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Mower will not engage - wheels do not move forward

Mower will not engage - wheels do not move forward

My self propelled mover is a Toy Built 22", 5.50 horsepower, Briggs and Stratton 550 Series, 158 cc, Model Number

Asked by: Guest | Views: 184
Total answers/comments: 6
bert [Entry]

"Alicia,

First off, thank you for your excellent and well worded question.

More than likely you had a drive belt break or come off the pulley. Remove any grass or debris from the top of the mowing deck and inspect the belt. If it looks loose or worn, replace it.

Click on these BLUE WORDS to link to a troy bilt mower manual. Page 20 explains some common issues associated with possible drive problems on the mower.

Here is a screen shot of that page.

I hope this helps and please let us know. But if you have more questions about it come back and we will get into more detail.

Regards,

Frank"
bert [Entry]

Yeah, they leave out transmission malfunction in that troubleshooting guide. I just opened mine up and the pin holding the spring in place to engage the gears had snapped in half. The new assembly is somewhere around $70-$100, but if they had a exploded diagram of the parts inside the transmission, I could probably buy said pin for $2. I'm guessing they don't want folks to fix their own equipment. If anyone knows of a place to find individual parts for their transmissions, I'd love to find out about it.
bert [Entry]

"My self propelled does not work either - its a Troy Bilt 21"" model 12av566n711. Have taken the transmission apart and everything looks O.K. Belt has been replaced and is tight. The shifter fork is not moving over far enough to engage mechanism - needs to move about 3/16"" more in order to engage the front wheels. Can push the shifter fork over the 3/16"" with a screw driver and it works O.K. but need a permanent solution.

Anyone else have this problem?"
bert [Entry]

"When my Toro lawn mower is off it won't

move forward. I can pull backward. When I turn it on self propel works fine. How can I fix it.

Thanks"
bert [Entry]

the wire that goes from the handle towards the motor came out how to put it back????
bert [Entry]

"I'm having similar problem with my Craftsman, and I just discovered what I believe is the problem. There is a round-ish plastic plate/cover that is mounted inboard of the front wheels that is designed to keep clippings and debris out of the area where the drive gear meshes with the teeth on the inside of the wheel. This plastic cover and the wheel itself each have a flange, and when the wheel and cover are in place, these flanges are located in very close proximity, and are fairly effective in blocking debris from getting up into the vicinity of the gears.

The problem is that when rolling over thick or even slightly uneven ground the plastic cover can drag the ground and this will force the cover's flange to bind against the flange of the wheel. Once these flanges become in a ""bound"" state they tend to remain engaged and since the cover does not turn, the wheel does not turn as well.

I believe this is a design flaw that might be resolved by either:

1. obtaining larger front wheels which would cause the plastic flange to be higher above the ground and thereby less likely to come in contact with the ground,

2. to re-engineer or modify the plastic cover, and/or its flange, or

3. to remove the plastic cover altogether.

I intend to look at the parts shops to see if there are replacement front wheels that will fit this mower, but assuming that is not achievable, I am going to trim the plastic cover's flange - e.g., removing the flange from the very bottom /lower portion of the cover. This is the portion of the flange where the cover and the wheel's flanges are binding. A larger wheel might be the optimum, but I am pretty confident that trimming a few inches of the plastic flange will greatly improve the situation."