Relube Peerless transaxle

[Larry B]

Transaxle is all back together with the new input shaft pulley, key, and snap ring. The pulley does have a bit of wobble to it, although nothing like the old one which had the key and keyway worn out. Is this normal? Best as I can tell, the shaft is tight in the housing, all the wobble seems to be from the pulley on the shaft.

The ones with only a snap ring with no set screws tend to wobble and enlarge the hole. I shim them with a piece of steel soup can.

 

[FergusonTO35]

Thanks. How do you go about that?

 

[Larry B]

When they start to get wobbly I cut a flat strip from a soup can that will wrap around the shaft and ream the hole in the pulley with Emery paper on a dowel till I can press fit the pulley onto the shaft. Must be tight or will wear out the sleeve. Don't use aluminium can.

 

[FergusonTO35]

Thanks very much!

 

[FergusonTO35]

Ok, the mower is all put back together now. Too dark to mow when I got done, but did take it for a test drive and all seems normal. Strangest thing was, while putting a new drive belt on it, I discovered the crankshaft pulley bolt was missing! Who knows how long that had been going on, fortunately I had a spare in my box o' bolts. Thanks so much for everyone's advice!

 

[Larry B]

Good job sir.

 

[FergusonTO35]

Thanks. That new grease sure offers more resistance to the gears than the worn out bentonite did. Couldn't hardly push it forward or backwards in neutral. After a test drive it loosened up a bit.

 

[FergusonTO35]

Mowed all the grass yesterday and never missed a beat. I noticed a very small amount of seepage on the left side, where there is a cover for a hole where the brake shaft would come through on other variants. I'll keep an eye on it, and put a more robust seal on it if necessary.

 

[FergusonTO35]

My wife has this outlandish notion that she should be able to park in the garage, so I went to move the Murray into the tractor shed. Fudge, dead ignition switch. No problem, just grab one from the several riding mower cadavers out back. Turns out I've done that more than once and there are no ignition switches left! Sigh, have to spend $10.00 on a new one...

 

[Larry B]

Just cut the engine kill wire and jump the starter with a coat hanger. No sense wasting $10.

 

[FergusonTO35]

My dad had a Lowe's riding mower back in the 90's that you had to start by connecting the two poles of the solenoid with a screwdriver. No joke, he views lawn equipment as disposable. To his credit, he now has a Kawasaki powered John Deere riding mower and takes pretty good care of it.