Hello from Florida

The guy I bought the MTD yard Maching from had a boat slip in his backyard to a lake and he would drop his boats into the lake with it . The transaxle would only do reverse and low gear. But would not go into high gear. Found the detent ball to be rusted up, not allowing it to achieve it. But I think I'm going to go with what you guys are saying. Just moify the MTD with the opposed 18hp 42ci. Sadly it's not pressure lubed. My 15 hp Kohler is the it's not pressure lube I have so far.



So now that I'm on board with you guys opinion , should I keep the varidrive with the heavy duty 3 speed with 7 low and 7 high? Or I have a 930 6speed in my current build and a 930 5 speed in the weed eater that you see in picture . The 6 speedhas already been ran through and filled with gear oil . And installed vent. The 5 speed has not be ran through yet. What's your guys views? Also I've already tore my hair out doin a varidrive swap to 6 speed so swapping the MTD would be a breeze now that I know what I need to do .

Keep the vari drive, no matter what trans you go with, unless you plan to go in deep mud.

Well which would be better a 6 speed 930 , 5 speed 930 or the original 3 spd hi lo transaxle? I don't usually mess with baridrive. Considering that I find it easier to make it a normal tension clutch system. @Double W Cross Ranch

Yeah but then you have lots of gear choices with the vari drive.  So you can put a high ratio on it and have a top speed of like 30 mph but then have like 20 gear options.  And reverse will be usable.

I'd go with the 3 speed hi/lo. I assuming that it is built the heaviest of all three. Isn't that the only one with 1" axle? Also depends on how many gears you want and your application too. Do you want a lightweight rally machine or something built more like a tank. Don't do vari-drive. Too complicated.

So keep the 3 sppd hi and low ? Or cause that would technically give me 7 high and 7 low. WAIT I forgot the rear wheels are 12 inch rims with 1 inch hub for the 3spd 1 inch axle it's would look funny if I throw a set of 20 x 10x 8 on them . I do have a buddy selling me at tires but they're no way near that big .

Vari drives are not very complicated, they are basically a manual CVT or torque converter.  I'd also go with the 3 speed hi/lo, is it a Peerless 600 series?

Now if I do a normal double clutch pulley tensioning system I would only be limited to low gear ,reverse, and high gear.... also since have the 3 spd apart should I consider welding and locking the rear ?

It is a 618-1056@"Double W Cross Ranch"

I wouldn't weld it, there are better ways to lock a 600 series.  What kind of differential gears does it have?

Have you seen my post how I locked my 930-011a 6 speed together? I haven't broken it yet. I use the spiders from a 1 spd transaxle andput them in with the original spiders then welded it all into a complete unit. Worked fantastic. You should look at it whenever you get a chance. Just search 930-011a . Should come up

Yes I have seen it.  I was wondering if you could do this style, like you can the Peerless 633.

I'm not sure I could. It would be a tight squeeze
I opened up the differential and found I cant pull off my own idea either. Take a look . 8@"Double W Cross Ranch"

Hmmm...never seen anything like that before.  Only thing I can think of is weld the whole thing up into a big glob of metal.  Any other ideas anyone?

I'm going to take the the bull gear that houses the spider off and clean up the spider and insert them back into the bull gear and weld just the spider in the corners and making sure not to weld the spots where the axle spiders mesh into it. Only thing I can think of.

I am a little confused here, A 3 speed with a hi/lo usually means, High:1-2-3-R and Low:1-2-3-R. What you have is a low-high-reverse. So you only have two forward gears but you have beefy 1" axles.

Low gear high gear and reverse. Sorry for the misinterpretation. Now do do you technically count the varidrive part of the gears since the tractor has 1 through 7 on the torque converter

Technically yeah, so stock it has 14 “gears”

Yes, and then you have high variable speeds and you do not have to clutch to shift through the vari drive.  I personally like banging gears but for pulling, vari drives have a huge advantage.  That's why I'm leaving the vari drive in my JD 110.

@Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

Yes I have seen it.  I was wondering if you could do this style, like you can the Peerless 633.

Peerless Didn't make the 633 series transaxles, Roper did.

I stand corrected. I always say SOMETHING wrong when talking about something IDK much about. LOL

I would get rid of the vari drive (I dare to say), and keep that heavy duty transaxle. It's basically a 2 speed with reverse, with 1 inch axles. Swapping in a 6 speed seems pointless since most people only use a couple of gears anyways using them. Figure out the gearing and pulley swap accordingly for your top speed. I would think that the high gear in the 2 speed would be like the 3rd gear in the 6 speed, could be wrong though, that's why it would be a good idea to figure out the gearing by counting teeth.

I got a f/n/r in my plow mower right now and I think it works great for just having the f/n/r for a transaxle (originally had a 3 speed). Don't have to worry about which gear to choose to plow the driveway. I also pulley swapped it and it's top speed is I think a little faster then 10 mph too.