[dieseldennis]

Loaned my GT275 to my next door neighbor to cut his grass. It started going slowly when he was about done, so he just limped it back over to my house. When it got back over to my house, it was smoking a little and of course smelled awful. I drained about 3 quarts of boiling fluid out of the transmission case. I see where there was supposed to be almost 5 in there. I'm not surprised though. I bought this mower used several years ago, have used it hard, and never had any trouble with it.

I plan on filling it back up with HyGard this weekend and seeing what happens. Anything else I should do beforehand?

And speaking of HyGard, I have gallons of regular HyGard on hand already. But I see the book recommends a low viscosity HyGard. However, the book goes on to say that regular HyGard is acceptable as a substitute. I don't live in a cold area, so do you think the regular HyGard would work fine?

 

[KB]

new fluid and filter might bring quite a bit of life back into it, for more years of service before actually failing.

I am not an expert on these particular transmissions, but I'll list out what I would consider for options.
1- Using the tuff-torque recommend fluid, of 5w50 synthetic oil, double check that this is their recommendation for the model you have.
2- Regular hyguard if you are only using the tractor for mowing, I would use low-vis if you ever use it in cold temperatures.


I would also clean the tranny as good as possible, dirt insulates the case, and heat is your enemy.

I would also check the fan, to make sure its still properly mounted and not broken

 

[dieseldennis]

Just wanted to update the thread.

I poured in 4-5 quarts of regular HyGard this afternoon. Then I cranked up the mower and verified that the trans cooling fan was turning under there. Then I said a silent prayer and inched on the reverse pedal. It moved. I then did forward full speed and reverse up hill. No issues so far.

I then took KB's good advice and washed off the trans case. I wished I would have swapped the filter too, but didn't want to wait on a new one.

 

[Dirt Sailor]

Great advice KB and good job on the fix DJ, at least now you know it's worth putting a filter in and blown.