Ya, right.

We'll all just get right on with wasting our time with this one. Hmmmmmm, let's see now. Signed up today and his birthday is April Fool's day. Kinda makes ya wonder.

????? wow - what a nice reception for a newby....
thanks for the vote of confidence castoff - I didn't exactly get to pick the date or time that my parents got it on, or the date I was born.
How about anyone else.... Does anyone have any ideas for me on what to check? seriously, mowing in reverse the whole time is a drag and is slow. the linkage does not feel sloppy, it just feels like it barely engages in forward gear..

When you mow in reverse, does the grass get longer? This may be why all our mowers disable the mower deck when in reverse!

Somewhat more seriously, is this a hydro or gear driven? Since it runs ok in reverse, I assume any belts are fine. I'd guess its either a tranny problem, or maybe brakes engaging when they should not?

John

LOL - no the grass doesn't get longer - but the yard seems to get bigger...
it has a hydrostatic tranny - there is about 500 hours on it - I don't see anywhere for me to check fluids or anything. I hadn't thought about the brakes - but it seems that that would probably affect reverse too. any ideas on what is the typical useful life span is of a hydro tranny?

* Posted by castoff Z5 Ontario (My Page) on
Thu, Apr 26, 07 at 18:56

Ya, right.

We'll all just get right on with wasting our time with this one. Hmmmmmm, let's see now. Signed up today and his birthday is April Fool's day. Kinda makes ya wonder.
============================================

Greenendup

Sorry I cant help you.

What was posted showed the true John Deere colors of a lot of people here.

To bad that they do not seem to realize that Scotts are manufactured by John Deere.

Maybe someone decent individual who knows a little more about a John Deere tractor other than there painted green and yellow can help you out.

Not knowing your transmissions make or model. It could be anything from a dirty filter to low fluid level.

Hippy, thanks for the reply - I'll try to get some numbers/makes etc from the tranny - I didn't see any "user servicable" locations for adding fluid/checking filters, etc - but haven't really gotten too deep into it becasue I still need it assembled to mow the grass...Maybe I can mow tomorrw and buy myself about a week to fiddle. Once I tear into it I may start a new post, unless this thread is still alive... fluid and filters - two items I hadn;t even considered - like I said - I'm no mecahnical wizard - thanks for the suggestion.

Take the seat off, turn it around and bolt it to the hood. That way, it will be much easier to mow in reverse but it probably won't stop your neighbours from talking.

Hi Greenendup, welcome.

Some Hydrostats require an occasional purging of air from the transmission. To do this, at least on my AYP, turn off the mower, disengage the transmission (kinda like a neutral on a car, but with a seperate lever from the transmission through the frame.) Start the mower slowly, run your transmission from full reverse to full forward. Do this 5-6 times. Turn off mower, reengage transmission, restart mower and now do the same thing as before. Of course mower will now move forward and backward as you are purging the tranny. This has solved the problem for me several times. Do check your manual to see if there any kind of procedure like this mentioned. Hope this helps,
Terry

Thanks for a response tjeffers. I am one of Greenendup's neighbors. I was a bit embarassed by castoff's responses. I encouraged Greenendup to post here in hopes of finding what is wrong with his tractor after we pondered it a bit and I came up without a clue. I have got a lot of good advice from these forums and hoped Greenendup would get some good info about his tractor.

{{gwi:320722}}

twigpig and greenendup,
You both have my most sincere apologies. Chalk it up to a suspicious mind.

Obviously, I didn't take the initial post seriously as I thought it was just one of those spoof threads that appear from time-to-time.

Hippy, I don't own a Deere.....just so ya know.

Green,
The problem you posted about is definitely unusual because the hydro is a sealed unit that uses the exact same components and oil to go forward as it does reverse.

The only thing that happens when you step on the pedal is that the swash-plate inside the pump swivels from one position to another. It sounds as though the "forward" side of the swash-plate is either worn badly or bent or cracked. The purpose of the swash-plate is two-fold. It controls the direction oil flows to the motor and it also controls the volume of that oil.

Since you get full reverse and only partial forward, it indicates to me that all other items in the hydro unit are functioning OK and that it is the swash-plate that is the issue. Back in the mid-70's, I owned one of the first hydrostatic drive skid-steer loaders put out by Case. I had nothing but grief with the swash--plates and the levers that controlled them.

Unless someone with direct experience with your particular hydro steps up with a better idea, I think that you will have to remove the hydro unit, open it up and check that swash-plate for internal damage. If it is damaged, hopefully the damage is due to it being cracked and/or bent and not due to excessive wear. If it got chewed up badly, then all of those metal particles would be doing more damage as they get pumped through the system.

Greenendup,

I don't recall the JD Scotts mowers making a 20hp 50" mower. Look at the little ID plate on the back of the mower. It should tell you the model # and serial # and even the date of manufacture. You should either have an S2048 or a 2554. We need to know what you have.

Looking from the back of the mower - do you not have a little hole through the gas tank that allows you to view the fluid level in the tranny tank? The oil level should be visible through that hole.

At 9 years old that should be a Scotts mfg by John Deere and a great machine. Don't give up on it! If it's older than it was pre-JD days. Get us that model #.

I've got an old White mower that has a similar problem, mine is an 11hp 38" deck. Reverse seems to still work pretty good but forward is mighty slow.
Mine is a REALLY well worn mower. I think its a '90 or so and has probably 5000 hours or more and has been royally thrashed for its whole life. The wiring is so bad now we start it with a boost pack directly to the starter.
It still starts up and cuts the grass though. That was important last summer when the MTD we had been using for 3 years threw the connecting rod through the side of the block.

Hello greenendup from WASHINGTON,
As a former resident from there I would like to share my experience with my Toro 20 Hp Hydro. It was going slow forward and the reverse was normal. I read the service manual I down loaded from the Toro site and found out the fluid should be changed every 200 hrs. After changing it I'm back up to speed like new. There is a plug in the side of the case on my transmission that drained it.

I'm finally getting back 'round to this - thanks for all the responses. I propped the tractor up, pulled the wheels, took off the back support plate so I could see the tranny.... and stared... and stared... and decided I had no clue where to go from here....so put the wheels back on and pushed the mower out of the way so I could use my wifes to mow the yard (the neighbors were relieved that I mowed like a normal person!) I took a look at numbers etc and found that this really is a 20HP 50 inch deck - it's model number is 50563x7 and has a peerlees 6265-p1 transmission. the one thing I did find while the wheels were off is a little rubber plug (buried under old lawn trimmings) which I popped off - it looks like its full of hydrolic fluid, but is it supposed to be graphite gray color? So before I take the plunge of tearing everything apart (I am mechanically challenged) I'm gonna drain and refill with clean fluid - catiav5_stevev indicated an experience where this resolved his issue.... This tractor has about 500 hours on it and has never had any fluids in the tranny changed....if that fails, I may take castoffs advice and relocate the seat to the hood and try to act like the mower is supposed to be operated in reverse....

Thanks again for all the advice....

Uh, no.......the oil shouldn't be gray.

The question might be "Where is the drain plug?", as many hydros are considered "unservicable".....meaning you just toss them away and put a new one in.

There are ways to suck the old oil out of this unit but you will also have to find out what the correct fluid is to put back in once you get it emptied. Peerless likes to keep that a secret so you have to buy it's overpriced oil instead of something commonly available.

If changing the oil doesn't solve the problem and you end up bolting the seat to the hood, then make sure you wear pants that contrast with the steering wheel colour. You don't want your neighbours wondering as to why your hands are where they are.

Here's the lineage of the Scotts tractors...

At that age your Scotts will have a metal hood and is "built by Murray" for Home Depot. If it has a 20hp B&S with a 50" deck and a Peerless hydro it is a model 50563x8 and if it has a 20hp Kohler with a 50" deck and a Peerless hydro it is a model 50560x8

After these came the Scotts by John Deere that have plastic hoods.

My 50560x8 Scotts had a similar problem and after going nuts for quite a while I found the problem and the fix.

On the (sitting on the seat) left lower side towards the rear of the trans there's a lever (that sticks up) that the linkage actuated by the foot pedal rocks fore and aft. In the middle of that lever is a 6mm (or 1/4") bolt. When that bolt loosens up the tractor will still get the same reverse speed but the forward speed drops BIG TIME. The linkage moves the lever a little bit for reverse but moves it more for forward. With that bolt loose the lever doesn't move as far so the forward speed is reduced.

On my Scotts the bolt had loosened. I removed the bolt, cleaned it, and applied a little loctite. Then I had to readjust the linkage cause it was all screwed up from trying to adjust it just like you did.

That may be the problem you're having.

will check the linkage bolts -thants an easy one, if that fails, I'll roll the tractor over and drain the tranny and replace the fluid...(didn't see any drains on the bottom - if that fails, I'll break out the green and yellow plaid pants and the welder..... Thanks for input guys....

If your Scotts is the Murray version and has the Peerless hydro there is a "refresh kit" for it that includes the bellows, oil, and special tool and it's not expensive.

Find it here...

Peerless VST Hydro Kit

I guess 1999 was the first year for "Scotts - built by JD" mowers at HD then, huh?

"I guess 1999 was the first year for "Scotts - built by JD" mowers at HD then, huh?"

The give away is the hood... metal = Scotts by Murray and plastic = Scotts by JD.

I bought my Scotts (by Murray) at HD in 96 and I believe there was one more year of them, maybe two years then the Scotts by JDs arrived and they were impressive.

My Scotts has given me great service both mowing and snow throwing for 10+ years. It had features that the competition lacked back then... cast iron front axle with zerks on the spindles, adjustable steering links, zerks on the deck quills, 12" rear wheels, hour meter, and foot operated hydro. HD was useless for service but I never needed them.

greenendup,

Well, did you resolve your problem?

Justalurker....
I ordered the refresh kit last week - got an email from the vendor - backordered! ugh - it will be about a week or so before they can forward the kit on....
I've just left the mower sit for now - had my wife mow the lawn with her mower... Once the refresh kit comes in I'll swap the hydro fluid, tighten linkage bolts, adjust and hopefully be on my merry way... Maybe I'll even give it an oil change...
I've been spending my time playing with a new toy...48" Five Point(King Kutter) Brush Hog for my BX22... soooo much fun to drive through the blackberries.....that's real satisifaction - I think my neighbor twigpig is jealous and wants one for his kioti now...
Thanks for the link to PER....

Followup to close out the thread....
The folks at PER were out of stock on the VST Hydro Kit - I receeived an email from them indicating backordered, with a follow-up that they had located one from an alternate source and had ordered it and sent it on it's way - Kudo's to PER for the follow-through and for maintaining contact with the customer to keep them in the loop - that seems rare these days...
I Pulled the rear end out and had my neighbor help me go throught the process of replacing the baffle, fluids, etc. Reassembled everything and the end result is that now I have a much happier transmission - and have reduced my cutting times by at least 1/2 hour. Unfortunatly, I am still cutting the yard in reverse.... While I have improved reverse speed, I still can not get much more than a crawl in forward - no matter what I do with the linkage. My wife has not complained about having to mow "my part" of the yard with "Her mower" too much yet, so will try to take advantage of that as long as possible as mowing in reverse is hell on the neck, slow, and far, far too entertaining for the neighbors. Ultimately, I think I will have to just put a new unit in the tractor - still much cheaper than buying a whole new mower...
A little disappointed with quality these days - I've only had this mower about 10 years and already have to replace something other than gas, oil, blades or belts....

greenendup,

Yup, Bruce @ Perr really takes care of his customers and his prices are good.

Still seems odd that you can't go forward. I know you said you checked twice, but it still sounds like a linkage problem. Maybe something is wedged in somewhere under the pedal ot along the linkage that is blocking full forward travel. I'd get that thing up on cinder blocks and carefully check the pedal and follow all the linkage back to the gearbox and especially the crossover from the RH to LH side. I still think your problem is in there somewhere.

i've got a scott's model 50563x8. can anyone out there draw me a diagram of the way the belt winds around the pulleys on the 50" deck? gracias

You can find a crappy parts diagram here: http://partsandservice.com/html/Murray/lt/lt50567x8.html. I think I have the same mower and problem, but it seems one of the drive pulleys is shot, so I'm replacing that first and hopefully it works. You might check those and make sure the belt is tight. Also, do you have an owners manual? I have been searching high and low for one without avail.