Locking a Roper 633 or Sears high/low no welder moose knuckle method

Alright so I woke up this morning under the assumption I was going to do absolutely nothing and never even get out of my pajamas... a hour later I had the masseys tranny sitting in two pieces on a set of sawhorses. I started off the locking process with the idea I would weld up the diff fearless style, then apon further inspection and my desire to be as lazy as possible I had a eureka moment!

I noticed that the gears all lined up with the splines when they were rotated in a certain spot so I thought "hey if I had another one of those gears I could just stab it between the other two and itd lock the ends of the shafts and itd fit perfectly" then I realized I had a spare transmission from our old craftsman that died long ago. So after tearing that one apart too I had a spare gear then I tore apart the masseys diff and started tinkering.

Parts needed:
Locktite
RTV (or the actual gasket)
1 gear from sears parts direct
The diff gear





there is only a little clearance between the ends of the shafts which is what gave me the idea





Pretty much the same diff as fearless



As you can see the gear fit perfect. However the gears are not splined to match the teeth so the gear will only line up with the teeth and the splines in one certain spot.





Everything fits tight!





Everything locked up and fit back together tight like stock.

Now I know some people are gonna be like "hey wait those axles have a clip cut into them effectively making the axle a 3/4" where the clip locks in!" yes this is true, but the gear also locks the orbital gears together allowing them to share the stress and strain when it tries to slip so in theory you have 9 gears taking the stress and shear forces being applied to the differential. My money would be more on the bolts shearing before the diff breaks a gear but only time will tell.

I shall call this the moose knuckle method!

Any chance of getting this stickied for lack of welderage?

Well dun moose. Great write up. Looks like a very afective way of locking that transaxel. Great job.

Sometimes doing stuff when your waking up in the morning works!

I didnt get it at first but now I do, and thats pretty cool how that lines up! Thats a 633 right? If so, I might have to try it. The Upull near me has a bunch of 633s. Lemme know how it goes.

And yes, you can get sticky.

it is basically the same as a 633 if I remember right it is a copy built by ayp and several companies from what I have heard from the diagrams I have seen they only really have differences in the gear setups and so on. I wouldnt mind getting my hands on one to check it out I thought it was neat all you need to do this is one gear that is 10$ from sears

Looks nice! I think I heard that you can flip the outer gears all one way, and lock it. No idea if that works.

It would work but then you are putting a lot of stress on the one axle gear this way it is evenly distributed

Moose wrote:

is one gear that is 10$ from sears

I looked on sears webcite and at a few links and seeing the part # is 26 on the diagram (#633a34) for the "shaft/gear" and is no where to be found on sears or parts tree, ebay, no where.

Found a good diagram though, about it.

http://www.searspartsdirect.com/partsdirect/part-number/Craftsman-Parts/Walk-behind-lawn-mower-Parts/633A34/0071/917/Model-91725201/0247/1500600?keySuffixId=&pathTaken=partSearch&pathRender=modelComponent&documentCompId=00009959&diagramPageId=00001

Unless im missing something.

I'm not sure if it is the same as the 633 but I'll have a look in the morning and link it up last I saw it was 10$ someday I'll get a 633 and check it out

Doug Fackler wrote:

And yes, you can get sticky.

Let's try to keep this on topic, can we?

lol to late :p link posted in the first post

Doug Fackler wrote:

I didnt get it at first but now I do, and thats pretty cool how that lines up! Thats a 633 right? If so, I might have to try it. The Upull near me has a bunch of 633s. Lemme know how it goes.

you should totally snag a 633, take the gears you need and send the other 2 to me, so i can lock mine up

It's only a 10$ gear lol be easier to get it from sears than pry it from Doug lol

did you pull this off without a schematic or service manual?

Wow I should pay attention more >.> yeah pretty much! I cracked it open and stared at it a while. I had a little experience from taking apart the gt6000 back in the day but other than that it all kinda fits together all common sense like

I will try this method along with the flipping a set of diff gears when I lock my trans I use for pulling. My trans has four sets of diff gears, so I am going to flip two of them to lock it, and take some strain off the gear you use in Moose's method, since pulling with the onan twin will put a big load on it.

You actually have better odds of breaking it just flipping the planetary gears. You cause a shear load on one side of the differential so instead of having the load kinda evenly distributed across the diff it is lopsided and will shear the bolts more than likely. Haven't cracked the 633 on my Sears but if the knuckle method won't work I suggest welding up the planets.

Holy toledo its been 4 years since this garbage happened lol. I keep seeing people wanting to flip gears or weld them up but its so much easier to just do this. Im glad I sucked down the coffee that morning.

Thanks for the tip! I've got one of the on the bench now to get locked. If I'm real lucky maybe I can figure a way to swap some of the gears around to reduce the 9:1 final drive.

so where is the best place to get a gear if i dont have an extra trans

Probably the best way is to search out another 633 trans or a tractor that has one in it. I'm not sure if you can get a new gear anywhere. Maybe. You could try looking around online for part numbers and stuff but it could take some digging.

Also there are two transmissions which are pretty similar. One might not be called a 633 I'm not sure. The case is a little different where it mounts to the frame. And the gears are different inside, although the axles are about the same and it's the same design. The gears in this post are from the "newer style 633" with 3 sets of planetary gears. The "older ones" such as ones from 70's sears suburbans, have only 2 sets of planetary gears. Also, the new style gears have thicker but less teeth. The older ones have narrower but more teeth. Gears won't swap between, so make sure you know what one is what before you find a tractor with one or the other.

You can tell the new ones because they have the Z shifter handle. The old style is a bit shorter shifter and straight.

is this the same one

I don't know 100% but it looks like the gears used in the "newer" type 633's with the Z shifter and splined axles yes. I believe the older style ones have a bit finer teeth than that. Cheap enough at $10 with free shipping. Not bad not bad...

You can take yours apart before ordering it and make sure by counting the teeth ect if you wanna make double sure before ordering. Of course then the transaxle sits apart while you wait for shipping and you forget where everything was but... what can ya do lol.

That looks about right but +1 on the double checking.

@Moose do you still have that other gear from that tranny