Transaxle I.D.

A friend of mine gave me a gear drive transaxle. It was pretty dirty so I started looking for a data plate or something.  The only thing I found was the following number. 719-0379 I will try to post a pic or two in the future. Center shift if that would help.

Definitely an old Foote transaxle judging by that H-shift pattern. The model number should be stamped into the bottom somewhere.

It is pretty dirty. I will have to scrub it down. What is your opinion of these if I may ask. I was planning on putting it in a late 90's Craftsman.

Well I think they're fairly durable really. They use a shift collar setup instead of shift keys which is probably stronger, but they don't seem to go into gear from neutral very smooth. Also might not hold up super high speeds as well as some other transaxles.

The housing on it looks more beefy than the pancake transaxles I'm used to seeing.  It might bolt up but that's why they made the tape measure.  Maybe you should split it open and disect it to see how well it is built?

Pretty sure it is filled with grease. Not seeing any drain plugs. Expecting it to be full of water and slop. I can make it fit. I am questioning if I should.

Yes just clean everything off with diesel or something and wire wheel all the gears. Probably filled with grease.

IDK about reliability, but that looks beefy to me, could be wrong. H shifts are fun, I'm a little jealous. Nice find!

Housing looks pretty beefy to me. Monster bull gear, looks like, with some nice webbing for strength. Probably out of an older model riding mower. Wheel hubs is a nice little feature too.

Got the case split yesterday. Doesn't look as bad as I thought. Doesn't want to go into any gear. Thinking it may need a good cleaning. Will remove grease today and get some pics. I did find a number on the under side but I think it may be a case number.  To split the case, I had to flip the trans axle up side down. Is that normal? I am a shade tree mechanic at best and never worked on one of these before. I will post some pics after I get it cleaned up.

The guts. Still haven't found a tag or data plate. Hoping somebody has seen this dog before

Did you happen to see a four digit number stamped into the bottom of the lower case half?

The only number on the bottom case is a 719- 0385. I am thinking it may be the lower case # because of the number on the upper case. 719-0379. I did read on here that it may be behind the brake disc. I will check that tomorrow when everything goes in the parts washer. I removed the fork shaft and was trying to figure out how the forks off. I pulled on the right fork and if came off but did spit out a ball. Thinking that was not a good thing. I did recover the ball but now have to figure out how it goes back in.

MTD 753-05002 I think is the transmission. Holy moley it sells for $1600!

Wouldn't that be nice. I cleaned it all out and found the shifting shaft was real dirty.Disassembled and cleaned. sprayed with silicone and greases as well. Got it shifting into gear (at least two). As I said before ,I know nothing about these things. It appears to be a 3-speed with no reverse.

Look what I found
http://vi.raptor.ebaydesc.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemDescV4&item=332565686375&category=29520&pm=1&ds=0&t=1528298679000&ver=0

retired guy wrote:

Wouldn't that be nice. I cleaned it all out and found the shifting shaft was real dirty.Disassembled and cleaned. sprayed with silicone and greases as well. Got it shifting into gear (at least two). As I said before ,I know nothing about these things. It appears to be a 3-speed with no reverse.

Should be high/Low and reverse. Oh, should be a neutral in there. The chain is your reverse.

retired guy wrote:

Look what I found
http://vi.raptor.ebaydesc.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemDescV4&item=332565686375&category=29520&pm=1&ds=0&t=1528298679000&ver=0

Huh, that's quite interesting. I don't think I've ever heard of that transaxle before. Pretty neat looking unit though, I bet it'd be fairly durable too really.

As you can see in the pics, the shaft that the forks ride on was pretty bad. I cleaned it up with a scotch bright pad. I lubed the shafts before I reassembled it. Slides better but not as smoothly as I want. Any suggestions on a good lube I can put on the shaft ( I made it this far without giggling like a 12 yr old) before I refill it with grease.

Pull them back out and use fine grit sandpaper with oil on the sandpaper to get them shining again. The oil will polish the metal and won't take too much metal off of the original diameter, just like 1/2 of 1 thousandths of an inch.
Scotch brite has it's uses but I think it is too much for it this time. Keep in mind, loosey goosey never got stuck.