Picked up a 1987 214 from my neighbor last night for $300. Runs good, but he tells me that the variator needs work. I can confirm that upon driving home, I observe that the variator lever does nothing, and when in gear, the mower does not stay at a constant speed. At times it will surge forward. Most times, it slows to a crawl until you bump the clutch pedal, then it will surge forward and drive for a bit.
Over the next couple of days, I'm going to remove the variator assembly and inspect the sheaves, belts, slide, and other parts. I suspect something is dirty/worn/disconnected.
It'll be interesting what is worn, dirty, disconnected. I've never seen a JD Variator apart but I have repaired one on an MTD. Disassembled pictures please and the bearings too if possible.
It almost feels like a spring might be broken or missing. There's a part called the extension spring that I BELIEVE keeps tension on the sheave assembly when the clutch is disengaged. If there is no tension on the sheave assebmly, it will be free to move around and thus affect the speed. That would explain why when I bump the clutch pedal it would bump the speed; the belt probably grabs hold for a bit on the face of the sheave, and then slides back down to the spindle when everything settles.
It would be GREAT if it were just a missing/broken spring.
Here's a similar issue, discussed in another forum thread:
I laid under the tractor last night for a while to get a closer look. After I removed the belts from the variator, I started moving the center sheave back and forth, and oh boy, there's a lot of slop.
Center sheave on the variator should work like this:
