Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - Power Drive Problem

Hi. My grampa has a self propelled lawn-boy that is a few years old. It is driven off of the left rear wheel. Well, he had replaced the axle and had trouble remembering how everything went back together so I printed a diagram off of the internet and he was able to assemble everything back correctly. However, at first it would pull itself, then my grampa fumbled with it and got it to pull itself, but ever since he changed the axle, when you pull the mower backwards, the wheels don't release to allow them to free-wheel, instead, the axle turns with the wheels making it slow and hard to back up. I wasn't there when he took all the pieces off of the ends of the axle so I'm not sure how they were. Is something worn or misplaced? Everything fit back together perfectly. We did notice that you could turn the gear on the driven side by hand back and forth without it grabbing anything, cound this be the problem? The local mower shop is booked with enough work to keep them buissy for the next week, so it's up to you fellas for help. Thanks for the advise!!!!!!!:D

Just try pushing it a few inches forward before pulling it backwards. Let us know what happens.

Tom

I have self-propelled Toro. You need to push it a bit forward without the drive engaged to get it to disengage so it will pull backwards.

Pushing it forward first didn't change anything. When pulling it backwards, the pully on the axle that is driven by the belt is turning. Any other ideas????:confused:

I can't think of how that system worked...I don't see many lawn boys around here. Does the wheel have a ratchet system like dog clutches or slip clutch that may be in backwards or something, causing it to stay engaged at all times?

mower17,
Do you have the model number of that LB?

Tom

The model # is 10324.

Hey Mower,

That trans drives both wheels, not just off the left rear one. It should be turning both wheels at the same time.

There is a right and a wrong way too reassemble the drive pinions. They are designed to free wheel one way, and "catch" the other way to engage the wheels. The pinions should turn counter clockwise on the axle freely and catch when you turn them clockwise. (I think. Its early sunday morning, forgive me if the opposite way is true) If they dont, flip the pinion over, and see what happens.

Or, you could have the belt tension to tight. (so the trans is always engaged.) Slack off the cable to relieve any tension on the belt when the bail is not engaged. (you should have some free movement at the bail before the cable starts pulling back and putting tension on the belt.)

Sometimes a old, stiff belt will cause the trans too engage when it shouldnt. They get hard and brittle and dont track smoothly. When they sit for awhile in one position, they tend to harden into a oblong loop, with high and low spots.

Hope some of this helps. 'lint.

Ahhh, ok, so it does have a ratcheting system then. Good advice 'lint. You seem to know a bit about lawn boys. They aren't common around my parts, but I see one every now and then. Not often enough to know this stuff off the top of my head though.

No Cheese, I dont know that much about lawnboys either. But according to the model # this particular one is a green Toro. Thats why posting model numbers makes life so much easier for us. I wouldnt have even looked at the question, if I hadnt seen the 5 digit Toro number. 'lint.

Thank you guys so much for the help, but you will never believe this. My grampa had cleaned all the parts in varsol but hadn't greased anything when he put the new axle in, so he thought about geasing them and put 5 shots in each and now it works perfectly!!!!!!!!However, I did try to convince him to buy a new cable for the drive mechanism but he was determined to attach a small piece of wire to the bar you pull back to engauge the drive pulley. O well, thanks again for the help!!!!!!

Great! Glad it's working!