Greenkeeper

Hi, Plz bare with me as I am new to this forum. Have an older rear engine snapper that moves fine when placed in reverse, but it moves slowly when shifted to its forward gears. Although it moves in the "forward" gears, it is not at an optimal speed for gears 1 thru 5. Any suggestions on how I might fix this problem? I have already installed a new rubber disk drive, & it continues to move strongly in reverse, but slow in the forward gears. By the way, the rate of speed when it is in 5th gear is about the same as if it was in 3rd. And it will not take or pull up an incline regardless of the grade. Thank You!

john walsh

I don't have mine near for inspection, but I seem to remember that there is spring loading of rubber disc to engine "plate". I had a belt tension problem on a Cub recently that I traced to sticky operation of the tensioner spring due to rust at spring and pivots. If your Snapper is anything like my Snapper Series 4, 30", there were a LOT of moving parts that didn't move too well due to outside storage rusting of various pivot points. After hitting anything that moved underneath with an oil can, various levers work much more smoothly now.You might want to close the gas cap vent, stand it on the rear bumper and oil the various linkages underneath. Maybe the spring loading is too little due to a rusty pivot or even a weak spring for the drive. Worth a look!