hydro gear transaxle repair?

[jaypauldini]

hi
thanks for the warm welcome to all who replied to new thing.
right now i at one of my jobs i am 'trying' to repair a hydro gear transaxle off a countax ride on C- series mower. many people told me it was impossible to repair one, even the local lawn mower garage, said it would have to be disposed of and a newone fitted at a cost of £1000. two months ago that would have been about $2000 ish, but now its only $1500, ha ha.
still my client wasnt happy to spend that kinof money when you can buy a new mower for £2,500. so he asked me to try and see if i could fix it.
i have got it off, and opened it up, which was easier than i thought.
inside it looks quite good, i will try and post some pictures. so now i am aobut to take the dif part to pieces, and hopefully find a worn gear or broken shift key.
i would like to know i any of you ahve any experience good or bad with this sort of job?
jay

[Restrorob]

Jay,

I for one have never heard of that brand unit (England), On this Hydro-gear transaxle there should be a white model number tag. These numbers would aid us in identifying which transaxle you are working on.

Also, It would be helpful to know what the symptoms were (what it was doing) which could give a lead as to a probable cause.

[jaypauldini]

hi
thank you for your reply, yeah you are right. the model number is ':322 0750,
hydro gear made in the usa 4068 T1071.' that is what is on the white label on the side of the transaxle. ihope this helps.
symptoms were that it was losing power, i mean not going forwards very fast, got slower and slower, eventually not going forward at all, but it will go backwards fine. no change at all in reverse. so i figured the forward gear or shift key must be broken/worn.
jay

[GlenM]

Those are pretty much the symptoms of simply being low on fluid.
Go here, scroll down middle window to find your model to download.
http://www.m-and-d.com/Hydro-Gear_parts.html
It takes 20w-50 auto oil @ 81 ounces.

[Restrorob]

Jay,

You can check the oil but I believe if low oil could cause no forward movement with reverse as normal it would be listed here;


http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m314/Restrorob/Hydro%20Gear/HydrogearLTTroubleShooting.jpg


Have you checked everything above including the pivot arm for looseness on the trunnion arm ?

If so, I would take a look at the pivot arm where it mates to the variable swash plate and check the swash plate for wear.

Here is a link to a pdf service manual for this transaxle;

http://www.youshare.com/Restrorob/c09ae88c76b0c4a9.pdf.html


Good Luck

[jaypauldini]

hi
thank you somuch, this has saved me so much time, if i had known about this site three weeks ago i could be ahead of myself. tahnk you again, the manual is so useful. not only will it make dissasembly and reassembly much easier, but it helps to explain exactly how it works.
thanks again
jay

[Restrorob]

Hey, No problem Jay. Glad I could help, Did you get the manual saved to your computer ?

[jaypauldini]

hi rob
yes i did get it saved to computer, and printed one off for the workshop as idont have a pc there.
the theory by the other bloke about the oil being low cant be right, because if it was, then backwards would be the same. and i know that the countax dealer who saw the machine said that the hydro gear transaxle was worn out and needed to be replaced, so unless he was lying, must be true, so i am going to look for worn gears.

today i took a ryobi ahf 03 hedge trimmer attachment for my ryobi combo trimmer and the gears were broken, mashed to pieces, they look like they are made of some sort of cheap alloy. crap i would call them. i have ordered another one for the time being, but will buy a stihl next time.
again thanks for all your help, hopefully can return the favour in the future.
jay

[graftersnoozer]

if your hydro drive is losing power when hot try using 20/50 grade oil its thicker your hydro pump is worn out .if it works you have saved time and money.It worked for me on a c800 countax

[jaypauldini]

hi
thanks for the advice about the oil. i have ordered the 20w/50 oil, and today i put the hydro transaxle back together with mastic. nice and tight, will do a air test next week and fill it with oil. but i am thinking that we may have to get another transaxle to replace it.

i will fit this one back ,on and adjust the gear shift, and see if it goes better, but if it doesnt, then we can get an new one and be done with it.

what i dont like, is the oil i took out was black and thick, obviously old oil, and yet the garage charged my client for an oil change. so i dont trust their diagnosis of the problem, also i dont know which garage he took it to , and he has been vague since about exactly what they said. so maybe we got our wires crossed.

but hopefully we hitch it up again, and all is fine, if it , i will be very happy, but i may be wary of going near another hydro transaxle again.

again thanks for all your help

Jay