mtd single speed transaxle issues

[38racing]

related of course to my mtd grease question. Friend's father-in-law's columbia. He says it's about 4 years old but its dom is 2014. He bough from d-i-l dad's company. I know years back they would by a trailer load and sell over a number of years. It's the cvt drive but that's not the issue. It grinds in reverse and won't move. Shifter adjustment was fine so I've pulled it apart. 4 years use and lots of water inside it. I expected clutch gear and/or reverse bevel gear but even before I had it separated I found lots of side play in the pinion shaft. Apart it appears to be only the the needle bearing for the pinion shaft. However I am puzzled. The blowup for the unit shows no needle bearing, no pinion shaft and no pinion gear. top cover assembly (919-04187A) shows the shaft. That's $200 cdn. Whole transaxle is $384 cdn. I also was surprised that I was able to pull drive pulley along with pinion shaft straight out because the pinion gear just dropped off. The shaft end is splined male and pinion gear is splined female. If I put gear on shaft it's not a tight fit, possibly that's part of the damage. Any thoughts? I'm going to google a bit but I'm thinking minimum top housing, and maybe even full tranny so eliminate the grease issue.

[KE4AVB]

The needle bearing a common one. And if I remember correctly it take two of them. They should be 741-0335 SCE108 bearings (.625 X.813 X.495); unless, they changed the specs.

The following should the correct parts too.
711-1109 Input shaft
717-1464 14 tooth bevel gear
736-0335 Thrust washer .635 x 1.26 x.06
716-0108 Snap ring .437

[bgsengine]

KE4 nailed it. almost could have quoted you those parts from memory, if that tells you anything... I used to also make a seal of sorts using a thin bead of RTV just to the outside of the bearings where shafts poke through gearbox (for those that don't have o-ring seals) just thick enough that they'll compress slightly against the shafts (Typically just axle and brake shafts, input shaft being up top, and covered by pulley, wasn't that much of an issue) It helped keep dirt out so it wouldn't mix in with the grease and become a lapping compound accelerating wear on bearings and axles.. at least in theory - I never had them back with problems after that so I don't know if it was effective at all.

Those FNR axles were basically getting the same sorts of issues as was common with the Peerless, Foote, and Spicer pan transmissions (though most of y'all likely may never have seen them, unless you been in the business long as I have)

[38racing]

I'm seeing those part numbers for older mtd single speed. Looks like they have a newer version and pinion stuff is not servicable, need entire top assembly apparently. Annoying is the web site. I enter model number to get parts pdf. I enter part number into search. When it comes up there's a spot to enter model number for confirmation. I enter model number there and it says it finds no parts for that model.
Update: see the 741-0335 for a 761 model. See the snap ring too.
Wonder if I dig in the grease if I will find remains of snap ring. Will certainly check bottom of the shaft for the groove.

[38racing]

Model is 13av90ks897 branded coumbia

[38racing]

Looking at the 761 model I see they also changed design of the clutch dog and bevel gears. Dog is now an actual gear on both sides , not the 3 protrusions.

[KE4AVB]

Okay second redesign of the clutch area. This makes at least three different clutch designs. This one appears to be just as bad as the Cub Cadet one I change back over to the 3 dog design. It was slipping very bad and would not stay engaged. But that was ten years ago. Of the three designs the three dog design is still the best though it takes up to a third of a turn to engage.

For parts the upper case you need to just look up the 919-04187A part number on Partstree. Now the following is not your mower model but it uses the same 919-04187A. Click on item #3 or #4 for the drop down menu of not shown parts. Now for 42T bevel gear section you click on #2 for the drop down menu. This reveals the hidden part numbers.

https://www.partstree.com/models/13a2775s029-yard-machines-lawn-tractor-2018/transmission-28/

[38racing]

The pinion does of course have the groove for the missing clip that let gear fall off. Since mtd says that solution is new upper assembly I've got nothing to loose by trying to extract the needle bearings. Since spec says about 1/2 in long I'm guessing that there is space between them as I'll try slide hammer first.
Forgot to mention. I have 2 of the older style transaxle but both are reversed with respect to long side/short side

[38racing]

Anybody ever do it this way?
https://youtu.be/wkJoHrxYqLQ?si=LwEfKuby1wzaNm3y

[KE4AVB]

Not I. Here I use a blind hole bearing puller which of course has a slide hammer attachment. Just watch which ones you buy as some are lousy made. Mine is an older set that I brought about 12 yrs ago. You can also use a long punch to drive them out but not much of lip to catch however.

https://www.harborfreight.com/slide-hammer-and-bearing-puller-set-5-piece-62601.html