John Deere 212 Lawn Tractor Transmission Lock Up

[mn212]

The four-speed transmission in my 1982 JD 212 lawn tractor is giving me trouble. The tractor has a lot of hours on it but I rebuilt the engine recently and would like to keep it in service.

I generally use just 3rd gear and reverse for mowing so I am back and forth between the two gears a lot when trimming around trees. Sometimes when passing through neutral the gear selector will malfunction and put the transmission in two gears at once. At that point it is immovable until I remove the gear shift/selector and realign the shifting forks per the manual picture attached.

This has happened several times now. It makes mowing with this machine a pain because of the uncertainty. I have looked at the selector and what parts I can see through the selector hole without actually tearing down the transmission. Everything looks fine with no abnormal wear or damage of any sort. I have attached a page from the manual showing the shift forks and gears involved.

Does anyone have an idea what is causing my problem?

 

[yankeerider]

My experience is based on an older 112 model with a similar transaxle. Although I don't recall it ever locking up, it wouldn't stay in 4th gear and later began jumping out of second and third. Both of the shifter rod detent grooves were badly worn as were the shifter forks. The wear to the rods wasn't readily apparent until it was disassembled. This type of wear leads to the gears not being fully engaged, as well as not moving the gears enough to ensure full disengagement.