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John Deere 14 SB 21 inch cut lawn mower rear wheels lock up when drive is disengaged and the lawn mower is pulled backwards. What causes this and how do you fix it?
Thanks for the help. Henry

henry9 said:

John Deere 14 SB 21 inch cut lawn mower rear wheels lock up when drive is disengaged and the lawn mower is pulled backwards. What causes this and how do you fix it?
Thanks for the help. Henry

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Sounds like a cable adjustment?

I'll give the cable adjustment a try.
Thanks. Henry

If that doesn't work the next thing I would do is take wheels off and inspect the wheel gears and drive gear for proper operation the gear should spin freely forward and resistance when spinning backwards.

After that the bushings between the axle and height selector should not be visible. The little gold thing should not be on the axle if it is it would be best to take it to a shop or disasemble with a parts diagram and put back together carefully.

If all that looks good it will probably be a transmission problem and should either disable the self drive or take it to a shop.

:smile:

exotion said:

If that doesn't work the next thing I would do is take wheels off and inspect the wheel gears and drive gear for proper operation the gear should spin freely forward and resistance when spinning backwards.

After that the bushings between the axle and height selector should not be visible. The little gold thing should not be on the axle if it is it would be best to take it to a shop or disasemble with a parts diagram and put back together carefully.

If all that looks good it will probably be a transmission problem and should either disable the self drive or take it to a shop.

Click to expand...

Hi to all,
My first fear re this "rear wheel lock up" was that the problem was rather serious--perhaps to do with some gears and/or transmission as posted above. That would have called for a trip to a lawn mower shop mechanic!!!! I'm just a small engine/lawn mower "tinkerer". Therefore the "cable adjustment" solution was a much more attractive option to pursue. After some further examination of this rather "high-end" mower, it was clear that the rear drive cable needed to to adjusted. After locating the cable adjustment under the plastic cover and the application of a generous amount of WD 40, as well as some carb cleaner, the cable was shortened by atleast 1/2 an inch and the rear wheels rolled backwards with no problem. Needless to say, I was a happy camper, thanks to the advice provided on this website. Thank-you so much for the responses to this problem, which led to a successful resolution.
(This was my brother-in-law's mower which he puchased 19 years ago--he's pretty happy about it also!!)
Thanks again, Henry