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I have a Craftsman 917.294482 17” rear tine tiller. I understand it was actually made by Husqvarna. I went to till up a patch for some spring flowers and the transmission broke. The belt is fine and the tines will spin but it won’t move either in F or R. I looked at the Craftsman parts diagram and it appears to be chain driven so my guess is that either the chain has snapped or a key has sheared on one of the drive gears. I can’t really get much of a sense from the diagram of how difficult it would be to disassemble and fix it.

Any advice? Is this a common issue? The tiller is at least 15 years old.

How difficult is it to repair? Depends On your mechanical ability. On a scale of 1-10, I would say a 5. Is this common? No, but with the age could easily happen. Broken chain? I doubt it, more than likely a problem with the shifter, as the tines are drive by the chain. I wouldn’t buy any parts until I had opened the case and found the problem. If you decide to open it up, clean the tine shaft on both very well, so the case slides off easily and you don’t cut the seals. If you decide to repair I would recommend replacing the gasket and seals. Here is the owners manual if you don’t have one. https://c.searspartsdirect.com/pd-content/is/content/Sears/L0312150

Well it does depend how you like fully disassembling the tiller as it nearly needs to be completely disassemble just to get to the transmission assembly. And if the shifter is broken you are SOL as it is NLA.

Rivets said:

How difficult is it to repair? Depends On your mechanical ability. On a scale of 1-10, I would say a 5. Is this common? No, but with the age could easily happen. Broken chain? I doubt it, more than likely a problem with the shifter, as the tines are drive by the chain. I wouldn’t buy any parts until I had opened the case and found the problem. If you decide to open it up, clean the tine shaft on both very well, so the case slides off easily and you don’t cut the seals. If you decide to repair I would recommend replacing the gasket and seals. Here is the owners manual if you don’t have one. https://c.searspartsdirect.com/pd-content/is/content/Sears/L0312150

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According to the parts diagram there are two chains. One (still working) #29 drives the tines and another #50 drives the wheels. Thanks for the link to the manual. That’s a nicer parts diagram than the one I was looking at.

I figure it won’t cost me anything to open it up, and I can’t make it worse. It’s not very useful as a stationary tiller, although I suppose I could guide it while my wife drags it behind the truck.

OK, but I’ve never seen a broken chain.

Rivets said:

OK, but I’ve never seen a broken chain.

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Which part is the shifter? Is it something that could be fabricated?

StarTech said:

Well it does depend how you like fully disassembling the tiller as it nearly needs to be completely disassemble just to get to the transmission assembly. And if the shifter is broken you are SOL as it is NLA.

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Which part are you referring to as the shifter?

Parts 10-16 in the owners manual I posted. I’m not Santa Claus who knows which parts are good and bad, to tell you if they can be fabricated until we know what’s wrong. You’ll need to open it up.

Rivets said:

I’m not Santa Claus who knows which parts are good and bad

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LOL

I asked about the shifter because Star Tech said it was NLA. All my Craftsman stuff was bought at about the same time and it’s all breaking at about the same time. I had to replace the sump gasket in my riding mower in the fall so I’m getting used to taking things apart.

Okay here is what the shift looks like. Both end were resistance welded and those welds do break.

As parts going NLA a lot companies are taking the habit of killing off equipment after it is five old now by making parts NLA. It is an industry practice that pencil pushers talking companies into. They just want to make money by selling new eqiupment and to kill off us mechanics as industry. Out the door is the reduce, recycle, and reuse policy, now it use it, throw away, and buy new.

StarTech said:

Okay here is what the shift looks like. Both end were resistance welded and those welds do break.
View attachment 63466
As parts going NLA a lot companies are taking the habit of killing off equipment after it is five old now by making parts NLA. It is an industry practice that pencil pushers talking companies into. They just want to make money by selling new eqiupment and to kill off us mechanics as industry. Out the door is the reduce, recycle, and reuse policy, now it use it, throw away, and buy new.

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That thing appears to be working just fine in my unit because I can freely move it between positions. When I move it all the way it does engage the tines, and it does disengage them when in all the other positions. Whatever is broken inside my unit is only effecting the ground drive portion of the system.

I would you have a stripped gear as the chain only drives the tine shaft. Can't help much as it has 6 yrs since the last time I was inside one these gear boxes. I was kinda hoping I had a SM for it but I don't.

StarTech said:

I would you have a stripped gear as the chain only drives the tine shaft. Can't help much as it has 6 yrs since the last time I was inside one these gear boxes. I was kinda hoping I had a SM for it but I don't.

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The diagram and a couple of videos I watched on YouTube both show two separate chains, one for the tines, and one for the wheel drive. It might still be a stripped gear, but it could also be the drive chain. In a perfect world it would be something cheap and easy like a woodruff key.

I only see one chain in the IPL diagram item 50.

StarTech said:

I only see one chain in the IPL diagram item 50.
View attachment 63467

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The chain for the tines is missing (and mislabeled) from the drawing but it’s in the parts list. Part #29 (102134X) in the parts list is the tilling chain and part #50 (106147X) is the ground drive chain. In the diagram #29 is shown as the sprocket the tilling chain turns. On the Craftsman parts website they sell both chains for this transmission.

At 1:42 in this video you can see both chains. You can see them in the thumbnail.

Then someone needs off their dead backside and do the drawing properly in my opinion. As you can see if there no indication it is a chain in the image. Besides as drawn item 50 is the tine drive chain is shown going to item 49.

Oh well anything is getting F'd up lately by people being hired that have no idea of what they are doing. I just ran across a couple Rotary pn showing the same image for two different parts. I having my sales rep now checking which is which.

StarTech said:

Then someone needs off their dead backside and do the drawing properly in my opinion. As you can see if there no indication it is a chain in the image. Besides as drawn item 50 is the tine drive chain is shown going to item 49.

Oh well anything is getting F'd up lately by people being hired that have no idea of what they are doing. I just ran across a couple Rotary pn showing the same image for two different parts. I having my sales rep now checking which is which.

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Agreed. I wouldn’t have known if the Sears parts site didn’t have both chains in the parts list.

I had to take the transmission apart on my Poulan Pro last summer, it is the same as the Husqvarna. Some water had gotten inside mine and the shifter had frozen up, so a gasket was the only part I needed. A little tip, every video I watched they took both wheels and tines off. I fought with the right side trying to remove it with no luck until I realized you only really need the left one off. You can get a puller on the tines if they're stuck.

Engine, handle bars, tine shield everything has to come off. Take pictures how the pulleys, linkage and springs hook up. I laid mine on the right wheel and block it up level and solid. Clean the shafts good, I sandpapered mine and put oil on them so the left side cover will slide off the shafts easily. A helper makes removing the side cover easier. Work the cover off slowly and keep the shafts pushed down so they don't come out of the other side cover.

And as they say, reassemble in reverse order.

Elkins45 said:

According to the parts diagram there are two chains. One (still working) #29 drives the tines and another #50 drives the wheels. Thanks for the link to the manual. That’s a nicer parts diagram than the one I was looking at.

I figure it won’t cost me anything to open it up, and I can’t make it worse. It’s not very useful as a stationary tiller, although I suppose I could guide it while my wife drags it behind the truck.

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When you pull it apart, take a lot of photos
The IPL's and the contents of the gearboxes are often quite different and lots of the spacers / washers have a specific orientation.
Found this out the hard, do it 20 times way

bertsmobile1 said:

When you pull it apart, take a lot of photos
The IPL's and the contents of the gearboxes are often quite different and lots of the spacers / washers have a specific orientation.
Found this out the hard, do it 20 times way

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I need to invest in a video camera so I can have a record of which parts fall off of which others when I pop it open.

Just about any old digital camera will have a video function
even most phones can shoot video as well .
What you need is a stand and some SD cards, both are very cheap .