Repair or abandon?

[firemediceric]

36” Toro walk-behind belt drive. Blades stop running after about 15 minutes. After I replaced the dead man switch and the blade engagement switch trying to rule out those items, local mower shop adjusted the clutch for the blades and addressed a few minor problems as well as did an oil change and other maintenance. Charged me $130 which seems fair.

Got the mower home and the problem that it was brought to them for still persists; the blades shut off after about 10 minutes. I call them up and they said “in that case it needs a clutch which will run about $500.”

This is a mower that I’ve had for roughly 20 years but used minimally. Just my <1/4 acre lot home once a week in the summer and every couple weeks in the winter. Do I put the $500 into it knowing that I'm on borrowed time with other items such as rear tires and belts?

My options are to
1: have this mower fixed...$500
2: purchase another used mower trying to stay below $1500 and not knowing what headaches I may be purchasing.
3: pay the guy that does other lawns in this neighborhood $25 per cut to do the lawn

What are you thinking is my best route?

 

[NorthBama]

Buy an electric clutch and install it yourself.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

When the blades stop how long till you can re-engage the blades? Do the blades slow to a stop or act like you turned the PTO switch off?

 

[firemediceric]

Buy an electric clutch and install it yourself.

I’m not much of a mechanic to start with, although perhaps a YouTube video would help me muddle through. The other issue though is that I’m currently in a rental house and don’t have all of my tools currently nor a very good place to work on the mower

 

[firemediceric]

When the blades stop how long till you can re-engage the blades? Do the blades slow to a stop or act like you turned the PTO switch off?

I’ll get about 10 to 15 minutes out of it and then they will shut down. I can engage the blades again and they may run for another 5 to 7 minutes. Repeat and they might run for 1 to 2 minutes until they won’t engage at all.

I’ll let the mower cool down for about an hour and the blades once again work for about 7-10 minutes and for decreasing windows of time

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Kinda sounds like the clutch is bad

 

[tom3]

Well, $25 for a cut, trim, and blow on a quarter acre sounds pretty fair to me. No bother, gas and oil, equipment taking up space, time and trouble.

 

[firemediceric]

Well, I ordered a new clutch today. I’ll give it a go trying to put it in.

Although the cost to have my lawn cut is certainly reasonable, it brings up a lot inconvenience. I’d have to coordinate unlocking the gate and moving my truck to gets parked on the side of the house.

hopefully I don’t run into too much trouble putting in the clutch and hopefully it will resolve the issue.

 

[firemediceric]

I just ordered the Toro clutch to install on my Toro T-bar walk behind belt drive mower. Model 30159-790509. Serial #61005.
Anybody know what I will need to set the air gap at on this clutch?

GENUINE OEM TORO PART # 105-2635 CLUTCH BRAKE ASM; REPLACES # 54-3200 & 55-7410

 

[firemediceric]

Got it fixed and it ran fine mowing the lawn last night. Was more involved than I thought it would be to get the clutch out and the new one in, but it’s behind me now. I replaced all the belts while I had it apart. Thank you for the tips and direction.