newbie

[802heath 0]

good day all i am a first time horse owner. i got my b-81 yesterday and with little work she was up and running. it has a rear dicharge deck and a 6 speed. it mows great but it wont drive in second or third gear. when i jack it up and start it with the wheels off the ground it shifts thru all the gears and drives the wheels fine.

but on the ground i get nothing. can any one tell me where to start looking.

also how do you post pics on here? thank you gentlemen. :thumbs2:

[nylyon-(Admin) 7,130]

:thumbs2: First, for pictures check the stickies at the top of the general area for helpful tips

When you say that it doesn't go in 2nd or 3rd, does the trans go into gear? If so, can you see the axle turning and not the wheel? If that is the case, you need to pull the hub off and replace the key, then tighten it all back up. If this isn't the case, could you describe in more detail what is happening?

[802heath 0]

thanks for the reply. when i put it up on a jack and start it, i put it in first let out the clutch and the wheels start spinning, ishift it to second and they spin faster, then in third they spin really fast. reverse works great also. it works this way in high or low range. now when i let it down and hop on, i put it in first and take off, but when i go to second i stop moving, i can see the pulley turning to the tranny

but i go nowhere, in high or low it only goes in first gear or reverse

[TT-(Moderator) 1,129]

:thumbs2:

The B-81 6 speed should have a Foote transaxle. I don't have much experience with those units but I'd guess you'll have to drop it out of the tractor and open it up to find the exact problem.

I believe there were some issues with the clutch collars and also the woodruff keys that drive the gears on the shafts so it might be a cheap and easy repair.

[Coadster32 793]

First off... The tractor you have is a nice one.

When you have the tractor off the ground, and it's engaged in 2nd or 3rd gear, grab one of the wheels, or try to stop it with something. You're basically just checking to see if it's freewheeling, or if there's actually drive happening. I suspect that the Hi gear might not be in you're tranny. It's not uncommon to lose third, but 2nd is another story. I couldn't see that the mating gears for 2nd and 3rd are that far gone. (or the gear itself for that fact). Also, could you give us some more clues? Noises, does the shifter click or lock into gear? If you take the shifter lever out, (don't be scared of this, but do put it in neutral first), you can see the two shift forks. They slide into the gears, low/reverse, and hi/2nd. See if a gear is missing.

If you can imaging by looking at this pic. When you take the shifter out, and you're looking into the hole, you can see a sort of rectangle shape, or a square. This is made by the two shift forks. When it make a square like this, you are in neutral. Shifting one fork to the side with a screwdriver, you should see a gear move with it. It is attached to the shift fork by a groove. If that's good, try the other one. Just put it back into neutral before putting the shifter back in.

As far a the pic posting, if you look around at some of the sections, it's pinned to the top of one of them. I use photobucket, and have had great sucess. Others use a different service. Good Luck.

[802heath 0]

okay im going to go investigate this now. in your opinion is this a good tractor?

[TT-(Moderator) 1,129]

The transmission photo that Coadster32 (Chris) posted is not representative of the transaxle in your B-81.

The B-81 is a (at most) medium-duty lawn tractor and was intended for powering a mower deck to cut grass and perhaps pull a lawn sweeper or trailer. A snow plow was offered but was not intended to be used as a dozer blade for pushing dirt, stone, etc.

If you bought it to cut the grass and you can get it working without sinking a ton of money in it, then yes.... it's a good lawn tractor.

[Coadster32 793]

Sorry about the bum steer. TT's right in that the tranny I showed wasn't correct for your tractor. (was good advice if you had the 3 speed though). I'm not well versed in the other trannys..yet Good Luck.