Is the tranny slipping?

[MATTHEW]

Right at the end of the season, my tranny started doing something that I can only describe as "slipping". It is a Toro belt drive. When I first pushed forward, it does nothing. Then after a few seconds is starts to move a little, then takes off full speed.
The belts are fine and the side pulleys are tight. I am wondering if the gears are going. Any thoughts?

[scagman]

Does that only happen when it's wet, my scag does the same thing when its wet.

[leaflawnandlimb]

tighten the tranny belt

[BerksLawn]

Is it like stuttering like I said in the velke post. It happened to us walking in 2nd gear belts were fine but all the sudden it would slow to like 1st gear and go off back to full speed. It got so bad we were walkin into it so we took it to the dealers, and had it rebuilt under warrenty happened 2 years in a row.

Later,
Steve

[Dave]

what type of trans does it have

[lawrence stone]

Originally posted by MATTHEW
Right at the end of the season, my tranny started doing something that I can only describe as "slipping". It is a Toro belt drive. When I first pushed forward, it does nothing. Then after a few seconds is starts to move a little, then takes off full speed.
The belts are fine and the side pulleys are tight. I am wondering if the gears are going. Any thoughts?

Let me give you a little very hard advice you should take to heart.

Change the tranny belt every spring and change your older machine over to the newer automatic belt tensioner.

Buy a can of belt dressing and use it the first job every morning on the tranny and deck belts.

If you have a lot of play at the pulley at the transmission input shaft you will need to replace the 2 bearings in the tranny.

Buy all new parts this winter and change out the couplers, axle shafts, and outboard bearings. Keep any of the GOOD old parts for spares.

Toro walk behinds may be slow but they will always finish the race if maintained weekly. They are good fleet machines for they are easy to learn to operate. Plus you can buy used ones dirt cheap all over the place.

[MATTHEW]

Thanks guys. This would also be a good time to switch over to a smaller pulley too.

[eslawns]

If the gears inside the tranny are bad (broken teeth or something) you will usually hear a chatter coming from the gearbox. There are also bearings on the shaft going through the tranny deck to the engine pulley. If they are bad you can wiggle the pulley from side to side. If you don't wait too long, you can replace these bearings before they wear into the aluminum tranny housing.

The way to check the drive belts to see if the problem is there is to have an operator move the mower forward in the lowest gear. You can push down on the belt in the same direction the tension spring pulls it. If the mower pulls on that wheel, the problem is in the drive wheel belts. It either means that the belt has stretched, the spring is fatigued, or the double pulley on the output shaft has worn so that not enough surface area touches the belt to turn it.

[Grassman]

It's all good advice, but I've never seen an outshaft pulley wear out, just the wheel pulleys. Russ

[Jason Pallas]

Grassman - actually eslawns had some really good advice about the input shaft and the bearings that hold the pinion gear in place where it engages the tranny. Out of neccessity I've become quite familiar with the Spicer trannies (used on a lot of mowers - but lots of Buntons). This bearing failure can cause problems that are almost identitical in symptons to a worn/loose or slipping belt. You're right most of the time, the prob is a worn/maladjusted belt or tensionor - but don't discount the tranny bearings.

[yorkpaddy]

how can i add an automatic belt tensioner. I have a 98/99? toro on an exmark chassis, and its really hard to tighten the tranny belt and keep it tight,

[LAZERMAN]

YOUR QUESTION ABOUT AN AUTO BELT TENSIONOR FOR A TORO /EXMARK, IT CAN BE DONE BY BUYING A BELT TENSIONER, PULLY , BUSHING AND SPRING FOR A LAZER OR TURF RANGER MOWER AND DRILLING A HOLE AND FIT IT IN THE RIGHT PLACE. GOOD LUCK AND ENJOY.

:cool: