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I recently bought a used Craftsman 917.376677 (917376677)

The mower in like new shape. The owner told me he had replaced the two front wheels as part of his most recent maintenance routine. The problem is after getting it home and mowing with it for less than 10 minutes, the front wheels started to slip and make a grinding noise. I removed both wheels and noticed that the plastic teeth inside the wheel hub were freshly chewed down. It's obvious that the metal pinion gear is chewing the tips of the plastic off the wheel. The question is why so quickly?

So after doing a ton of research, this is what I found.


This Mowers model number is 917.376677 (917376677)

Here is the parts breakdown page for that mower
https://www.searspartsdirect.com/mo...aftsman-917376661-gas-walk-behind-mower-parts


The correct wheel part number for this mower is #532403111 which is apparently for 22" mowers (Craftsman, Polan, Husqvarna)
https://www.searspartsdirect.com/product/23bsy7gir8-0071-917/id-194231x427

Wheel specs are:
Size - 8"x1.75"
Hub Offset - 1-1/2"


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The wheels that the previous owner put on the mower are #5321807-67 (532180767) which apparently is for 21" mowers (Craftsman, Polan, Husqvarna)
https://www.searspartsdirect.com/product/2mxhir1h0e-0071-359/id-5321807-67

Wheel specs are:
Size 7-3/4"x2"
Hub offset - 1-5/8"

Here is one of the models that this 2" wheel fits
https://www.searspartsdirect.com/mo...usqvarna-5521chvb-gas-walk-behind-mower-parts


Each of these two wheels uses a different pinion gear. If you open both pages for each of these mowers and compare the metal pinion drive gear that fits each of these wheels, you will see there is a huge difference in their overall shape and design.

What are your thoughts?


Should these two wheels be interchangeable?

A question. If you remove the wheel, does it have a dust cover? If so remove that cover and reinstall the wheel and see if the gear and pinion mesh correctly. You can raise the front of the mower and rest it on something so you can move the wheel by hand. If the pinion and wheel gear are only touching at the tips of each the mounting plate may not be parallel with the mower body. The easiest way to confirm this is to grab the wheel and slowly pull it away from the mower body. While doing this check to see it the pinion and gear start to contact each other evenly across and not just the tips. If that happens I will tell you what I did to fix mine.

I have a similar problem with my self-propelled Craftsman mower, but I don't think it is the wheel gear teeth that is the issue; when I engage the drive wheels, they don't turn smoothly (jerkily), and the drive control lock pops off after 20 seconds or so, meaning I have to constantly re-engage it. I've checked the wheels for wear so see if it the teeth were ground down or broken as per the author's first suspicions, but both drive wheels are fine in that regard, so it seems to suggest that the drive cable is the problem. The question is, "what exactly is wrong with it?" The drive lever seems to lock in alright but then disengages very easily after (as I said) 20 seconds or so, which is annoying. Looking for suggestions: Should I try to shorten the cable length? That would seem to be the right approach, but the cable itself doesn't seem to be excessively slack based on what I feel when I push the lever in.

I suspect the original owner replaced the wheels more than once and decided just to get rid of it. Supply and demand combined with inflation determine an item's cost. If less items are manufactured, then the price goes up. On January 1, 2024 California bans the sale of gasoline powered equipment with less than 25 HP. California sales are 1/8th roughly the number of mowers sold in the USA. If you are considering a new mower, prices should be good while excess inventory is dumped. Once the manufacturers reach equilibrium expect mower prices to go up. Wheels are usually an expensive item so think over carefully whether you want to keep this Craftsman mower.

So I solved my drive wheel problem described above today - happily, even. After attending class at You Tube University this morning, I went at it, taking the belt cover off and examining everything there, and also taking the drive wheels off and inspecting them. All seemed good, but when I ran the mower it did the same thing as before. I went back at it under the belt cover, taking off the drive cable, the tensioner spring, messing around with what's there. For some reason, I decided to put the tensioner spring end back on a different hole where it connects on the drive cable end, for kicks and giggles. I then started the mower up, and VOILA! The wheels behaved exactly the way they are supposed to - no herky-jerky, no disengaging of cable. THAT was the problem: The end of the spring was inserted in the wrong place, presumably not providing enough tension for the drive cable when engaged. Not sure how the spring got in the wrong place, but it's likely I did it previously, not knowing where the end of the spring went when I put things back together.

My plastic wheel gear teeth were wearing on my lawn boy. Before replacing any parts I first tried to diagnose why it was happening. This is what I discovered. Worked perfect and years later is still working. Hope this helps. https://studio.youtube.com/video/RVK_po7BRZs/edit