tracdoc
Platinum Member
Well, 2 hours into my mowing yesterday I was just cruising along when all of a sudden I lost reverse. I pushed the forward treadle and that was gone, too. With the PTO and aux PTO circuits working fine, I conjured up some awful scenarios of tram pump failure. It was 6 PM. So I shut down and left the PT outside where she stopped.
This morning, I called Terry at PT, and while we were talking I mentioned that the pedal action felt somewhat soft and floppy. He had me pull the covers in the wheel wells to inspect the treadle. Lo and behold, the brass retaining pin, while holds the treadle pedals up and provides an axis of rotation, had fallen out. The 1st attachment shows a screwdriver pointing to the pin after I lifted the treadle and simply reinserted the brass pin. I started her up and treadle action was normal and locomotion was restored.
Next question to Terry (since the manual shows zip on this) was why did the pin fall out and what should secure the pin? In the next post, the attachment shows screwdriver pointing to a conical depression on the top of the aluminum block housing said brass pin. At the bottom of that depression is an Allen set screw (2.5 mm). Actually, there are two set screws, one stacked on top of the other. Terry instructed me to simply remove the top set screw, and then tighten the lower one against the pin. Once tight, back off quarter to half turn, and then re-insert the top set screw tightly to act as a jam screw against the lower one.
Easier said than done. The straight hydraulic connector exiting from the treadle valve over the depression prevented me from getting to the Allen screw with a standard L-shaped key and every other type of 2.5 mm Allen I have. Nothing I had was short enough. I guess I could have removed the hydraulic fitting, and bled the system afterwards. However, now I was on a mission. Using a hacksaw, I cut half the length off the “L” of the Allen key. Now it fit just fine, but as I backed off the screw, the key again got in the way of the hydraulic fitting. At that point, I used a needle nose pliers and inserted the cut segment from the Allen key into the screw and finished removing it, one tiny turn after another.
I found the bottom set screw to be quite loose. I tightened it as Terry instructed, and the re-inserted the jam set screw in reverse manner using the same “tools.” Once secure, I dripped 2 drops of GREEN Loctite in the conical depression and it was sucked into the threads, securing them.
I don’t like the conical depression. It was full of ‘gradoo’ and the top set screw was lightly corroded when I found it. You couldn’t actually tell it was a set screw until I cleaned it out with a toothpick. To minimize this, I filled the depression with heavy silicone grease to act as a barrier.
Thought I would share this with my fellow PTers since this forum is definitely the master service manual for our machines
This morning, I called Terry at PT, and while we were talking I mentioned that the pedal action felt somewhat soft and floppy. He had me pull the covers in the wheel wells to inspect the treadle. Lo and behold, the brass retaining pin, while holds the treadle pedals up and provides an axis of rotation, had fallen out. The 1st attachment shows a screwdriver pointing to the pin after I lifted the treadle and simply reinserted the brass pin. I started her up and treadle action was normal and locomotion was restored.
Next question to Terry (since the manual shows zip on this) was why did the pin fall out and what should secure the pin? In the next post, the attachment shows screwdriver pointing to a conical depression on the top of the aluminum block housing said brass pin. At the bottom of that depression is an Allen set screw (2.5 mm). Actually, there are two set screws, one stacked on top of the other. Terry instructed me to simply remove the top set screw, and then tighten the lower one against the pin. Once tight, back off quarter to half turn, and then re-insert the top set screw tightly to act as a jam screw against the lower one.
Easier said than done. The straight hydraulic connector exiting from the treadle valve over the depression prevented me from getting to the Allen screw with a standard L-shaped key and every other type of 2.5 mm Allen I have. Nothing I had was short enough. I guess I could have removed the hydraulic fitting, and bled the system afterwards. However, now I was on a mission. Using a hacksaw, I cut half the length off the “L” of the Allen key. Now it fit just fine, but as I backed off the screw, the key again got in the way of the hydraulic fitting. At that point, I used a needle nose pliers and inserted the cut segment from the Allen key into the screw and finished removing it, one tiny turn after another.
I found the bottom set screw to be quite loose. I tightened it as Terry instructed, and the re-inserted the jam set screw in reverse manner using the same “tools.” Once secure, I dripped 2 drops of GREEN Loctite in the conical depression and it was sucked into the threads, securing them.
I don’t like the conical depression. It was full of ‘gradoo’ and the top set screw was lightly corroded when I found it. You couldn’t actually tell it was a set screw until I cleaned it out with a toothpick. To minimize this, I filled the depression with heavy silicone grease to act as a barrier.
Thought I would share this with my fellow PTers since this forum is definitely the master service manual for our machines
