transaxle stuck in third gear

thinking about buying another craftsman but guy says its stuck in third gear, have not looked at it yet, supposed to in the morning, anyone think this is a easy fix or what?

Sounds like the shift fork is stuck. Pull it out open it up. Easy Just take your time.

What kind of craftsman is it? An LT or GT? LT transmissions are easy to open and put back together, however the GT's have a trans loaded with gears- its easy to take apart, not so putting back together.

I have a 99 weedeater ( craftsman chassis) with a 5 speed peerless - mine had the same issue, it had shifting issues and locked in 3rd gear - i cracked open the case and found rust galore on the indexer shaft ( where shift forks are) and half a case of water - i used plumbers sandcloth to polish the pieces that were rusty , greased everything back up and put it back together .

Only thing to watch for is the tiny little detent ball - theres a plug on top of the case to drop it back in after reassembly.

Use a heavy duty grease when reassembling and clean out all the old grease for best results.

not sure if its a lt or gt. have not seen it yet and he didnt say. just said motor ran great and trans was stuck in 3rd, but for $50 guess i shouldnt complain, going to look at it monday. hoping its a briggs twin. dont even know about it either.lol

well got it home, trying to get pics on here.

dangeroustoys56 wrote:

Use a heavy duty grease when reassembling and clean out all the old grease for best results.

Indeed, try to get as much of the old grease out as possible. I may have gone over the top when regreasing mine but it runs really nice so I don't care

the transaxle will only move from 3 to 4th and back to third, this after spraying it with pb blaster.

sears has this as having a dana transaxle. i think i can put a spicer out of my old murray in it and shifter will work.

Chassis looks just like my weedeater tractor - till MTD took over making newer craftsmans , most the old older LT's are nearly all the same chassis/transmissions - even have a poulan thats the same as the weedeater.

Id still crack it open anyway , that was my thinking back then - it didnt work, so even if i broke or screwed it up, what did it matter? I still have a couple spare transmissions around anyway.

davidgt6000 wrote:

the transaxle will only move from 3 to 4th and back to third, this after spraying it with pb blaster.

What part did you spray with pb blaster?

you can post more than one image in a single post, just put the [img] tags on a new line.
[img] 1
[img] 2
ect

CornishMorgan wrote:

davidgt6000 wrote:

the transaxle will only move from 3 to 4th and back to third, this after spraying it with pb blaster.

What part did you spray with pb blaster?

you can post more than one image in a single post, just put the [img] tags on a new line.

[img] 1
[img] 2
ect

i just sprayed around bottom of the shifting rod. but theres something wrong with it for sure, clamped vice grips on to it and cant move it any further either way. thanks for info on pics, i thought i should be able to put all in one post.

dangeroustoys56 wrote:

Chassis looks just like my weedeater tractor - till MTD took over making newer craftsmans , most the old older LT's are nearly all the same chassis/transmissions - even have a poulan thats the same as the weedeater.

Id still crack it open anyway , that was my thinking back then - it didnt work, so even if i broke or screwed it up, what did it matter? I still have a couple spare transmissions around anyway.

yeah im going to open it up, got it ready to drop now.

Yeah that's going to be your best option i think.

Just remember to open it slowly and carefully and find and keep safe the little ball and its spring for the shifter.

about the same that happened to mine. someone told me that a bolt(?) is bent and preventing it to move

dropped transaxle out this morning, opened it up to find some nasty cankered grease,some water,rust,etc. but the only problem was and still is the shifting lever, have sprayed it with pb and its loosened up some. everything else is moving good inside. here is some pics of the mess. and by the way, sears called this as having a dana, but this one i took out is a foote which leads me to think someone changed it .

that looks nasty, no wonder it wasn't shifting properly. Give in a clean with some petrol, a paint brush and lots of old rags and it should be as good as new, providing nothing is broken.

i took the rearend out of this craftsman ll and put it in. had to change mounting brackets though, but its mobile now.

Thats what i saw in a MTD transaxle i took apart the other day - all nasty looking grease - my plan was to swap some internal parts with another ( for the brakes) - oddly they wernt the same- one had bigger pieces inside then the other .


The one i wanted to fix had better tires the the donor ( its a b*tch to pull MTD rims off) was hoping to swap the brake setup over - but they were nothing alike - i need to go thru and check my other spare MTD transaxles anyway - ive been thinking of redoing a couple good ones for spares ( and putting zerks in ) and taking the rest apart for spare pieces.

davidgt6000 wrote:

i took the rearend out of this craftsman ll and put it in. had to change mounting brackets though, but its mobile now.

Looks like the Craftsman I donated to my friend. We swapped a 18.5 Briggs Intek V into it though. Nice machine, we pulley swapped to a 5" rear I believe. had to redo the linkages for the shifter though so it only goes into 3rd so we gotta redo it, but she flies in 3rd. We were popping wheelies with it with the massive 18.5 in it too.

this one has 14 opposed twin in it, needs some card work.

davidgt6000 wrote:

this one has 14 opposed twin in it, needs some card work.

Guess they were a bit different then, mine had a 14hp Briggs Vanguard V in it before we swapped it.

Now that I look at the pic more I see the gas filler cap is on the outside. Mine was under the seat.

My fuel tank is mounted to the bonnet with the cap on the outside. I'm not that keen on it being there, Ill move it at some point.