Toro personal pace gear box maint.

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Originally Posted By: Chris B.
Originally Posted By: steve20
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
The Personal Pace transmissions are maintenance free, and they usually have no problems unless there is a defect or the operator really tears the mower up.

If anything, periodically adjust the cable if it starts to get slack, and clear debris from the belt/pulley and wheel gears if necessary.



odd..my personal pace owners manual says never grease the back wheel gears--guess it attracts more lawn garbage and may do more harm than good


Huh.....my personal pace owners says to oil/grease the back wheels! Mine is 4 years old and I relube them every year. Wonder why they say do and don't at the same time?



I greased mine right after we got it. I thought is was dumb having no lubrication on the gears. SO far, so good.
 
I've got a Lawnboy with this same trans. While I was re-greasing I installed a zerk fitting in the cast metal top away from the pully area. Makes me feel better.
 
Toro's recommendation on wheel gear lubrication has in fact changed over the last couple of years. They did suggest oiling (not greasing) the wheel gears previously. Their current recommendation is to run the wheel gears dry because of dirt/debris getting stuck to the gears and actually accelerating wear. Toro says it makes an "abrasive paste."

I've found that the worst thing that can happen to wheel gears, oiled or not, is for the inside wheel cover to break or get a large hole in it. That will trash the wheel gears in short order and also leads to rust on the gear and the end of the axle, so fixing it then becomes a pain in the [censored].

Another problem is bent pivot arms (what the wheel bolts to) causing uneven wear.
 
I just rebuilt one of these PP trans earlier this spring. Inside grease was baked solid and the cheap China bearing came apart tearing up the soft pinion gear. Luckily parts are dirt cheap and readily available from the local Ace hardware. Cost me about $9 for a new pinion, gasket, and USA made bearing. Works like new now! Nice for a $15 Craiglist score!!!
 
The rear wheel drive self propelled ones have bushings that hold the transmission to the deck. They wallow out after a long time and cause the gears to grind. Just keep an eye out for these. These are cheap and easy to replace. You may think you blew the transmission when in fact it's a 12 dollar repaire. Unless they changed the design. It should have zerk fittings that should be geased every 25hrs. Just put a couple pumps in it. Not too much otherwise you'll blow the seals.
 
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Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
The rear wheel drive self propelled ones have bushings that hold the transmission to the deck. They wallow out after a long time and cause the gears to grind. Just keep an eye out for these. These are cheap and easy to replace. You may think you blew the transmission when in fact it's a 12 dollar repaire. Unless they changed the design. It should have zerk fittings that should be geased every 25hrs. Just put a couple pumps in it. Not too much otherwise you'll blow the seals.



I didnt see any on mine?
 
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
The rear wheel drive self propelled ones have bushings that hold the transmission to the deck. They wallow out after a long time and cause the gears to grind.


Are you referring to the drive axle bushings? I know those are an issue on Honda self-propelled units. They'll lock up enough to ruin the drive belt or fry the hydrostatic drive. People think they're having transmission problems, when it's nothing more than axle bushings that won't allow the axle to spin easily.

Joel
 
axle bushings. That's what I was talking about. Remember I said mine was a 10 year old mower so they could have changed the design on the newer ones and put bearings in there. These may only be on the aluminum decks. Sorry I forgot that part.
 
The FWD transmissions in some recent Toros were suspect. I bought mine in 2007 and Toro extended the warranty an extra year (totaling 3 years). By year 2, the transmission was shot and it was fixed under warranty.

The fix involved replacing the transmission gear box with the same POS part made in Mexico, FWIW. It lasted a year before it died. Regreasing seemed to help the symptoms, but a bad part is still a bad part.

The shop that fixed mine quoted me $150 to fix it out the door. I decided not to and removed all the parts, debated on fixing it myself, then finally decided to just make it a push mower.

Everything else on the mower works flawlessly. I happily push it now and I mow it faster doing so.

I understand that in 2008, when they switched away from Tecumseh engines, they also changed the transmission part(s). I haven't heard anything bad about them since then.
 
Originally Posted By: bigmike
The FWD transmissions in some recent Toros were suspect. I bought mine in 2007 and Toro extended the warranty an extra year (totaling 3 years). By year 2, the transmission was shot and it was fixed under warranty.

The fix involved replacing the transmission gear box with the same POS part made in Mexico, FWIW. It lasted a year before it died. Regreasing seemed to help the symptoms, but a bad part is still a bad part.

The shop that fixed mine quoted me $150 to fix it out the door. I decided not to and removed all the parts, debated on fixing it myself, then finally decided to just make it a push mower.

Everything else on the mower works flawlessly. I happily push it now and I mow it faster doing so.

I understand that in 2008, when they switched away from Tecumseh engines, they also changed the transmission part(s). I haven't heard anything bad about them since then.



Probably got tired of warranty claims.
 
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