Vari drive with 5 speed transaxle

Yup, a long one too.

Glad to hear you got it fixed!

I hate fixing MTD's. Just so much to go wrong. I always liked the idler pulley engagement best out of all the decks I've seen.

@Murraymountain I have only had MTD's to use for cutting grass, and I've seen those decks with the idler pulley engagement and think they would be better also. The 50" deck will be set up like that when I get it going. Maybe the electric clutch would work on my MTD too from the GT 6000, that would be real nice, LOL.

Hay People,
I'm stripping the GT 6000. Collecting the parts for this project and others. Pulled the motor, that thing is a heavy one. Threw it in my basement for storage till needed. It needs took apart, doesn't feel right when I spin it. Shouldn't be to hard since the previous owner had it apart but I don't know why or how far he did it. Took hood off for the hinges to put onto mine. Muffler is still solid enough to use too. And the snow plow attachment brackets for the 4x4 mower which looks like a quick release hookup. Pulled the entire wiring harness out to use for whatever, just threw everything in a ziplock bag to keep together. Bolts, nuts, washers are getting their own containers. I save them because that stuff adds up on projects, a good chunk of money is spent on hardware when I build all new, and that's a lot.

Pic of parts so far. I'll finish off the teardown tomorrow.


That electric PTO clutch might not work for this project I'm afraid to say. Too bad, looks simple enough. Works like a AC compressor clutch on a car. Just too long of a setup.

That's it, later.

Hay People,
Got the GT 6000 all apart. Snagged a couple more parts like brackets for the deck and the front end. All the steering was in good shape and will get stored and used later maybe.

Oh, working in the yard doing other stuff is when I found my gas container, LOL. Gave it the ole sniff test, yup! I set the empty container next to the gas container that still had gas in it. You can see how I mixed them up. Never fear, I wrote on the tops as you can see which is which. The evidence is there, LOL. I dumped diesel in the tank instead of gas, motor should be good to go when I fill it back up.


Took a pic of what was left. Transaxle and front axle. That front axle looks cool as hell. Ill probably have to use the GT front axle brackets to mount the axle but if I can't get it to fit right or work right I will be using that front axle for something. Hell, I would build a whole other project around that axle just to use it, LOL. My baby banshee build I'm planning on doing (still gathering parts) is just screaming for it. I wouldn't even have to heat and beat the thing, just a set of dropped spindles would be good. We shall see.

Hay People,
Time to cut the grass again, LOL. Been a while for this project. Last year was cancelled, for mowing the yard, LOL. Which means there was not much to tell. One of the kids would weed wack the back yard when it was knee high almost the whole season, but the last cut of the season, I used the mower to cut the grass once, and I broke it. I found out your not suppose to drive over a cinderblock with the deck blades engaged. Funny short story there! I, well had, 4 of those flat cinderblocks placed around a baby pine tree way in the back yard and was cutting around the pine tree. Figured I would cut the grass between the cinderblocks and then bam!! Blade smacked the cinderblock! Didn't stop the blade, it just took a big chunk out of the corner of the cinderblock, busted the blade spindle, then hard vibrations, deck swaying side to side, motor screaming the whole time! And I only had like 5 more turns to do before I put up the mower for the 2020 season too. Bummer! I used a push mower to finish the cutting. I drove the mower over to the house afterwards and turned it off and left it there. When it started to snow, I threw a piece of plastic over it till just recently.

So about a week ago I surveyed the damage. I noticed last year before I broke the deck, the transaxle was hard to shift. Need to pull transaxle. The deck needs pulled. Busted spindle and patch up the holes in the deck. Just to get it cutting again.
You can see the hole in the deck. Chopping up branches tore that hole open way more in the deck. Flings grass on you while cutting the whole time.


A quick patch for the fix.


Next I remove the side discharge deflector because it gets in the way. The outlet of the deck, I bend the top down to keep the grass from shooting upwards. Works mostly but needs to be pointed down more. I'll take a hammer to it later on.


I stripped the teeth on the spindle that hold the blade in place, when I hit the cinderblock. There was 6 teeth, I clean up 2 teeth with a grinder and weld them up to make 2 new teeth and shape them with a grinder so the blade will fit on it.


Put the deck back together and put it back on. Next comes the transaxle. Busting bolts left and right to get it out of the mower.


Then, busted a bolt and drilled out that center bolt since it was so rusty that the socket stripped it on. Looky, oh boy!!



Pretty much a clean it out, regrease it, reinstall it. I hate cleaning with gas.


The busted bolts got nuts welded to them to pull them out. Got so good that I eventual just welded on the busted bolt until I could grab it with vise grips. 4 total. Cleaned up for reassembly.


Back together. Threw the battery back in. Fixed the battery cable ends. It started right up, WOOPEY!!
Time to cut the grass!!


Still need to fix stuff but for now, just cutting the grass. Later.................

Nice to see an update on this one! Glad to see she's mowing again.