I,too, have one of those trannys, in a nice lawn tractor by Sears, which i bought for $50 from the previous owner, mainly for parts and the engine, a Vanguard. The P.O. didn't know that he should stop to shift gears, with the result of the input gear and its mate-s grind terribly, when trying to go along. Would it be possible to install a 6-speed standard shift tranny in its place. (From a much older tractor) I realise there will be some problems with belt size, linkage, shifter handle, etc, but i hate to junk such a nice looking machine. Altho, the chance to sell the engine may cause me to forget that idea. I have done some changing like that, and don't get easily discouraged, but i thought i'd test the water before proceeding. And, after i get two other machines out of the garage. Come on--don't send the little men in the white coats out here to get me--i haven't lost my marbles, yet! (Although it has been suggested---. Rusty Jones And, its too cold to go looking for serial numbers, right now. The machine is red, if that makes a difference, and the engine is a Vanguard. The current shifter handle is on the right fender. The handle on the other tranny goes up thru the front floor panel below the seat. Any help?

Oh man, that is priceless. Thanks for posting.

======================================================================================================================== Posted by: john999 (My Page) on Mon, Aug 15, 05 at 5:42 No, that is not true. Most engines are "interference" engines, they need to specifically designed to be otherwise. The old GM engines from the 70s didn't have a belt or a chain - the camshaft ran off a spur gear. When that disintegrated, the pistons would push the valves up against little resistance. They were interference engines. If you break a timing belt there is no connection between the camshaft and the crankshaft, so the pistons just push the valves back up against no pressure and nothing gets broken. On a timing chain engine, the chain usually breaks on one side only, so it is still connected to the camshaft. ======================================================================================================================== John999: No offense intended but your statement regarding Chvy engines from the 70s' in not at all correct. Almost ALL of those were run by a timing CHAIN . Cars and even some of the pick-ups used a CAM gear that had nylon teeth. When the teeth wore down enough, the Chain would jump a tooth and you'd have to go in and replace it. I personally hate nylon faced gears, opting instead for a good ole fasioned Cloyes Double roller set-up. In thier aim to quiet things down, the manufacturer made one more thing to wear out long before it should,based on it's original design. Now if you want to really get serious, go with a gear drive setup...AHHHH Love the sound of those.

Normally the way you know the timing belt needs to be replaced is because it has broken and the engine won't run. (It also sounds abnormal and uneven when you try to start it because some cylinders have a valve open and have no compression, while others have both valves closed and have high compression.) While I know it can happen, I've never seen an engine running bad due to a timing belt problem, and it would not be among the things you'd first suspect with the problems you mentioned. On some cars it's easy to see the timing belt because it's just behind a plastic cover, and you can peek under the cover and see if it's in place and moving when you try to start the car. On others more disassembly would be required. Most timing belt replacements are done as preventive maintenance, so there is no need to inspect the belt prior to replacing it in these cases, since you're going to replace it anyhow just due to its age or the number of miles on it. I am not sure how or why they arrived at the timing belt as the cause of your problems. Possibly they inspected it due to the age or number of miles on the car, discovered that it was badly worn, and replaced it. But even if the belt was worn, it would not cause any running problems unless it had slipped on its pulley, and that does not happen too much because both the timing belt and the pulley it drives have teeth on them. It can happen, though, if the belt is extremely loose, and that could happen if the tensioner went bad. The tensioner could be one of the things they replaced when you mentioned before that they replaced the belt and some other pulleys.