5 year life cycle on everything

So I have a mower that has cut the greenish brown stuff here for 5 full seasons now and then it started slipping (tranny) this fall, as far as I can tell?

I read online that these “tuff torque” hydrostatic transmissions are in John Deere, cub cadet , Ariens & others. Made in Tennessee even.

Tuff torque claims the tranny is “maintenance free” and a ”sealed” (unserviceable) unit.

Well I am on a fixed income and I’m cheap too.

So I YouTube it and find an option. Of course it means I have to remove the entire rear axle assembly, including the hydro tranny , wheels etc, break into the sealed tranny, flip it all over to drain the old oil and then reassemble and refill with fresh oil and Cross my fingers.

Well this is how far I got (it’s draining til tomorrow) on a good part of a case of bush light and part of a bottle of my apple pie hooch today. Tomorrow is another day! Wish me luck. Anyone else been here & done this project ? Results?

Good luck , you’re handier than me.

Which project? The tranny, or the buschapplelighthooch?

Haha

Had that POS tranny in my Deere. Ended up drilling and tapping it for a plug. Got a couple more years out of it. Pulled the engine and put it on my log splitter. Engine is still going strong

So my question is –
1….what mower did you end up with ?

2…. is it any less a turd?

Deleted wrote:

So my question is –
1….what mower did you end up with ?

2…. is it any less a turd?

After way the heck too much time of researching, it appears the Hydro Gear tranny is the better of most for the price point. So I found a mower with the Kaw motor and Hydro Gear

Husquvarna . Paid about 2200 for it. 2 things really pissed me off with it. Clutch grenaded with only 19 hours on it. Covered by warranty but Ace Hardware did the repairs and it wasn’t right. The exhaust tubes going into the muffler needed to be welded to stay in the muffler. Guess that is a common issue with this muffler. Otherwise, almost 400 hours and going strong

Thanks Randy. I’ll get it back together today and hope to get some more time out of it but if not, I’ll be mower shopping.

Deleted wrote:

Thanks Randy. I’ll get it back together today and hope to get some more time out of it but if not, I’ll be mower shopping.

My dad did the same thing with his Deere and it made a huge difference. His would slip going up the hill in his yard. He said it wasn’t as good as new but it works. That was 2 year’s ago.

Hey Thomas. Before putting it all back together check where the shaft comes out of the tranny. There is a little clip holding on a small gear. Pull off the clip and see if that gear is stripped. Mine was slipping and that’s what I found. I added a spacer so the new one would hit a different part of the shaft as the shaft was a little worn. It worked for at least 5 years. I then had the same problem and ended up replacing small gear, and the shaft and fluid. Still less than $120.00 and is still running fine. Old Sabre by John Deer. I thought the tranny was shot so I found another Sabre mower on CL for 100.00, ended up adding a fuel shutoff valve to that one and it works good but smokes a little so now have two, one to cut my hunting trails and one for yard.