Export thread

I have a 10550 self propelled Lawn Boy mower purchased new. It has been a great mower, but for the past five or six years, it is eating left side pinion gears, at least one a year. I have replaced everything on the left side of the axle but it doesn't help. Over the past couple of years, it has been so frustrating that I have been using a Toro Recycler which is okay, but it isn;t that Lawn Boy. The right side never seems to have a problem. Does anyone have any experience with this isse or any solutions? Thanks!!

Have you replaced the two bushings in the wheel adjuster?

I don't think that I have. I have replaced everything from the bushings out, a few times.

Its worth a try. I love this mower. It does such a great job, but without the self propelled function, its hard to handle. Definitely not a "push" mower. Thanks.

brucelud said:

I have a 10550 self propelled Lawn Boy mower purchased new. It has been a great mower, but for the past five or six years, it is eating left side pinion gears, at least one a year. I have replaced everything on the left side of the axle but it doesn't help. Over the past couple of years, it has been so frustrating that I have been using a Toro Recycler which is okay, but it isn;t that Lawn Boy. The right side never seems to have a problem. Does anyone have any experience with this isse or any solutions? Thanks!!

Click to expand...

brucelud said:

I have a 10550 self propelled Lawn Boy mower purchased new. It has been a great mower, but for the past five or six years, it is eating left side pinion gears, at least one a year. I have replaced everything on the left side of the axle but it doesn't help. Over the past couple of years, it has been so frustrating that I have been using a Toro Recycler which is okay, but it isn;t that Lawn Boy. The right side never seems to have a problem. Does anyone have any experience with this isse or any solutions? Thanks!!

Click to expand...

When you say left side pinion gears do you mean the gear inside the wheel or the pinion on the end of the axle. I have an older model in which the metal pinion did not mesh correctly with nylon gear mounted inside the dust cover of the wheel? I have attached a link to show how I made mine mesh correctly if this is the problem you have. The wheel mounting plate on both sides was toed in because of the horizontal pressure applied by the height adjuster arm. Please click on each photo and scroll down to read the comments I made to explain what I did and why. Hope this helps. https://www.flickr.com/photos/24045457@N02/albums/72157668326021968

Thank you both for your responses. I have not started to work on the mower, yet. I bought the bushings and will install them. That being said, I think that rice4me may have hit the problem. The pinion is mounted on the axle and the outer edge of it gets ground off. My wheel has a metal gear and it doesn't seem to be impacted. I guess that the pinion is softer metal. Anyway, I will try your fix with the alignment of the pinion and wheel. Thank you. I will get back to post once I have done the repair.

brucelud said:

Thank you both for your responses. I have not started to work on the mower, yet. I bought the bushings and will install them. That being said, I think that rice4me may have hit the problem. The pinion is mounted on the axle and the outer edge of it gets ground off. My wheel has a metal gear and it doesn't seem to be impacted. I guess that the pinion is softer metal. Anyway, I will try your fix with the alignment of the pinion and wheel. Thank you. I will get back to post once I have done the repair.

Click to expand...

Did you click on the link and see the photos? If you remove the "dust cover", reinstall the wheel and lift up the back of the mower and set in on something and view the pinion/gear meshing and just see the tip of the pinion contacting the gear on the outside edge, then that is probably what is wrong. In the older days when the gear was nylon, it rounded off the tips of it because the pinion was harder. If you get the pinion correctly positioned, then a nylon gear would probably work too. That is all I have and since correcting the meshing of the gear and pinion it has worked perfectly. I did this over 5 years ago. All the original bushings bearings etc. are on the mower which is probably 10 years old and are still working. The wheel height adjuster is a design problem with this and other self-propelled mowers.

make sure the wheel itself spins freely too if it has a stepped bolt that holds it on.