 50's when tractors started getting big engines but were having problems getting that power to the wheels without massive gearboxes with 6' diameter bull gears.
These got scaled down and made substantially cheaper to meet the LOW price demands of the mower market.