Murray riding lawn mower tranny issues

[MinnesotaMike]

I have a 97 12.5 hp 42" wide body murray. The other day I was mowing and it stopped like I hit something. It would go into gear but not move, towed it to the garage and adjusted the clutch. Everything seemed fine. Last night I was mowing again and it did the same thing. I can run the motor with the clutch in with no problems, when I let the clutch out it squeals, in gear and in neutral.

 

Is this and bad tranny or could it be the transmission pulley? Belt is on and in good shape.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Mike 

[Moon Lake Refuge]

45 minutes ago, MinnesotaMike said:

I have a 97 12.5 hp 42" wide body murray. The other day I was mowing and it stopped like I hit something. It would go into gear but not move, towed it to the garage and adjusted the clutch. Everything seemed fine. Last night I was mowing again and it did the same thing. I can run the motor with the clutch in with no problems, when I let the clutch out it squeals, in gear and in neutral.

 

Is this and bad tranny or could it be the transmission pulley? Belt is on and in good shape.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Mike 

Are all of the pulleys freely spinning?  I had the same mower until last year and when stuff started going wrong I had replaced almost everything on the mower by the end of they year, including an engine core.  Is the trans on yours manual? 

[RebelSS]

Sounds like a seized bearing or pulley on main drive to me...I had that problem too. Like Moon said, when one goes, seems like ya end up replacing all of them.

[MinnesotaMike]

Yes it is a manual trans. I bought this used in 2000 and it has been pretty bullet proof. I'll check the trans pulley. The stacker pulley is good.

 

Thx,

 

Mike

 

[delcecchi]

I had a problem with the idler pulley.  Took a while for things to get bad enough to cause problem. 

[Tom7227]

On 6/22/2016 at 9:28 AM, MinnesotaMike said:

Yes it is a manual trans. I bought this used in 2000 and it has been pretty bullet proof. I'll check the trans pulley. The stacker pulley is good.

Update?  If you keep going with repairs you have to be careful you don't put too much into it.  16 years old, could be at the end of useful life or have problems finding parts.

[delcecchi]

Amazing what parts are available on Amazon and hsolist....Or through an auto parts store.  I got stuff for my murray at the cabin which is from mid to late 80's

[RebelSS]

Fleet Farm carries a ton of MTD, Murray, and other brand parts. MTD makes 80% of the mowers out there, including Sears. Pulley, bearings, belts, air and oil filters, blades, etc. Most of them match right up.

[MinnesotaMike]

Update...

I took the deck off and cleaned the brakes and readjusted them then took the battery out so I could see if the rear pulley was locked up. Idler pulley seemed fine. Rigged up some jumper cables to the battery and started the mower. Put it in forward and slowly released the clutch..... pulley spins and the mower moves forward. Put it in neutral and release clutch, no noise. Put it in reverse and release clutch and it moves backwards. I hate these problems, seems to have fixed itself.

Put the battery back in and took it for a short ride around the lawn.

I can't believe the brakes being out of adjustment would be the problem. I will find out tonight as I need to cut the grass.

This thing is in like new condition and I'd hate to have to get rid of it but a zero turn would be nice.

Thanks for the responses,

Mike

[RebelSS]

Good deal!!!  Glad to hear it worked out! 

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Great news!  Hope you dont end up like me.  So many problems my neighbor was laughing at me when the engine blew a hunk out the side straight into my garbage can.  He though I was done for sure at that one.  New engine core for 20 bucks on the list and I was back up and running with an engine swap inside of a week.  Parts are definitely everywhere and minor fixes are a no brainer just dont be like me... know where to draw the line ha

[RebelSS]

I just bit the bullet and finally bought a new one Sunday......

[Moon Lake Refuge]

bought mine a month or so ago and it changed my life ha!