XT2 LX42 Enduro - Reverse: Right Wheel Works; Left ...not so much

[Scott-GA]

Purchased this Cub Cadet in early 2024. After about 10 hours of use it wasn't wanting to move backwards when the reverse pedal was pushed. A search of the Internet suggested that there was probably air in the transmission.

Today I was doing the Tuff Torq (Manufacturer of the hydrostatic transmission on this machine) "Air Purging Procedure for Hydrostatic Transmissions".

My wife was assisting with this procedure and she was located at the left rear of the machine, actuating the "transaxle disconnect rod". As I sat on the machine, I had been watching only the left rear tire and her (for safety) and could see that the purging procedure wasn't eleminating the problem.

However, she noticed that the right rear wheel was operating normally but the left rear wheel - when in reverse - wasn't. I had always been watching just the left rear wheel and assumed that the right was behaving the same way. I took this video to show the problem to folks that may be able to help me diagnose what ails my Cub Cadet.

EDIT: One last piece of information. When depressing the "Reverse" Pedal, the left wheel will start slowly rotating in reverse but comes pretty much to a stop around 10 seconds after pedal actuation.

I also think it is interesting that the left rear wheel seems to have some "run out" as it rotates.

Any thoughts on this situation?

Scott

[ironman]

My opinion is what you are observing is "situation normal".
Differential gears in your transmission only drive one wheel or the other but not both at the same time.
Any movement that occurs to the wheel that is not being driven occurs through momentum and drag of internal parts.

That being said, your reverse woes could be caused by debris in your directional control rods, wear in your control rods, maladjustment in your control rods, or internal hydro problems.

You say you bought it in early 2024, but new or used?? How old is it?

[Scott-GA]

Originally Posted by ironman

My opinion is what you are observing is "situation normal".
Differential gears in your transmission only drive one wheel or the other but not both at the same time.
Any movement that occurs to the wheel that is not being driven occurs through momentum and drag of internal parts.

That being said, your reverse woes could be caused by debris in your directional control rods, wear in your control rods, maladjustment in your control rods, or internal hydro problems.

You say you bought it in early 2024, but new or used?? How old is it?

Ironman,

Thank you for your response...

The machine was purchased new. It worked correctly for about 10 hours of operation.

Prior to the "air purge procedure": In normal operation with all wheels on the ground, as in the video on blocks, the machine seems to be able to drive both rear wheels in forward just fine. Likewiise on the ground (like in the viideo), it will attempt - without much enthusiasm - to back up when the reverse pedal is depressed but then after about 10 seconds or so it would stop moving.

I haven't tried to operate the machine on the ground after the "purge procedure" (a thunderstorm was bearing down on our property at the time). To be honest, the symptoms with the wheels off the ground seem to mimic the symptoms when the drive wheels are on the ground so I'm not hopefull anything has changed due to the purge procedure.

Best regards,

Scott

[Scott-GA]

An update to this situation.

In addition to the "air purging" as a solution to these transaxles not working in reverse, there is another possible remedy.

Due to what - in my opinion - is a poor design for a machine made to mow grass, debris (i.e. grass clippings) can get into area of the mechanical stop for the reverse pedal. That debris can interfere with the reverse pedal getting depressed to the "full reverse position".

The design is such that it allows grass clippings to interfere with the mechanism but it is extremely difficult to see - at least I couldn't see the area of interest - if there is debris actually interferring with the operation of the reverse pedal.

Prior to trying the air purging procedure, I had attempted to clear the "reverse pedal stop" area and some material had been removed when I did that.

Since that didn't remedy the reverse problem, I attempted the "air purging" procedure and posted the video.

Today was the first opportunity I have had to drive my machine since the the air purging procedure. My assessment was that operating in reverse was improved... it actuatlly did operate in reverse but it wasn't very enthusiastic about it.

I have a mechanic's pit in my shop building so I drove my machine to that. I arranged some grates so that my machine could be supported over the mechaanic's pit. I was then able to get under the lawn mower and try to see if there was anything interfereing with an attempt to FULLY depress the reverse pedal.

As previously mentioned, due to structure & panels, I could see the "Forward" area of the mechanism but not the "Reverse" area. Still, I could figure out where that was and I proceeded to jab a length of thin plastic into that area. Some debris fell out the far side of where I was jabbing so I continued to work that area agressively with the plastic strip.

Convinced that I had removed any material that might have been interferring with the reverse pedal, I took the Lawn Mower outside and gave it a test run.

The machine now seems to be working in reverse correctly.

I think this may have been a "compound" problem.

I do think that the air purging procedure helped so there was probably air in the transaxle that needed to be dealt with.

Obviously, based on how things have turned out, there was some debris interferring with the reverse pedal's full throw.

I must say I am disapointed in the "debris problem" that the Reverse Pedal has. This machine has not been used that much and if the Reverse Pedal mechanism is that finicky, the engineers should have at least designed a way to examine the problem area and, even better, included a way to clean it out easily.

Scott

[ironman]

There is an easy way....
Compressed air = your best friend

[Billy-O]

Originally Posted by ironman

There is an easy way....
Compressed air = your best friend

Or even a handheld leaf blower would/could work.