Thanks to this Thread I was able to repair the LT180 I just bought at an auction. All was good until about 30 minutes of mowing when the world stopped turning and the machine was barely moving. After reading all the info above I took a slightly different approach to remedy the slow trans-axle condition. Taking the least aggressive path, I was curious if just a fluid change would make a difference, I decided to jack the rear end up and pop a couple drain holes into the Axle cast housing where Tuff-Torq suggests. Here is a Link https://www.tufftorqservices.com/EnvEEdefault/FlatHTML/TechInfo/ttcoil/pdfs/K46%20Drain%20Port%20Location.pdf I used a 1/8 stubby drill as not to injure any interior components, both holes drained over night. I then added 2 self tapping screws 1/2 inch long with a neoprene washer. Without the deck on the machine I was able to reach under the frame and pop the fill hole cover off using a stubby flat screwdriver. I cleaned up the magnet and filled the unit. 24 inches of 3/8 clear tubing and a small funnel allowed me to add back the 2 quarts of cheap 10-30 oil for my test. Popped the magnet and cap back in place and DONE! I am pleased that the result was success, the machine runs very well without growling and slowing after 30 minutes of use. My intention is to replace the 2 small drain holes with real drain plugs after about 5 hours of use and refill the unit with synthetic oil for hopefully many more years of use. Happy Mowing!!

Further on the PTO. It is the mechanism that connects the motor to whatever you want to apply power to, in your case the mower deck. The simple ones are manual, operated with a short lever that merely rotates a shaft with a pulley on it to take up slack in the mower drive belt. With an electric PTO, the mower drive belt is kept at a more constant tension between engine pulley and mower deck pulleys, while there is a clutch between the motor pulley and the actual motor shaft. This clutch is electrically actived by a toggle switch to engage the clutch and drive the blade. The electric system is more elegant, has longer belt life, and can be fairly expensive to repair (but seldom seems to fail). The manual systems vary somewhat among the brands, but at least the JD system seems quite well designed and very practical for anything you are going to use it for, at a nice cost saving that will more than cover a couple of extra drive belts over the life of the mower.

fcarp63, How do you like the johnny bucket setup on your GT225? I've been on the fence about buying one of those for years, and now that I'm a week out from returning home from Afghanistan, I think a johnny bucket and a hayes electric sleeve hitch may be in my future. After living in a desert wasteland for nearly 9 months, I'm pretty excited to get home and do some landscaping work (and other things). tomplum, You should tell your buddy about the piranha deck if he's considering a freedom. Do the search on the bottom of the page and you'll see the writeup I did about mine. It's a pretty amazing upgrade, and simpler than the counter-rotating freedom deck. virginacowboy, I can't say enough about the Deere garden tractors. My GT225 is by no means too big for my 2/3 acre, but when it comes to gardening chores, or pulling, it's a tank. I've pulled my 10 cu ft cart heaped over with sand uphill with no problem at all. Consider one thing when buying a mower: even on a 1/2 acre lot you'll benefit from a 48" deck, since it shrinks your uncut radius slightly and allows you to cut up close to things better than a 42". I think most salesmen would tell you that for a 1/2 acre all you need is a 42", but I would disagree. I have a 44" mulching deck on my GT225 and a 48" deck on my GT262 which is a backup workhorse on my father's property. I was not really happy with the original 42C my GT225 came with, mainly because the deck is no wider than the wheels (on the wide setting) which makes it tough to trim up against my landscaping.

You can go to Tuff Torq's web site and take a look at the diagram for your tranny. I think the part you are talking about is the tranny vent, but on the K46 it may also be the oil filler hole as well. My K51 has this same plug, but it is separate from another big cap where the oil goes in. When I emailed Tuff Torq they sent me a quick reply (next day) which included instructions and pictures on how to change the oil on my unit. They also confirmed it was OK to use synthetic oil as a replacement. The recommended oil weight for my tranny was 5w50. Mobil1 is not available in this weight, but Castrol Syntech is and that is what I used. http://www.tufftorqservices.com/cgi-bin/tts.storefront