TuffTorq K46 Repair Guide with Pictures

[RUSSELL SHETTLE]

Re: TuffTorq K46 / John Deere L110 Transmission Repair Guide with Pictures

Good post, thanks!

Great pictures. That is a lot of wear and tear. Glad you succeeded in the rebuild project.

Question: Of the 450 hours of use. How many oil changes, if any, did it have?

 

[RUSSELL SHETTLE]

Re: TuffTorq K46 / John Deere L110 Transmission Repair Guide with Pictures

Good post, thanks!

Great pictures. That is a lot of wear and tear. Glad you succeeded in the rebuild project.

Question: Of the 450 hours of use. How many oil changes, if any, did it have?

 

[jstrubberg]

Re: TuffTorq K46 / John Deere L110 Transmission Repair Guide with Pictures

I joined the site just to reply to this thread.

First off, thanks to the original poster for taking the time to photo document the rebuild. You've done an excellent job.

I recently rebuilt my K46 from my Husqvarna LGT2654 after eight years and 860 hours of service. I cut just over 10 acres a week with this mower in hilly mid Missouri, so I can't complain at all about the longevity of the transaxle. Using this guide, things went pretty smoothly. I had to open the transmission a total of four times, mostly due to my impatience and skipping a step here and there. A couple of specific roadblocks I ran into...

1. That stupid little pin- Yes, it really is half the size of a tic tac. No, nothing holds that bugger in other than your attention. Yes, you should just order one from Tuff Torq. They are 27 cents. If you find later it's missing, Tuff Torq has a $25 minimum order! Just order one the first time and throw it away later if you are lucky enough to find and keep the original.

2. Make SURE you put the wedge back in correctly! Trying to mow backwards is a pain...

3. Forget the suggested 5w-50 oil. After my rebuild, I STILL had problems with the tractor wanting to slow down after about 20 minutes of mowing. The issue was obviously thermal breakdown of the oil since it happened predictably and only degraded so far and then never got worse. I drained the 5w-50 and replaced it with straight 50 weight. Most auto parts stores carry it as a racing oil and it's extremely tolerant of heat. Once a changed the oil out, no more slowdowns. The mower operates like new and I look forward to another eight years with this tractor.

 

[RUSSELL SHETTLE]

Re: TuffTorq K46 / John Deere L110 Transmission Repair Guide with Pictures

I joined the site just to reply to this thread.

First off, thanks to the original poster for taking the time to photo document the rebuild. You've done an excellent job.

I recently rebuilt my K46 from my Husqvarna LGT2654 after eight years and 860 hours of service. I cut just over 10 acres a week with this mower in hilly mid Missouri, so I can't complain at all about the longevity of the transaxle. Using this guide, things went pretty smoothly. I had to open the transmission a total of four times, mostly due to my impatience and skipping a step here and there. A couple of specific roadblocks I ran into...

1. That stupid little pin- Yes, it really is half the size of a tic tac. No, nothing holds that bugger in other than your attention. Yes, you should just order one from Tuff Torq. They are 27 cents. If you find later it's missing, Tuff Torq has a $25 minimum order! Just order one the first time and throw it away later if you are lucky enough to find and keep the original.

2. Make SURE you put the wedge back in correctly! Trying to mow backwards is a pain...

3. Forget the suggested 5w-50 oil. After my rebuild, I STILL had problems with the tractor wanting to slow down after about 20 minutes of mowing. The issue was obviously thermal breakdown of the oil since it happened predictably and only degraded so far and then never got worse. I drained the 5w-50 and replaced it with straight 50 weight. Most auto parts stores carry it as a racing oil and it's extremely tolerant of heat. Once a changed the oil out, no more slowdowns. The mower operates like new and I look forward to another eight years with this tractor.

I remember your post about it running backwards. At that time, I didn't know the wedge could be put in upside down and that's a good new piece of information.

I'm surprised and puzzled about the 5w50 and the "slow down" after 20 minutes. I assume you replaced the pump and motor assemblies as part of the total rebuild. My JD has the same trans. It's new and I changed the oil with 5w50 right away but not because of problems. I did it to prevent problems. Your trans should have ran just fine after 20 minutes with the 5w50 synthetic unless you didn't replace the pump and motor and that would explain it but I can't believe you didn't do that.

As for the pin: It was suggested somewhere to use vaseline to hold it in place during assembly. That would work.

 

[Flex68]

Re: TuffTorq K46 / John Deere L110 Transmission Repair Guide with Pictures

Hey, all.
The last time I rebuilt my K46 was 3 yrs ago at around 100 hrs, and I have just finished yet another at less than 250 hrs due to the fact that the mower had started to not want to pull hills after I had mowed with it for an hour, or so. Figured it likely that the fluid had just broken-down due to use/heat.

Unfortunately, this time the mower won't move, even after about 10 minutes of bleeding the transaxle.

For this rebuild I changed all the gears, sanded the aluminum block with 2000 grit to make it smooth as a baby's ***, and replaced the fwd/rev saddle-shaped assembly with a new one because the thrust bearing the pump pistons ride on was cracked. (This one came with, like, fiberglass or kevlar 'shims' instead of metal, and the bearing was a bit different than the original....had to buy this as a set because I was having trouble locating an orig replacement thrust bearing. I did use my old metal 'shims' in place of the new ones.)

I DID NOT replace either the motor or pump as they showed no sign of wear, whatsoever, and the spring-loaded pistons in both worked well.

Fully disassembled the tranny, cleaned out every little piece of metal, cleaned everything with Carb and Choke cleaner, and went back in with 2.2 quarts of 20W50 racing oil with high zinc content.
Anyway, now, regardless of where the free-wheel lever is positioned, I get a TINY bit of fwd pull but nothing in reverse.....it is like it is between free-wheel and fully engaged.
Do you have any suggestions what might have gone wrong with the rebuild, or what I can do now? Hoping that the little ½ tic-tac sized pin didn’t manage to fall out….I am smashing my head against the wall of my garage!
Thanks a bunch!
Flex

 

[Atcher Service]

if heat is the culprit , what about installing some low amperage computer fans . i have gotten them from the local dump , they recycle e-waste . and 5 dollars i pulled out 20 of the for various non-computer uses . also you could used the cooling fins off the processor use some temp contact grease and large hose clamps. i will be trying this approach as i am re-installing my unit in the morning . i'll post temp history in the future. great job on the instructions . thanks

 

[MassiveOverkill]

K46 fluid selection

I just bought a Troy Bilt Super Bronco XP with 54" deck. This is my first riding lawnmower I purchased for our new property with 5 acres, mostly hilly. I'm coming up on 15 hours and want to swap out the K46 stock oil for synthetic for the upcoming season as well as for attempting to use the mower for pushing snow. I'm leaning towards racing oil as others have suggested as racing oils aren't concerned about trying to meet API certifications for catalytic converters and environmental reasons. I'm leaning towards Mobile 1's 0W-50 Racing due to its high zinc and phosphorous content: Mobil 1 Racing 0W-50

According to this chart, it has the highest zinc\phosphorous content:

http://store.forcedperformance.net/...Performance Recommendations for Motor Oil.pdf

I've seen it for $20 shipped per quart.

If there's a better oil such as Redline\Amsoil that is worth the extra money\protection I'm willing to buy it. I also thought about installing a small radiator fan above the main one depending how hard it would be to retrofit it in there and not taxing the charging system. Thoughts?

 

[saboism]

Just a quick update that I performed this repair following the guide back in April 2011 and the trans has held up great ever since. I still mow a good amount of inclines as well. Happy to have found this thread, save me a lot of cash and frustration.

I should have knocked on wood when I posted this. I'm at about 240 hours now and after an hour of mowing she's starting to struggle uphill. At this point I'm trying to keep the mowing to a minimum by just doing the house/fence line, leaving the bulk to my rear finish mower in an effort to make it through the season. If she makes it, I'll open her back up after the mowing season and run through the repair again I guess.

 

[Dapped]

You may want to read post #848

 

[saboism]

You may want to read post #848

I'll look at the gears for wear while I'm in there but won't order anything up front, maybe it's just time to change that oil out. Thanks.