The lever should not return to the neutral position on it's own unless the pedal is depressed. The brake pedal should stay down with the parking brake knob pulled up if it is working properly.
We have to move equipment out of the store in the morning and back in at night. If the tractors did not start on cold days, they were a major pita to push in even with the bypass valve opened.

I have a older Murray with a hydro trans - all it has is the pedal, no levers. I agree, its a pain to push , even with the lever in transport position.
Kidd

Most hydro's with a hand lever seem to have an interconnection between the lever and the foot brake. When you step on the brake, the pedal is also pushing the hand lever back to neutral. It sounds as if you have something to look into with the whole brake pedal function (brake lock, shift back to neutral). Other than the brake pedal connection, there is nothing in the hydro set-up that will push the lever in any direction from where you leave it.

For the lever to release hydro, try putting pressure on it as you try to push tractor. On my JD 165, that is the only way to move it - with steady pressure on the lever, but it is designed that way.

Sometimes the tranny release levers have a click-action, that if you pull on it, it comes out, and you think you're done - but in fact it will go further.... with a click - afterwhich you then have the release. Also, if the internal gears were under static load, you may not be able to release unless you relieve the load - I think that is what MBS98 was referring to...

For the brake and go-lever locking problems, it sounds like you may have linkage problems.

For the tranny creeping in Neutral - it may be a case of adjustment... some hydros have a bias-adjustment screw, which allows you to set the netural position so that the wheels don't spin at all.... you may want to look into that - your tranny may or may not have such an adjustment.

OK, thanks folks. Remember, right now it is still on jack stands and the "creep" in Neutral might not be apparent when I put the wheels on the ground, we will see....when I get the flat tire issue resolved. I am going to remove the console cover and "study" all the control and inter-connect linkages very carefully. I'll update as I discover and y'all keep those cards and letters coming.

ON the wheel horse the procedure to adjust neutral is to jack the unit up, hold the brake down, and tweak the adjustment till the wheel do not turn.

SO the creep may well NOT be normal. But then again I could imagine it might be too!

Discovery update on situation. I gave the interior cavity of chassis a good eyeballin'. Found much stuff everywhere (lots of vintage grass clippings, twigs and rocks), so much that I couldn't even see the entire park brake locking device. So I got after the machine with my pressure washer. When I was done it looked like I had shredded a bale of hay around the tractor. There must have been a rock or twig fouling the park lock pawl because after the cleaning, the first time I operated the pedal and pulled up on the lock lever..........it engaged and the foot pedal stayed "locked down". A quick tap on the pedal and the park lock releases. OK......one issue resolved and I'll get to the others in due time. One other thing is for sure, before I attempt to run this machine under it's own locomotion, I'll have to replace the drive belt to the transaxle. This one has a lot of chunks out of it and I don't trust it to get me back to the garage if I venture out.

OK. I have the belt ordered. I found out why the trans selector returns to Neutral when you let go of the lever. There is a mechanism that White calls a "scissors assembly" that operates exactly like scissors (the motion, not the cutting) to force the selector to Neutral when the brake pedal is pushed. The scissors assembly on my machine is lacking some crucial parts (they were there once but not now). The missing items can be viewed by going to your favorite website that has a link to Empart web. Choose White Outdoor > 1993 Garden Tractors > model 143U836H190 GT 185. Go to transaxle drive. Look for the inset that features item # 108 ("scissors mounting bracket"). My machine is missing: item 100 "compression spring", 2 of item 101 friction washers, 2 of item 102 bell washers, and the 5/16" nut and flat washer to secure all the other items onto item 112. Without this "friction grip" action to maintain the selected position, the "spring loaded to center" character of the tranny itself returns the selector to Neutral. I'm thinking of trying to come up with some substitue components to replace the missing items. I feel pretty certain that some shock absorber cup washers (of the right I.D. & O.D. of course) would serve as the "bell" washers. I"m thinking that some thick rubber flat washers with nylon or poly washers to actually "grip" the scissors bracket ( cause I think rubber alone would wear too quickly) A suitable compression spring could be had from a parts house (even Lowe's or Home Depot has a selection). If anybody on this forum is familiar with this topic and would like to throw in......please do.