HydroGear transaxle help

[genusCastor]

Anyone familiar with these critters? I took the bottom plate off a HydroGear ZT-3100 series transaxle to replace the o ring where it was leaking. The good news is it doesn't leak. The bad news is the transaxle does not drive. At all.

The Dixie Chopper shop guy told me the gears in the bottom of the plate must go on a specific way. In the pic there is a notch on the inner gear, the bottom gear also has a notch (on other side in pic), and they must be aligned. Took it back off, didn't get a pic, but I aligned the notches, then twisted the plate cover until it popped back into place. Still no action. Not even a sound of hydraulics from the pump. I don't think twisting the cover would change the alignment of the notches. It might rotate the gears, but the alignment should still be OK(?)

I'm also wondering if it may be air locked, I don't see a plug to vent air, The manual says some models have a plug, others don't. Without a plug, how do you verify all air has been vented?



- djb

 

[genusCastor]

Allrighty...

On page 28 of the service manual it talks about marking the cover (housing) before disassembly...

Not only must the gears be aligned, there is also a left/right orientation for the housing. Took the housing back off, re-oriented the housing, and viola. It drives. I think that once the gears are aligned, the housing fits one way without rotating.

As for purging air... There are bypasses that are supposed to allow the transaxle to operate internally but not drive the wheels, which is supposed to purge the air. But on this hybrid, prototype, hacked POS Dixie Chopper, the bypass mechanism doesn't quite engage on the axle I've been working on, so it never bypasses. The other side is fine. So I used compressed air in the reservoir to force oil into the axle.

[Side note - I'm convinced this Dixie Chopper I have was some kind of prototype or testbed. Part numbers are mixed, and other things that are not quite copacetic.]

- djb

 

[nyone]

There a pain in the *** to bleed. I did the oil in my 2800 series this winter. Followed the procedure and all looked good. Took it out of the shed last week and both resivor are empty. Guess some times they need to sit.