I have confirmed the part numbers on the belts and they matched to the old ones. (allowing for a little stretch) It is an older style with the pins and they are not riding on them. before I adjusted the "clutch" pedal I couldn't even get it loose enough to stop. It does seem like the front belt could be a little small not allowing it to fully disengage from the pulley, but I double checked the number on the MTD site. I also compared the parts diagram with my mower to see if there were any parts missing. If there isn't a brake for this pulley how can I get more travel to loosen the belt? Thanks for the original info.

Hi Dynamike, That 500 hours figure is conservative. I got the mower from some guy on Ebay [big lesson itself in that, buyer beware if you can't touch it and check it out yourself before bidding]. It was well used -- in fact it was pretty well run down -- when I got it. Motor was blowing smoke like a steam boat, steering was loose as a goose, spindles were shot, and blades were duller than my Aunt Irene's family photo album. So I spent the next few weeks going over it, refurbing and fixing at least the major problems. That's when I put the Sendec tach/hour meter on it, so that 500 hours is what I've put on it since then. I have a couple of acres I mow with it, plus there for a while I was using it to maintain a 25 acre ranch in Hayes County in TX. That ranch was pretty much a full time job in itself. Very demanding terrain, just about everything you could imagine. Plus it was way, way overgrown when I took the job, so there was a lot of severe bush hogging type work, slogging through field grass as high as the hood. And then there were wide open spaces like the baseball field they had out there, where I could drop the deck low and make it so beautiful... sigh. You know what, that property and if I may boast a little, some of my mowing is actually visible from space, on Google Maps... what a rush. Anyway that just to illustrate the kind of relationship I've had with this machine... sounds wierd I know, but that's me. That ranch terrain was so demanding... you could draw an imaginary line on the mower at about the chassis level, and pretty much every part on the mower from the chassis down was basically expendable. Blades. Spindles. Decks. Belts. Axles. Tires. You get the picture. These were the parts I wound up collecting as spares wherever I could find them. I put inner tubes and tractor tire Slime in all the tires. That *almost* eliminated flats, except for when something would reach up and gouge a chunk out of a sidewall. Eventually for time demands of my real job and family, had to let the ranch job go, and I only mow my own place now. But I should have been doing what you did and pull the wheels off periodically to grease the axles. I was a victim of my own tires, in that I hadn't had a flat in so long that when I replaced the transaxle, I couldn't get one of the wheels off the axle. It's still stuck on there! I used one of my spare wheels to get going again, but I need to find a machine shop somewhere I guess, that can maybe press that old axle shaft off my good wheel. You asked about what lube to use in the transaxle. I hadn't forgotten your question, just got rambling (old man thing you know). "The Book" says it's permanently lubed, which is of course only valid so long as you don't have to open it up for repair. When I rebuilt this transaxle that I transplanted into the tractor, I packed it fairly full of hi-temp wheel bearing grease. Then I poured in about a half cup of 90W Hypoid oil. This made a fairly cohesive mass of lubricant that both surrounds the large gears for their teeth, and yet flows into the bushing surfaces to lube them. I was able to test the tranny on the work bench by hooking up an electric drill to the input shaft and running the unit through it's functions, to check for smooth shifting and any possible binding. In the 50 or so hours of run time since this repair, I've not seen any oil seeping out from the bushings, so looks like the sealing is ok... good to go. Now if I can just restrain myself from excess speed over bumpy terrain, hopefully this tranny will go another 500 hours :). Hey sorry for the long post. I find this an enjoyable subject, fun sharing with others with similar interests.

This design has been around for many years. Between the engine and rear axle is a pulley assy with two belts. The center of the pulley moves between the two belts - changing the diameter of the pulley. This assembly hold up well even with a lot of service. Belts are difficult to change. The rear axle is a fixed gear ratio with forward and reverse. If the tractor is tasked with towing, the rear gear frequently fails. Sometimes the aluminum case cracks. The sheetmetal front axle beam is also a weak area. The MTD garden tractor that used this design worked ok. The smaller models are light duty and in my experience - wear out quicker than tractors from other manufacturers.

Transaxle isn't technically difficult to work on, but can be a pain in the butt. You have to pull the transaxle out of the mower frame, which is a fair amount of work, then you split the transaxle cases after removing the screws. No special tools are needed. If you have worked as an auto mechanic you should have everything you need. The shifting fork (or fan as Peerless calls it) moves a collar back and forth along the intermediate shaft and connects the right or left bevel gears to give forward and reverse. Peerless uses a set of keys to lock either or none (for neutral) of the gears to the shaft. From there power goes to thru the differential and to wheels. Could be broken keys or gears, but likely to be gummed up with grease that has hardened preventing collar and keys from moving freely. Unfortunately, Peerless uses a Bentonite grease which is the dirtiest, most staining substance ever invented. Make sure you spread plenty of newspapers and wear clothes you are prepared to throw away. After you thoroughly clean everything, and dry fit to ensure everything is working right, you need to repack with with the Bentonite. Figure $15 to $20 for a 32 oz tube. You have a 910 series Peerless transaxle, and suggest you buy or borrow a copy of Tecumseh/Peerless 691218 Manual. I won't open a Peerless up without printing out the pages of the machine I'm going to work on. The other alternative is new transaxle, but they are about $500 outright, and most mower boneyards know they have you by the short hairs and want $150 to $200 used.