Always Get a 2nd Opinion

Sister-in-law's zero turn got to where it wouldn't climb a hill. This sorta happened all of a sudden. The mower doesn't have but about 50 hours on it. She called me and asked but without looking it over, I couldn't really get her the direction she needed. Her husband isn't very mechanical...so explaining to him what to look for is like speaking Chinese to a deaf and blind American in sign language.

They decided to take it to a lawn mower shop. They tell her it needs a new hydro tranny. At 50 hours? I know nothing is immune to failure, but I wasn't buying it. Told her to go get it and take it home...I'd go look at it.

So they get home. Immediately I noticed they (lawn mower shop) didn't attempt to 'clean' it off to diagnose the issue. I'm betting they never even looked at it. Just going on the fact it wouldn't climb an incline. So I look at the belt. It's not glazed or dry rotted yet. Move on to the spring loaded auto tensioner for the drive belt. Took the spring off and tried to move it. Nope, it's seized. It's supposed to move back and forth freely and the spring keeps the belt 'tight'. As it wears normally, it stretches a little, but that spring is key to take up the slack.

I take a 19mm socket and my pull bar. All it took was to crack it loose. Just had too much dirt and grime caught up in there. A big pile of stuff fell out as I move it back and forth by hand until it moved freely. Put the spring back on, fired it up and headed toward the steepest hill in their yard. Climbed it with ZERO hesitation. New transmission...PFFFFT.No No:

Pays to get a 2nd opinion sometimes.

+1 on 2nd opinions.

Sounds like you found a place NOT to go ever again.

a friend of mine runs an automotive repair shop. A lady took a Kia to the Kia dealership for an oil leak. They told her it needed a front crank seal. She took it to another independent to get a quote on it. They told her it needed a front crankshaft seal.

She took it to Bruce, and he put it up on his rack. He found the oil filter was loose. It was past due for an oil change, so he put a new filter on it, changed the oil and charged the lady $30 bucks to solve her problem.

PS... the crankshaft seal was dry as a bone. Easily visible from underneath too.