I picked up an old Craftsman 42 inch cut rider for FREE a couple years back. This is one of the old dark green ones from 1998 or so. It had been sitting in an overgrown yard when it was given to me. This is the type of deal where you have to come in with a chainsaw and a push mower just to get the thing out of its position. It had been sitting there for 3 years like this and surprisingly I had it running in about half an hour.
This became my rough cut brush cutting mower. It gets the hard use cutting brush and I just push right through it and run down small saplings which are then mowed over. I admit that I put this old thing through way more than it was ever meant to do but it keeps coming back for more.
Then a month or so ago it began to slow down dramatically if it was run more than a few minutes. I checked the transaxle fluid and it was full but black as coal. I also noticed that it didn't have a fan and looked like it never was intended to have one. It isn't like the fan was broken off. It looks to have never had one unless I am missing something....
I figured I would at least try changing the oil before considering it DOA. This is a Hydrogear unit and they suggested 15W50 or 20W50 oil so I went with Mobil 1 15W50 synthetic and changed it out. The old oil was black and had that broken down burned smell as well as that fine sheen that indicates metallic wear particles.
Anyway, I refilled and bled the unit with the 15W50 and the unit came back to life and can practically pop wheelies no matter how long the mower has been running. I have felt the transmission after hours of operation and you could probably cook an egg on it no problem. It is way too hot to touch for more than the time it takes to realize it is way too hot.
Any suggestion about the fan? I run this quite hard for hours on end at times and even though it is a rough old mower, it serves a good use as a brush cutter for me. I plan to change the fluid again at the end of this season as the oil I drained out the first time was quite nasty and figure another change cannot hurt.
This became my rough cut brush cutting mower. It gets the hard use cutting brush and I just push right through it and run down small saplings which are then mowed over. I admit that I put this old thing through way more than it was ever meant to do but it keeps coming back for more.
Then a month or so ago it began to slow down dramatically if it was run more than a few minutes. I checked the transaxle fluid and it was full but black as coal. I also noticed that it didn't have a fan and looked like it never was intended to have one. It isn't like the fan was broken off. It looks to have never had one unless I am missing something....
I figured I would at least try changing the oil before considering it DOA. This is a Hydrogear unit and they suggested 15W50 or 20W50 oil so I went with Mobil 1 15W50 synthetic and changed it out. The old oil was black and had that broken down burned smell as well as that fine sheen that indicates metallic wear particles.
Anyway, I refilled and bled the unit with the 15W50 and the unit came back to life and can practically pop wheelies no matter how long the mower has been running. I have felt the transmission after hours of operation and you could probably cook an egg on it no problem. It is way too hot to touch for more than the time it takes to realize it is way too hot.
Any suggestion about the fan? I run this quite hard for hours on end at times and even though it is a rough old mower, it serves a good use as a brush cutter for me. I plan to change the fluid again at the end of this season as the oil I drained out the first time was quite nasty and figure another change cannot hurt.
Do some hydrostatic transmissions come without a fan?
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