Where exactly are the friction washers located in the linkage system serving the transmission?

I have a White Outdoor Power (MTD) with a Hydrogear brand Hydro under it.
The friction washers om my White were worn out and the friction compression spring was broken, causing it to reduce speed unless you held onto the speed stick.
But the friction washers and spring on the White are part of the linkage that connect directly to the transaxle case.
The White has "scissors" type levers that operate to force the trans speed control toward neutral when the brake pedal is operated.
If your controls are on the trans case, pictures of what I did might help (and I can post them).
If your friction washers are located in the hood/dash area, my pictures might not help at all.

I find your post rather confusing.

On one hand, you state that you don't like hydrostatic drive tractors but not one of your complaints have anything to do with this tractor having a hydro.

You speak about the poor traction from the turf tires that are designed to not mar the lawn and yet you say that you have tractors with Ags that get good traction. Gee.... what part of purpose-built tire tread do you not understand? Why would you expect a low-weight lawn tractor to haul around a dump cart that is capable of holding 2 1/2 times the weight of the Roper?

That sort of work should be carried out by a true garden tractor that weighs double what the Roper does and can be weighted to triple the Roper's weight.

Bottom line.... you are asking a pick up truck to do the job of a dump truck and are then disappointed when it lets you down.

Even if this Roper is a 1988, it's 22 years old. Manufacturers are required by law to have parts available for six years. After that, you are on your own. If the hydro control can be dismantled, then do so and then shim the friction discs with some hardboard from a cereal box.

The tractor has seen 22 years of service at minimum. Things do wear out and sometimes you have to be creative to keep them functioning.

The Roper was built for people to cut their grass and not much else. If you want/need more than a grass cutter, then sell it and move up to a GT.

Mownie, There is a separate shaft which goes down to the trans. The "pivot point" I'm talking about is behind the dash The "motion control lever," operates on an axis which then has a lever which operates the shaft which goes down to the trans. There are two friction washers on this "axis" one outboard and one inboard. Appreciate your input!!

Kompressor, The latter two pics were referenced to a post I did a while back about cutting tires to improve traction. This was my way of showing the folks who provided very good input what I was talking about. Didn't go back and open up that post as it was getting rather long. Sorry for the confusion.

My comment about not liking hydros is that where I live it's very hilly. put a manual trans in a lower gear and it crawls up, and down a hill with no appreciable speed change. Further, if I have a problem with one am very comfortable taking it apart. Also mentioned I know nothing about hydros, so I came here looking for advice from those who do.

I have a GT with a 26 HP Briggs, plus others. When the Roper club was still around, I was told that this trans was the same one they used in their version of GT's. The owners manual has instructions on attaching, and an electrical interlock (figure that one out?) to operate a tiller which most of us consider a "ground engaging implement" which, by definition is only used on a GT.

The Roper has a 12 HP engine and has sufficient power to drag whatever it needs to. Think of the Craftsman Suburbans which had 8-12 HP engines and the work they did and are still doing. Put another way, the Ford 8N's were woefully underpowered, my GT has more HP than they did. However, as a "traction engine" they could do a lot of light farm work and were considered "farm" tractors.

IMHO, the reason LT's and GT's have larger engines is to operate larger belly mowers, also marketing may have something to do with it, bigger is better-right?

Now, back to my original question, does anyone have any experience with this type of trans and a substitute for the friction washers? Alternately, opinion as to putting "detents" on the side of the lever slot to keep it from moving?

BTW, the largest tractor we have here is a 140HP, 4WD Deere, couple of 50HP 2WD Deere's, then theres the dozer, there's about 7 small tractors including a '63 Gravely LI. Not boasting, just wouldn't waste your time if I didn't have a reasonable question to put forth.

Thanks for your time,

EV

Something to check on the friction problem... sometimes a well meaning owner or repair person will lube that pivot assembly countering the designed in friction. You'd be amazed how long those friction washers can hold WD-40 or oil or some lube.

Get your self some electrical conact cleaner that WILL NOT HARM PLASTIC (very important). Spray the friction discs and move the lever around and re-squirt (spray). In a lot of cases it will come back and work properly.

For traction...

Fill the rear tires about 60% full of winter grade (cheap and won't freeze) windshield washer fluid and air up to about 6-7 psi. That will add considerable unsprung weight and improve traction dramatically. You can Google fill tractor tires with windshield washer fluid and get a variety of how-to posts all over the web.

Worst case replace one or both the friction washers with a thing piece of leather.

If you don't have suitable leather take the washer to a leather shop and they can sell you the leather and punch it for you.

Good luck.

I would bet that a "leather shop" would have a cut off piece of scrap that they would give you.
Or you can scratch through the wardrobe for an old belt you have that you will not miss.

"Or you can scratch through the wardrobe for an old belt you have that you will not miss."

Yah, I've got a couple of those that I've kept, for 31 in. waist pants, that I just KNOW I'll fit back into someday. LOL

***"I've got a couple of those that I've kept, for 31 in. waist pants, that I just KNOW I'll fit back into someday. LOL"***
Ditto here!

yuh huh! I am hoping to get back into 36"!!! ;)

LEATHER! Of course!! Perfect solution!!! This assembly has a compression spring which may or may not be broken but that's an easy fix.

I too have some belts that can become sacrificial. LOL, when I got out of the Marines in '70 I had a 26" waist and weighed 195. Now weigh 200 with a 36" waist, must be global warming? ;-)

Many thanks,

Ev

***"global warming?"***
Nah, just re-distribution of the wealth!

When I got out of USMC I weighed 170 and had a 32" waist. Now I weigh 155 and have a 35" waist - something ain't working right. Could nearly 50 years have anything to do with it?

Tackled the monster today. Surprising results.

Took an old belt along to fabricate friction washers, also a ..."cloth"... anyway those woven things we all wore in the military as it had good thickness and I ain't going to be using a 26" belt in the near future....:-)

Disassembled the unit. Consisted of a coil spring, hollow metal tube with a 9/16" (nut size) bolt through it, and a thick plastic washer against a thick ...waxed cardboard....(like the stuff gaskets in carbs etc. are made of) washer. The metal tube was obviously to control how much the spring could be tightened.

The plastic and cardboard washers were pristine, no wear, no deformation that I could see. HOWEVER, someone had oiled them previously. CUDOS TO "JUSTALURKER" who suspected this. I cleaned them up, per his suggestion. I then took the metal tube to my grinder and removed about 1/16" from each end. I did this as I could easily compress the spring against the tube and there was a lot of space between the coils. Also, since the unit is 20+ years old there has got to be wear that I couldn't see.

Reassembled and tried it, works fine, motion control lever stays where it's put now. Still have some more to tighten if I need to.

So happy ending to the story, thanks for all the good input. Left the belts in the barn as I have another need for a friction washer.

Thanks again,

Ev

"CUDOS TO "JUSTALURKER" who suspected this"

Didn't suspect it... have seen it too many times over the years not to warn you about it.

I have a special can of contact cleaner sitting on the shelf just for this problem.

I love fixes that are easy and cheap.