My little riding lawnmower was on the back of my pickup. My boy played on it and took it out of gear without me knowing about it. when I went to move the pickup the mower fell out of the back. In the process it ripped the muffler out of the aluminum it was screwed into and slightly bent either the right wheel or axle.

2 questions.

1. Any ideas on how to fix the muffler? I have a couple but am not a real fan of jury rigging or ram and cram fixes.

2. Do you think that a slight bent axle will cause a failure in the rear-end rather quickly.

Any input is appreciated.

well as for the muffler, you can buy a new one. and the axle, would cause a wobbly ride, but shouldn't kill it anytime soon. is it a transaxle perhaps, they can take alot of abuse.

well as for the muffler, you can buy a new one. and the axle, would cause a wobbly ride, but shouldn't kill it anytime soon. is it a transaxle perhaps, they can take alot of abuse.


The problem isn't the muffler, The problem is the aluminum part that it bolts too. Both holes are completely stripped and on is also severely widened by the bolt being ripped out at an angle.

Yes it is a transaxle and that is good to hear.

The next problem that I found last night is that the gears/gearshift have all moved back a space so that now the neutral is in the reverse position AND there is no adjustment left on the lever placement.

I have a fix that will work if you feel like building a small aluminum melting furnace. Basically what you do is take some clay (earth clay, not modeling clay) and pack it into the exhaust port and shape it to form a small mold. Then you fire up your furnace, melt a small shot of aluminum, then pour it into your mold. After that you can take a die grinder and reshape the port and the bolt hole. It's probably the best fix you can do for a damaged block such as yours.

As for the axle...if you remove the bent axle shaft and take it to a good machine shop, they should be able to put it in a straightening jig and get it pretty straight again. If you have acess to a dial indicator and a hydraulic/arbor press, you can slowly spin the shaft while watching it with the dial indicator and find where the bend is. Mark the bend, and use the press to push the bend out of the shaft.

BTW...here is what a small aluminum melting furnace looks like:

http://hambone.homelinux.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22

The one I built cost me about $20 to build since I constructed it from scrap materials.

Weld aluminum with your torch... it seems to work well.

http://durafix.com

LOL, ok, you guys are the real deal but this may be more than I want to bite off. First of all the port is fine. It is the bolt holes that are destroyed. I don't really have a part to weld. I need either and effective way to repair the bolt holes or another way to bolt up the muffler.

As to the machine shop thing. Is it a very big deal to pull one of these axles out of a transaxle and is it very expensive to have a machine shop do this???

By the way. Thanks for the help so far.

Also, for any one else out there who has some ideas. It turns out something else is either wrong with the transaxle or bent somewhere else. I now have the forward 5 gears displaced one spot and neutral when the lever is in the reverse position. The adjustment on the mower was already all of the way forward so it would seem something is bent (I can't find it) or something got shifted in the transaxle.

To answer your question...

The transaxle on a lawnmower is very simple and very easy to work on. The hardest part is just getting it on and off the machine. You will probably want to get a break down of the transaxle before you start tearing it apart or take plenty of pictures as you take it apart to document how it goes together.

The axle shaft is pretty easy to get out and almost any machine shop should have a 3 point straightening jig to straighten shafts. They will probably charge you about $20 or so to straighten the axle.

The shifting problem you describe sounds like you may have bent one of the shift linkages. This really isn't that big of a deal though, because most mowers have a means of adjusting the indexing of the transaxle. You just need to figure out which adjuster you need to adjust and adjust it a little a time until your shift pattern is back where its suppose to be.

I need either and effective way to repair the bolt holes or another way to bolt up the muffler.
Go to a hardware or auto store and buy a thread fix-it kit. You drill the damage hole 1 size bigger insert the replacement thread and screw the muffler back on...It is easy to do and not that expensive. Just the thread inserts are a few dollors. If you need the whole kit its under $20. I buy mine at Auto Zone..