[turbojimmy]

Hello all -

I googled this issue and it seems like the hydrostatic transaxle is toast, but I thought I'd ask here anyway.

There's plenty of fluid in it. I noticed over the winter that it started slipping while I was plowing. On my steep driveway I'd have to let off the forward pedal to give it a rest and then slowly go again. It was doing it again yesterday while mowing - doesn't want to go up the hill. The transaxle whines while this is happening. Today I was towing my lawn vac around and it wasn't liking that at all. I don't think it's the pulley - there's no vibration or other noise. Just angry hydraulic sounds.

I'm looking at used ones on eBay that are around $250. I don't want to put much more into this thing even though I love it. It runs great otherwise, but who know what's next given its age.

Anything else obvious I should be looking at with the transaxle?

 

[mrmagloo]

Yep, this bad news and no doubt you have a big decision to make. The bores of the cylinders have stretched from overheating and there is no easy fix. To do a full rebuild, you will have to update to the latest build and you can plan on at least $550 in parts for everything if you handle yourself. If you are mechanically inclined, it's not too bad.

On the other hand, buying a used TA is a big crap shot. Even if all seems well, chances are for a used TA this old, there's a good chance it could also be in the beginning stages. It would be a tough situation to drop $250 and run into the same thing in the next year or so. That would be a big set back.

It really comes down to the overall condition of the unit. If it's in great shape, I'd go the route of rebuilding only if you could handle it, as labor costs would kill you. If not, you may risk trying a used TA, but it's risky. Or, you may want to consider cutting your losses, parting it out, and putting the proceeds toward a unit more suitable for your needs.

I wish I had better news.

 

[turbojimmy]

Yep, this bad news and no doubt you have a big decision to make. The bores of the cylinders have stretched from overheating and there is no easy fix. To do a full rebuild, you will have to update to the latest build and you can plan on at least $550 in parts for everything if you handle yourself. If you are mechanically inclined, it's not too bad.

On the other hand, buying a used TA is a big crap shot. Even if all seems well, chances are for a used TA this old, there's a good chance it could also be in the beginning stages. It would be a tough situation to drop $250 and run into the same thing in the next year or so. That would be a big set back.

It really comes down to the overall condition of the unit. If it's in great shape, I'd go the route of rebuilding only if you could handle it, as labor costs would kill you. If not, you may risk trying a used TA, but it's risky. Or, you may want to consider cutting your losses, parting it out, and putting the proceeds toward a unit more suitable for your needs.

I wish I had better news.

Thanks for the reply. That's kind of what I figured.

I use the thing year-round. I plow in the winter and tow a pretty big lawn vac in the fall. My yard is steep. Am I asking too much of this model? Or is it just worn out?

 

[mrmagloo]

You were probably pushing it a bit depending on how long you ran this set up, and how steep the incline is. And worn out is relative. How is the rest of the machine? That's the $64K question.

Let me just share this, I ran my 1996 LX188 similarly with the 38" snowblower and 48" deck all 4 seasons. Maintained it very well, and it looked great. For my hilly one acre lot, it mowed fine. The snowblowing was pretty good too, but naturally it had a hard time in certain conditions with traction with the open diff on the sloped driveway. I had been eyeballing an x540 with the rear locker for a number of years as a result, but just couldn't justify getting rid of a perfectly good tractor.

Well after 18 years I started noticing the slippage, and knew my time had come. 18 years is a very long time. I bought the x540 set up that spring, and went ahead with the rebuild on the LX188 TA. When I first spec'd the parts, I thought I was looking at $350, but as mentioned, with all of the revisions, they only had parts available for the last version, so I had to upgrade a number of additional parts I didn't necessarily need. Like I said, it was a pretty straight forward job even without a service manual.

The good news is, the tractor was back running like new and I sold the tractor, deck, and snowblower to a guy down the street and he's still using it. That was 7 years ago and it still looks and runs very good at approx 2,500 - 3,000 hours. That LC engine will probably last forever, and frankly the only reason I went the rebuild route was because it was a LC machine.

In hindsight, it was probably a toss up. I could have parted everything out, sold the deck and snowblower, and pieces of the tractor for $800 or so if I was patient. I sold the repaired entire set up for $1,500 so it was probably a wash, factoring in my time. But again, the tractor was otherwise pristine.

Had the tractor been run down it would have never worked out. I think the overall condition was the key deciding factor. Although I did spend a little time looking for a used TA, after a reading a horror story or two, I quickly dismissed that option. I'm not a gambler.

 

[turbojimmy]

You were probably pushing it a bit depending on how long you ran this set up, and how steep the incline is. And worn out is relative. How is the rest of the machine? That's the $64K question.

It's pretty steep. There isn't a level spot on the property except for where the house was built. It's about an acre to mow, and the driveway is 500 feet long (and just as steep as the yard). With chains it did pretty well. Gravity obviously helps going down so if the snow was too deep I'd have just run back to the top and plow only going down. But I move a lot of snow with the thing - I'm amazed at how well it works. But if we get more than a few inches I move to my walk-behind snow thrower and clean up with the plow. I've had the tow-behind vac for 3 seasons now and I think that might have pushed it over the edge.

I bought the machine from an elderly gentleman who became too old to use it. He bought it from the local JD dealer and had it serviced by them regularly. It's in great shape overall, but is starting to show its age cosmetically (the hood in particular, which is not uncommon). I only paid $350 for it 5 years ago so I don't have much $$ tied up in it.

For $250 I think I'm going to roll the dice on a used transaxle. If I get a couple of more years out of it I'd be okay with that. In the meantime I'm going to keep an eye out for a decent used tractor locally.

 

[mrmagloo]

Good luck bud.

 

[turbojimmy]

I got underneath it today. The belt seems to be looser than it should be. I printed out the adjustment instructions, but I'm not going to do that yet because I can also rock the pulley up and down by hand. It's loose. I don't know if the splines are stripped or if it needs tightened.

So it may not be the transaxle itself. I'm going to take it out and see what's up.

Edit: I pulled the body off and removed the transaxle pulley. It's fine - it just moves up and down on the splines a bit which I guess is by design? The splines are in good shape. The belt is not in good shape.

I ordered a new belt. For $14 I figured it was worth a shot.

 

[mrmagloo]

Well, you might want to take a closer look at that pulley. They are known to strip out. They do use a spring washer to account for a small amount of movement, but it should still be pretty tight. The splines on that pulley are designed to be sacrificial, and it could over time begin to slip. I would double check that and inspect it closely. If that is slipping, you lucked out big time.

 

[turbojimmy]

Well, you might want to take a closer look at that pulley. They are known to strip out. They do use a spring washer to account for a small amount of movement, but it should still be pretty tight. The splines on that pulley are designed to be sacrificial, and it could over time begin to slip. I would double check that and inspect it closely. If that is slipping, you lucked out big time.

Thanks. I removed the snap ring and spring washer to get the pulley off. It looks okay (I even put on my glasses to inspect it). The belt is visibly worn in some spots and is very loose with the parking brake off (which should put some tension on it).

 

[turbojimmy]

Okay long story short, the new belt fixed it.

Long story longer the job turned into a complete disaster. I watched a few youtube videos so I knew what to expect. The belt replacement itself was easy. In one of the videos a guy had his tractor hanging from a chain hoist by the back hitch thingy. This way you can get at everything without lying on your back. Pretty smart I thought. So I suspended mine from a cherry picker.

When I put it on the ground it would crank about half a crank and stop. I thought I did something wrong with the belt so I got under there to make sure everything was free. It was.

After a little while it would crank as normal but wouldn't start. Then I noticed oil everywhere. The reason it wouldn't crank previously was because the cylinders were hydrolocked with oil. Having it up in the air with the nose on the ground filled the carb with oil somehow. I pulled the plugs to confirm this.

I cranked it for a while with the plugs out hoping to get the oil out. But with no compression it wasn't sucking the oil out of the carb.

In the meantime the throttle lever broke. The cable came out of it. So I turned my attention to fixing that. The steering wheel has to come off.

At some point in the tractor's past someone jury-rigged the steering wheel. There was a nut and bolt through it but obviously not original. It was not what is pictured in the manual. I removed the bolt. The wheel wouldn't budge. I tried to drill straight through it and couldn't since the steering shaft is hardened.

Starting to get a little frustrated I got a Sawzall and cut an access hole in the front of the dash just under the throttle lever. After a lot of profanity I was able to remove the 2 bolts holding the throttle in. So now I can operate the throttle with a pair of pliers. I dropped one down by the battery never to be seen again.

I got back to the oil problem. I cleaned the plugs with carb cleaner, put them back in and gave the carb a healthy dose of carb cleaner. It fired! Lots and lots of smoke. I had to use carb cleaner to keep it running until it finally cleaned itself out. By clean itself out I mean soak the front tire and anything else 3 feet away from the muffler with oil.

So it's functional again and I can finally mow my lawn. I ordered a new throttle cable and am not looking forward to installing it.