TuffTorq K46 Repair Guide with Pictures

[sjsmith2262]

Neo,
Regarding "moaning / uneven surfaces", to be perfectly honest w/ you, I'm a computer geek by trade. After having read through this entire post a couple of times, JoeBob's idea of resurfacing the wear points made sense to me. My problem was I don't know any machinist. So I thought that I'd try carefully sanding the worn areas.

END RESULT:
Without question I haven't had this much power with my Scotts S2048, TT 62 in years! how long this repair will last I don't know, but I have 1,150 hours on her already. So if I get a couple more years out of her, that would be awesome. (I'm actively looking for a JD 455 AWS & would love to get a hold of one that's in need of repair...)

additional reference material, punchyoureyehole created a couple of GREAT YouTube video's that I highly recommend anyone considering doing this repair to watch.

VIDEO:
PART 1-of-2
Part 1 - K46 hydrostatic drive Removal - YouTube

Part 2-of-2
Part 2 - K46 Rebuild - YouTube


FWIW - *if* I were to do this repair again, or something similar, I would have put a couple drops of oil on the wear point surfaces *before* putting everything back together. My rational is:

1. While assembling everything and shortly there after, I know those surfaces were twisted & moved (possibly cause new 'rings' to be created)

2. After filling the transaxle up with oil, I don't think oil was actually on those critical surfaces when she was first started up.

3. It certainly wouldn't hurt anything

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Chris / all,
JoeBob, please correct me if I'm wrong and/or you disagree with any of this. I just successfully rebuilt my TT K62 using your "machining method", instead of having the parts 'machined', I carefully did the following:
1. I sanded the motor, pump and case assembly
2. I used a small piece of oak (any extremely flat surface) and used 3M sticky back sand paper (320 grit, 400 grit and finished with 600-grit)
3. each side/piece took me about 15-20 minutes of careful sanding in a circular motion

sorry in advance, I know these aren't great pictures, however... you should be able to understand the point.

CENTER CASE BEFORE: note the scoring or rings. (BAD)
Attachment 290364Attachment 290365


CENTER CASE AFTER:
Attachment 290367Attachment 290368


CENTER CASE new vs old: (I purchased a new center case assembly, but decided to try sanding my original center case assembly first - worked like a champ)
Attachment 290369


Additionally, I also carefully sanded both surfaces of the matting pieces (the revolver pistol chamber looking thing). Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures.


FWIW / misc info:
1. used Castrol Syntec 5w-50 (~$28.50 about $9.50 per quart)
2. replaced both filters ($42.58 for both)
3. used Permatex - Ultra Black Maximum Oil Resistance RTV Silicone Gasket Maker (about $9.50)
4. TOTAL COST: $80.58

Thanks for posting. Wish you had a better camera.

[E30TECH]

Thanks LotsofGreenGrass for the time and effort to put the writeup together. I used this and the youtube video from "punchyoureyehole". Just finished my rebuild and will see how it went tomorrow. I'm letting the RTV cure overnight.

[sjsmith2262]

E30TECH,
Good luck, good job & welcome!

There's tons of great information out here and in some of the others threads too!

[E30TECH]

E30TECH,
Good luck, good job & welcome!

There's tons of great information out here and in some of the others threads too!

Thanks for the welcome. I have been lurking for a few months and have found some helpful info.

[idakiteman]

SJSmith. Thanks for pictures and approach. What did you do to clean the center case after sanding?

[sjsmith2262]

Idakiteman,
Welcome! Regarding cleaning after sanding, I used "Super Clean". I don't know if that's the best stuff to use for something like this, but it certainly does the job on oil, grease and 'junk'....

Overall, I'm still amazed at how much power that I have now. I guess I never realized how much I had lost over the years....

Good luck!
steve

[idakiteman]

K46 fix
I have a John deere L110 w/ 53 hrs., & a bad transaxel.Tried heaver oil, no joy. Looking at the surfaces of the block, & motor & clutch cylinders, I noticed very slight scoring between ports. This was the cause of the failure. I took the parts to a machine shop,& they surface ground the parts for $25! Cleaned everything in mineral spirits, including the filter which came out clean & white, blew everything out, reassembled, added 2 quarts & a cup of 10w30, & bingo a new transaxel!!! It seems a lot of these may have the same prob.Don't waste your money on unnecessary parts for 2 or 3 hundered bucks. A few things to watch on reassembly, you need the drawing from Tuff Torq.

1 Make sure freewheel rod stud inside case clears small pin (#25). When free wheel rod is pulled out, it pushes on pin which pushes on washer (#39), which in turn pushes motor cylinder, breaking seal betw.cyl. & block.

2 Make sure washer (#39) dos'nt stand proud of block surface after machining.

3 Make sure notch in axel pin(#64) corresponds w/notch in bottom case.

4 Note orientation of motor housing(#36).If you get it backwards, pedal operation will be reversed.

1

Joebob...could you tell us a little more about how the machine shop ground/polished the center case faces? Did they do it by hand or with some sort of machine, and if so, what kind/model of machine? The part has features which make it a real challenge to find a machine that can get to those two round faces. The machine tool heads I've seen hit other nearby part features which prevent contact with the round faces. Was yours ground by hand and if not, maybe you could call your machine shop and find the name of the tool they used?

Most machine shops around here are $50-100/hour and $25 would pay for maybe 15-20 minutes, and for many machines $25 might not even pay for setup time, much less the actual part work. So, I'm curious if yours was done by hand, and if not, what was the make/model of machine that was used. But I see you've done this twice now...the original repair and again after the cap seal failure when you had not only the center case faces done, but also the pump and motor faces too. So evidently you've got something going there that would be pretty helpful to know. Thanks.!!!

Thanks!

[trainguy]

I just joined this forum, lots of good info so far. I just recently purchased a John deere 2004 LT-190 lawn tractor with snowblower attachment not JD.
I took it out of the shed, got about 15 ft and would not go forward or backward thats when I checked a few forums thinking I might have to overhaul the transaxle. I have removed the transaxle and found that the driving pulley just above the fan had its spline all stripped out and it was just rotating on the main shaft. The spline on the main shaft is in very good shape, the shaft is not seized and it seems there is no excessive play.

The serial number of the transaxle is of the first batch of three so it would be the earliest version of the K46 ? There is an air bleeder on top but no oil drain plug on the version. After reading about the synthetic oil I am wondering if I should split the case, check the oil filter and change the oil. The tractor has 897
hours on it. I have ordered a new fan and a new drive pulley from the local John Deere dealer which will take two days for delivery.

I know the original owner who bought the tractor new from the local John Deere dealer and has never had any transmission problems with it. I'm handy with tools and can drill and tap for a drain plug.

Should I split the case and change the oil ? if so whats the proper procedure. looking forward to some feedback

[trainguy]

I just joined this forum, lots of good info so far. I just recently purchased a John deere 2004 LT-190 lawn tractor with snowblower attachment not JD.
I took it out of the shed, got about 15 ft and would not go forward or backward thats when I checked a few forums thinking I might have to overhaul the transaxle. I have removed the transaxle and found that the driving pulley just above the fan had its spline all stripped out and it was just rotating on the main shaft. The spline on the main shaft is in very good shape, the shaft is not seized and it seems there is no excessive play.

The serial number of the transaxle is of the first batch of three so it would be the earliest version of the K46 ? There is an air bleeder on top but no oil drain plug on the version. After reading about the synthetic oil I am wondering if I should split the case, check the oil filter and change the oil. The tractor has 897
hours on it. I have ordered a new fan and a new drive pulley from the local John Deere dealer which will take two days for delivery.

I know the original owner who bought the tractor new from the local John Deere dealer and has never had any transmission problems with it. I'm handy with tools and can drill and tap for a drain plug.

Should I split the case and change the oil ? if so whats the proper procedure. looking forward to some feedback