noisy transmission

[daryl]

I have a 2010ish cub cadet lawn tractor, 24hp, model LTX1050. The transmission seems noisy. I think it is normal that hydro static transmission makes a kind of buzzy/whiney sound when engaged (correct me if I am wrong). My transmission makes that sound on steriods. It is more of a load groaning sound. Any ideas if this is normal, abnormal, bad, indifferent, etc? Things to look for? Could low trans fluid cause this?

 

[walls00000]

It could be the idler pulley. You could check to see if it is that by removing the drive belt and spinning the idler pulley. I have a 2010 LTX1050kw with a hydro-gear 618-0319 transaxle, and I'm on my 3rd one (don't plow with a LTX1050)! The first one went because I was plowing and doing things I shouldn't have been doing with a lawn tractor. Number two was a rebuild of one, and went before I purchased a 782. Mine always sounded like metal on metal somewhere, but it sounded like that at the store when I drove it the first time and I just thought that's the way it should sound and I didn't know better at the time. When two went a year after the rebuild, I took it to a mechanic. I asked if he had a machine similar to mine with a dead engine that we could perhaps pull the transaxle from. He had a machine but it had a tuff torq tansaxle. He didn't know if it would fit or not, but it turned out that it fit perfectly. When I picked it up, he also mentioned he replaced the idler pulley because the bushings were shot. It sounds and runs great ever since.

I learned from rebuilding the first one, that it's possible to syphon the the oil from the transaxle and replace with 20W50 motor oil. I try to do this once a year. The overflow reservoir is located below the battery. I feed the tube from a brake siphon down through the top of the transaxle to extract the old oil. Its always tricky and there isn't much working room.

It's a good machine if you stick to mowing