Toro 20334 Personal Pace Mower - Strange Noise When Engaging/Disengaging Drive

Part number 17 is a retaining ring which holds the bracket ( pivot arm), bearing hoc, and gear together on the shaft.
 
Rivets...when I had retaining ring off to replace drive pinion I gave Pivot Arm a pretty good tug...it didn't move...any thoughts ?
 
I want to jump in on this discussion as i’m Having a similar issue with my 2011 model. Mower ran great for about 7-8 years with no major problems and all of a sudden I start getting grinding noises like cruise42. Replaced plastic gears once and everything was good for awhile,but grinding returned and slowly destroyed the plastic gears. I had seen on YouTube were you could replace the plastic gears with metal ones and I did this upgrade to the tune of about $60 U.S. All good once again,but lately been clicking and today got a grinding sound at one point,usually happens when the bag has some clippings in it thus extra weight. I’m starting to suspect that maybe the transmission gears are getting worn and causing it to slip under load. Can these transmissions be rebuilt or is it easier just to replace them ?
Look at this video and see if it is your problem. My wheel gears were wearing off on the outer edge because the wheel mounting plate was not parallel. I corrected the toe-in condition with an inexpensive solution. If wheel gear is plastic then the wheel teeth were wearing, but if you have a metal wheel gear then you might see wear on the metal pinion. Hope this helps.
 
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