RX-95 transaxle-no reverse

[cjsdad]

I have a JD RX-95 from my Father-in-law that doesn't want to reverse. It originally sounded like the gears in the transmission were stripped. I pulled it apart and found that one of the ring gears (for lack of a better description) has a bad wear pattern in it from spinning against a shoulder on the shaft it rides on. There was very little grease in there. I added a spacer in the worn groove which tightened the gears up on the shaft a lot, but when I put it all back together it still won't reverse. The variator drive is a little sloppy but still works, sorta.

Anyone else have experience with one of these type mowers?

 

[BlazNT]

If you remove the shim you put in does reverse work.

 

[cjsdad]

If you remove the shim you put in does reverse work.

No, that is why I took it apart in the first place. I have put maybe 30~40 hours on the machine while it has been mine and reverse has worked in the past. The last season I used it the reverse was not working well and it sounded like the gears were stripped. By putting the shim in place it no longer sounds like gears are slipping but I still don't have reverse. The wear pattern on the gear that I shimmed is very specific and it should not be there, that is why I shimmed it.