Wheel Horse 212-6 Clutch Troubleshooting

[SteveF 0]

All,

Thanks to several folks out here, especially TT, I have been successfully able to get my mower belt installed and have been back in the driver's seat cutting again!

I have a clutch on my Wheel Horse 212-6 (circa 1988 ?) that feels like I'm power shifting so I think the clutch or possibly the adjustment for the clutch might be having a problem. Anyone have any ideas on how best to begin troubleshooting this?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

SteveF in western New Jersey

[TT-(Moderator) 1,129]

An actual "clutch" can really only be associated with one Wheel Horse tractor - and it's not really a true Wheel Horse - the D-250. All of the other gear drive tractors utilize the age-old principal of releasing the tension of the drive belt to stop motion. The main components of this system would be an engine pulley, transmission input pulley, a V belt, and a spring-loaded movable tensioner with an idler pulley and a release mechanism. In normal operating mode, the spring loaded tensioner keeps the drive belt tight and power is transmitted from the engine to the transmission. When the "clutch" pedal is depressed, a rod or linkage connected to the tensioner pulls (or pushes) the idler pulley away from the belt causing the belt to loosen enough to allow slippage - normally at the engine pulley. The belt actually lifts slightly out of the taper of the pulley groove and is manipulated by guide pins and/or the design of the belt guard. The only adjustment that exists on most WH tractors is the ability to shorten or lengthen the rod between the pedal and the tensioner arm which does nothing more than change the static angle of the pedal.

This type of drive system needs little maintenance with only the belt and idler pulley being the "normal" wear items. Slipping or riding of the "clutch" is not advised since you are doing nothing more than causing increased wear of the belt. When it's time to go, release the pedal fully and remove your foot from the pedal.

Without going too deeply into the realm of boring technical jargon, the Peerless 920 6 speed is (more or less) a progressively-shifted linear transmission. There are 6 mated pairs of increasingly larger/smaller gears arranged on two counter-rotating shafts. The gears on the mainshaft are progressively locked to the shaft with four sliding shift keys that are moved by the shift collar via the shift fork. As you move the shifter to select the next gear, the fork pushes the collar sideways which slides the keys under the next gear and locks it to the mainshaft. As each consecutively larger gear is locked to the mainshaft, the corresponding smaller countershaft gear receives the power and the countershaft turns faster, resulting in a lower reduction ratio and increased speed.

Reverse function is enabled through the use of a roller chain that drives both the main and countershafts in the same direction when selected.

In many cases this transmission can be shifted "on the fly" as long as it is not under load. I have and always will depress the clutch pedal when selecting a different speed - but that's probably because I have had to repair quite a few of these that were "grenaded" due to improper operation. :scratchead:

[SteveF 0]

TT,

Thanks for the information. Since the pedal controls both the brake and the clutch to shift which is an odd concept for me being familiar with motorcycles which separate these, perhaps I need to tighten the drive belt assuming that's even possible. It shouldn't jerk into each upward gear unless I'm completely mishandling the shifting with the pedal (which is entirely possible, I suppose ) when I'm attempting to move from 1st to 2nd to 3rd and so forth.

Out of curiosity, do most of the newer tractors also have the brake and clutch on the same pedal or is this just common on the older units?

On another subject, would you know of anyone interested in a 1975 Kawasaki KH250 2-stroke, 3 cylinder "triple" street motorcycle real cheap? Needs to be put back together but these things are a breeze to work on.

Thanks in advance,

SteveF in western New Jersey

[SteveF 0]

All,

As a follow-up, I just removed the idler pulley and am attempting to adjust the tensioner spring to one of the other of the 4 holes since my clutch is definitely in need of adjustment. With the Wheel Horse 212-6 laying on it's side, is there any alternative to my using long needle-nose pliers to bending the end of the spring to straighten it in order to remove it? It's in a really awkward position to get to even with the idler pulley off.

Any advice from anyone who has adjusted a clutch on one of these units is greatly appreciated as always.

Check out: http://www.rcpw.com/

One can lookup and print out schematics and individual parts diagrams for nearly any brand / model tractor!

Thanks in advance,

SteveF

in Western New Jersey

1988 Wheel Horse 212-6

Double-Bin Bagger

37" Side Discharge Deck

[muz123 1,191]

Install a new transmission, thats what solved my problem.