Lawn Boy Insight, no self-propel, rear wheels lock up.

[Jim D.]

So today I'm happily munching leaves with my Lawn Boy Insight series self-propelled mower when suddenly the self-propel mechanism stops working and the rear wheels lock up when I try to pull the mower backward. I tried removing the rear wheels to see if leaf debris of some sort was responsible and found nothing. Any ideas?

[TRANSMAN]

Read this if you have wheels driven by overhead knurled type shaft

So today I'm happily munching leaves with my Lawn Boy Insight series self-propelled mower when suddenly the self-propel mechanism stops working and the rear wheels lock up when I try to pull the mower backward. I tried removing the rear wheels to see if leaf debris of some sort was responsible and found nothing. Any ideas?

On the lawn boys i have there is 2 possible reasons i`v seen that cause the rear shaft not to work / spin...

There is a gearbox made out of plastic that could be destroyed inside and if that's the case your probably looking at a repair bill that would not warrant even fixing the unit and leave the option of removing the upper drive assembly and using it as a push only mower for trimming....

More likely and easier problem to fix :

There is a drive-shaft on my L.B`s that goes from the back of the engine and runs back to the gearbox assembly i was talking about earlier...

This is usually hidden under a plastic cover between the back of the engine and the drive mechanism so removal of the plastic cover will reveal the drive-shaft..

On each end of the drive-shaft it is connected via plastic slide on connectors which are meant to shere during high stress levels thus preventing damage to that little plastic differential unit...

By unbolting the required screws holding the rear drive mechanism in place you can either slide it back enough to remove the little drive-shaft connecting the engine power to that rear drive cog assembly , (Or just remove it [ THE REAR DRIVE ASSEMBLY IF THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE] and get it out of your way and reinstall later) AND 99 percent OF THE TIME YOU WILL FIND 1 OF THESE PLASTIC CONNECTORS ON EACH END OF THE SHAFT SHEARED..

I fixed approximately 30 or so of these and of the 30 29 were not working due to those plastic sleeves that shear or break when they get old and hardened.

Only 1 time have i actually seen the problem to be the plastic gearbox assembly , so although it sounds as if they are junk having a plastic gearbox for whatever reason they do generally hold up fine leaving the main problem to be those crappy plastic connection collars which cost about $2 bucks each or so "last time i purchased"...

I should also mention the units i worked on were 1995 or earlier units that were used commercially so the average homeowner probably would never experience any problem and although they were 95 and earlier vintage units i think they use the same system till today because i replaced these sleeves a few years ago and when i asked the parts guy if the newer units had changed this design he said nope , that the design works as originally designed and only sheared if overloaded or when the units were old and naturally those plastic sleeves eventually harden ,crack, and break over many years of hot temperatures....

Its an easy enough fix if you get the plastic replacement sleeves / driveshaft connectors ahead of time and can be done in 1.5 hrs or so on a boring Sunday if you have nothing else to do that day!!!

Good luck , Transdiggity-dogster..........


P.S This may or may not make any sense as i am rushing and have last minute shopping to do so grammar and spelling mistakes should be overlooked today if this makes any sense to start off with...

ALSO : Its possible the salesman was wrong and you have something different then what i described if the wheels wont move in the neutral position and their is no knurled shaft driving the rear wheels!!!!

Also if your hesitant because it doesn't make sense let me know because i may have a picture of the 90`s vintage design exploded type of view where i can point out the said sleeves / connectors and location on the end of each side of said drive-shaft hiding under little plastic cover that's usually held on and can be removed to inspect by removing 3-4 self taping screws located on top of deck between engine and rear drive assembly...

GOTTA GO SHOPPING "OHHHHHHHH JOY" Ha-Ha-Ha:laughing:

[Jim D.]

Thanks very much for the detailed info, Transman, and for the time you took to post it. Frankly, I'm not sure if it has the overhead knurled-type shaft you mention, but I'll dig into it and find out.

[TRANSMAN]

Yep , forget everything i typed earlier . Bogus info probable

Thanks very much for the detailed info, Transman, and for the time you took to post it. Frankly, I'm not sure if it has the overhead knurled-type shaft you mention, but I'll dig into it and find out.

WARNING WARNING WILL ROBENSON DANGER DANGER, WARNING WARNING bla-bla-bla........:laughing:

I took a quick look at the new insight and it doesn't look anything like the old 2 stroke 2 cycles that i used to work on.....

That might help someone with the older model units so i wont ask G.M to delete it , and the best advice i can give to you is to visit the lawn-boy site and down in the left bottom of the page their is a parts and diagram look up link where you can follow it through and possibly find a drawing of the particular workings of the specific unit that you have...

Try link below!!!

http://www.lawnboy.com

Then on the very top left click walk behind mowers , then go to the bottom and look up / click on parts and model which usually takes you to diagrams of your mower all apart exploded..

If that's not any help you might try the interactive manuals or some other links they provide.... Check everything if needed because sometimes they hide something in the wrong place but they used to provide very good exploded views that were mucho handy...

Good luck regardless and sorry i gave you the wrong info earlier , but that's what happens when your rushing out the door the old lady is a screaming and your trying to help someone out !!!!


I put a giant [with Jack D. approved natural gas piped to it and a lighter configured to spark every time she hits enter] on the old ladies computer , and that's her new screen saver !!!!:laughing: :laughing: Ha-Ha-Ha-

POOF

POOF

POOF ,

" right in her face kidding of coarse but only because its to complex for me to pull off as of right now":laughing: !!!!

MERRY Christmas or whatever anyone is celebrating by the way !!!

PARTY HARDY BABY!!!! I`m finding the years get shorter every time another goes by "and like a surfer dude would say" (i like just took down my Christmas crap from last year a week ago dude!!!) (it seems that way anyhow)

PARTAIYYYYY I SAY, "anyway"

Yes i`m already sitting around with coctales with little island style umbrellas in them............

[Jim D.]

HAHAHAHAHA...

I wonder how many people get the reference to Lost In Space. Thanks for the heads up...and again, thanks for all your trouble. I appreciate it very much.

I'll check out the site and tear into the mower tomorrow. (I've been shoving it around manually on another leaf job all afternoon and I'm ready to get it fixed.)

Thanks again.

[cjo]

I don't know if you have fixed your mower yet, but the same thing happened to my lawnboy mower recently. I could not pull it backwards or use the drive system. What happened was when i ran over some sticks a piece of a stick got stuck between the drive pully and the drive belt. I used a screwdriver and pried the stick out and it worked again. Hope this helps.

[Jim D.]

Thanks, cjo. I haven't repaired the mower yet as I thought I'd just continue to use it as it is until I finished the leaf jobs I still had pending (and before I screwed it up where it wouldn't work at all ). Since then, it's just been sitting out back collecting ice/sleet/snow. As soon as everything melts I'll take a look. Sounds like this may very well be the problem.

Thanks again for the advice,
Jim