Tag: wheels dont turn on mower

Riding Lawn Mower Repair

One Wheel Turns on My Riding Lawn Mower and Other Does Not

Riding lawn mower transmissions are normally a one wheel drive at a time. You may notice it especially on hills where one tire slips on the uphill side.

On many riding lawn mowers, this is a perfectly normal situation. There is a sort of limited slip built into them and slippage like this is common.

If your riding lawn mower is supposed to have both wheels turning, then you may have a transmission problem or one of the wheel keys to holds the wheel to the axle may not have been installed after recent work.

One way to tell if your transmission is working properly is to put the rear up on jacks and then spin one back tire. The other tire should rotate in the opposite direction on a normal lawn mower. They should both turn in the same direction on a mower where both wheels engage.

Check the wheel keys. They are just a square piece of steel that slides into the axle and the wheel itself.

If you cannot find the source of the problem, visit one of our Locations for a riding lawn mower shop near you.

Lawn Mower Repair Tips, Riding Lawn Mower Repair

The Rear Wheels on My Riding Lawn Mower Don’t Turn

There could be many reasons for this happening, but the first question is “what has changed?”

Did you do anything to the lawn mower such as change the rear tires? Did you pull out the tow rod to move the mower and forgot to push it back in?

Those are a couple of the common problems that we normally see in the shop and they are easy to sort out. When the back tires are changed, some riding lawn mowers such as John Deere what have wheel keys that fall out when you pull the wheel off. You don’t notice until you put the wheel back on and the transmission shaft just spins but the wheels do nothing.

The other thing that happens is the drive belt becomes so loose or it will break. There may be one of two belts depending on the make and model of riding lawn mower. Check those to see what condition they are in.

A linkage could also have broken but this is not very common.

Lastly, the transmission could be low on fluid or it could be broken and needs replaced. The newer plastic transmissions have a lever that can get stuck when a twig or rock gets behind it, so check that as well.

If you need professional riding lawn mower repair service, visit our Locations page for a lawn mower shop near you.