Model No. 502.256220 Sears Craftsman riding mower with rear engine
When mowing over some tree roots and being jostled around, there was a noticeable bang/pop sound from behind me, and the wheels stopped driving forward. I suspect something is broken in the transaxle....but what? My wise neighbor says that it should have been a cotter pin that broke. Looking at the transaxle schematic, I don't see any cotter pin, but there are clutch keys and a woodruff key in some gear assembly. The belt is not broken. The engine runs. The clutch feels normal. The gear selector feels normal.
Check both drive wheel shaft 1/4" keys. If one of the gave way, differential will make one of the drive shafts just spin inside wheel hub without turning the wheel. #69 on the diagram.
bertsmobile1: The mower pushes the same now as if it did prior to the incident, in neutral: except that now it is pushable in all gears.
Jack17: With the mower tipped up so that the wheels are not on the ground, the rear wheels spin with just a little sound of gears 'whirring'. Curiously, spinning one wheel forward causes the other to spin in the opposite direction. Maybe that's normal. I'm a newbie. I gather that this also means that part#69 is intact. I.e., the wheels are not spinning independently of the drive shaft.
