Husqvarna YTH24V48 barely goes forward

[deminin]

I went out today to do some mowing and my Yth24v48 would barely move "forward". Reverse moved strong. I found that if I barely pushed the Forward pedal, I could get it to move, but the further I pushed the pedal the less it would move. I used it about 10 days ago and it worked fine. I replaced the drive and deck belts earlier this year, and they seem to be OK. It will not move forward on any kind of "incline", but it does fine if I turn it around and mow backwards. Any Ideas on what this is????

 

[bertsmobile1]

That is very interesting
Usually a case where a small amount of pedal travel causes movement and a large amount causes it to stop indicates a low oil level
However that will be the same in either direction on a hydro drive
How old is your mower . years & hours if known please

 

[deminin]

That is very interesting
Usually a case where a small amount of pedal travel causes movement and a large amount causes it to stop indicates a low oil level
However that will be the same in either direction on a hydro drive
How old is your mower . years & hours if known please

I bought this mower in 2018, and it has 328 hours on it. I keep it well maintained and about the only trouble I've had was a leaking front tire that I fixed with some "Slime". Today, it barely creeped forward, but if I pushed the pedal to full reverse, it nearly pushed me forward off the seat. There is no evidence of any oil/fluid spots on the floor in my workshop.

 

[hlw49]

Check your belt tension. I have seen mowers like this where the belt would slip due to a build up of grass on the frame where the pedal would bottom out against it and cause the belt to slip.

 

[StarTech]

I have seen where mowers with hydrostatic transaxles work fine in reverse but fail to move very well in forward when the plastic v-idler is heavily worn. It is one style of pulley I always change when they are plastic when installing a new belt.

Usually the sides of the groove wears and the belts start riding on the bottom of groove effectively lengthening the v-belt causing slippage.

Now I do have a CC in the shop now that all the v grooves where the belt was bottoming. I could slip the belt on the pulleys under tension by hand.

I still have an issue where I losing drive in turns but it looks like that when the customer ran the mower without the hydro cooling fan he toasted the oil as it is black. A real pain to change as the transaxle has to come out and inverted to drain the oil. It is either oil that thinned or he destroyed the transaxle. Wouldn't know until after the oil change in the Hydro Gear IHT unit and a test mowing.

 

[deminin]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will take a closer look at the drive belt pulleys, etc., in coming days, At least the mowing season is pretty much over for this year, and I'll have plenty of time to work on this before Spring arrives. I looked at the cost of replacing the transaxle, and it looks like I could wind up spending at least 1/3rd the cost of a new mower....if it turns out that this is the problem, I'll start looking at new mowers.
BTW, does anyone have a source for downloading a Service Manual for these mowers? I've found Owners manuals, and Parts manuals, but No "Service" manual, so far. With my "limited" repair skills, I would hesitate to do any major repairs without some "guidance".

 

[bertsmobile1]

Husqvarna do not publish any repair manuals
They have training schools that franchised techs can go to at great expense and send out service notices that cover one topic .
I had always hoped that a dealer would combine all of them into a single volume but of course they are all copyright so it would be very much illegal to do this .
The transmission companies do publish repair manuals , pitched to a technicians level but most handy people should be able to follow them .AFAIK your mower should have a Tuff Torque K46
Tuff Torque have a web page with service & repair details
On the axels there should be an ID tag with a barcode , model & serial number.
They are about 1/2" high & 2" long

 

[deminin]

Husqvarna do not publish any repair manuals
They have training schools that franchised techs can go to at great expense and send out service notices that cover one topic .
I had always hoped that a dealer would combine all of them into a single volume but of course they are all copyright so it would be very much illegal to do this .
The transmission companies do publish repair manuals , pitched to a technicians level but most handy people should be able to follow them .AFAIK your mower should have a Tuff Torque K46
Tuff Torque have a web page with service & repair details
On the axels there should be an ID tag with a barcode , model & serial number.
They are about 1/2" high & 2" long

Yes, its a TuffTorq K46, and their website has some good info. I also found some video's on UTube that might help. We've got some running around this week....doctor, dentist appt's, etc., so later in the week I think I'll remove the deck and crawl around underneath it and see if there are any visible issues...belt, pulleys, etc. At least I have until Spring to figure this out, so I'll update this thread if/when I find out more.

 

[deminin]

Fixed, I hope. Star Tech was right about the pulleys. The "V" pulleys seemed ok, but the "Flat" pulley had a big damaged spot about an inch long....looked like a part of that plastic pulley had melted. I replaced all 3 pulleys and the drive and deck belts. It was a bit of a chore, but after I got it all back together, I ran it around the yard for about 1/2 hour, blowing leaves, and its running great, forward and reverse...better than its run all year. At least the transaxle seems ok....if that was the problem it wouldn't have been worth taking it to a shop for a $1000 + repair.

 

[bertsmobile1]

thanks for the heads up
enjoy your mowing .