Chosen Solution

My self propelled mover is a Toy Built 22", 5.50 horsepower, Briggs and Stratton 550 Series, 158 cc, Model Number 12A-264U011, number directly the model number is 303526. I changed the height of cut today, started the mower, engaged the self propelled arm and processed to cut grass. The mower moved forward and cut about5 feet, then all of a sudden just stopped moving forward. I released the arm and engaged again, the mower moved forward under power, then stopped again. Can you tell me what to look for? I did note that the line that is attached to the forward motion arm is a bit loose, that is, it has some slack in it. This has been a great mower. I had it exactly one year and 3 months. I purchased this mower after my husband passed and needed something I could handle at the old age of 70. Awaiting your response.

Alicia, First off, thank you for your excellent and well worded question. More than likely you had a drive belt break or come off the pulley. Remove any grass or debris from the top of the mowing deck and inspect the belt. If it looks loose or worn, replace it. Click on these BLUE WORDS to link to a troy bilt mower manual. Page 20 explains some common issues associated with possible drive problems on the mower. Here is a screen shot of that page.

I hope this helps and please let us know. But if you have more questions about it come back and we will get into more detail. Regards, Frank

Yeah, they leave out transmission malfunction in that troubleshooting guide. I just opened mine up and the pin holding the spring in place to engage the gears had snapped in half. The new assembly is somewhere around $70-$100, but if they had a exploded diagram of the parts inside the transmission, I could probably buy said pin for $2. I’m guessing they don’t want folks to fix their own equipment. If anyone knows of a place to find individual parts for their transmissions, I’d love to find out about it.

My self propelled does not work either - its a Troy Bilt 21" model 12av566n711. Have taken the transmission apart and everything looks O.K. Belt has been replaced and is tight. The shifter fork is not moving over far enough to engage mechanism - needs to move about 3/16" more in order to engage the front wheels. Can push the shifter fork over the 3/16" with a screw driver and it works O.K. but need a permanent solution. Anyone else have this problem?

When my Toro lawn mower is off it won’t move forward. I can pull backward. When I turn it on self propel works fine. How can I fix it. Thanks

the wire that goes from the handle towards the motor came out how to put it back????

I’m having similar problem with my Craftsman, and I just discovered what I believe is the problem. There is a round-ish plastic plate/cover that is mounted inboard of the front wheels that is designed to keep clippings and debris out of the area where the drive gear meshes with the teeth on the inside of the wheel. This plastic cover and the wheel itself each have a flange, and when the wheel and cover are in place, these flanges are located in very close proximity, and are fairly effective in blocking debris from getting up into the vicinity of the gears. The problem is that when rolling over thick or even slightly uneven ground the plastic cover can drag the ground and this will force the cover’s flange to bind against the flange of the wheel. Once these flanges become in a “bound” state they tend to remain engaged and since the cover does not turn, the wheel does not turn as well. I believe this is a design flaw that might be resolved by either:

  1. obtaining larger front wheels which would cause the plastic flange to be higher above the ground and thereby less likely to come in contact with the ground,
  2. to re-engineer or modify the plastic cover, and/or its flange, or
  3. to remove the plastic cover altogether. I intend to look at the parts shops to see if there are replacement front wheels that will fit this mower, but assuming that is not achievable, I am going to trim the plastic cover’s flange - e.g., removing the flange from the very bottom /lower portion of the cover. This is the portion of the flange where the cover and the wheel’s flanges are binding. A larger wheel might be the optimum, but I am pretty confident that trimming a few inches of the plastic flange will greatly improve the situation.

I HAVE A TROY BELT REAR WHEEL DRIVE MODEL 12A1869F011, when i got mower it would pull up a bank now it does not, pulls good on level ground

My Dad has a troy-bilt rear wheel drive mower model j860. The two problems I found with it where the blade adapter has a built in key for the notch in the drive shaft that sheared. Also the rear wheels would not turn. Everything else was good so I ripped out the plastic tranny and had a look-see inside. All looked good. As near as I can tell the enguage fork presses onto a bearing that presses onto the gear drive. The gear wheel is aluminum with a brass gear ring around it. It would just slip on the alum center part no matter how hard I pressed the enguage mechanism. Poor poor design. A cheap fix might be drill a small hole through the brass into the alum and insert a screw for a pin. The only problem would be continuous drive. My advice is get a Toro , you will be happy.

https://www.ereplacementparts.com/troybi… Here’s a site for all your replacement part needs.