long story semi-long, hrx217hxa, few years old now. initially the mower started getting slower one summer and this was after 2-3 years of use. so i pulled the drive out, figuring it maybe got low on oil or just needed a change. drained out the old oil, came out kinda nasty looking and sort of smelled like gear oil from what i remember. did a search, everyone seemed to say 10w-30 motor oil would work so i tried that. It was noisy and did not go any faster, no where near as fast when brand new. i felt the drive casing and it seemed hot, although i never felt it previously. pulled it out again and that's when i noticed the drive cable was all freyed, replaced that and then got full throttle on the drive but still noisy and didn't sound right. I then picked up amsoil hydrostatic trans fluid and have had that in there for past 2 seasons. And it only takes a couple ounces and i've gone through nearly a quart flushing and rinsing it out so i know there's no motor oil left in it. It's not noisy and it does run cooler compared to when i ran it with 10w30 motor oil but i still don't get full speed like when it was brand new... i like to cut grass at 4.0 mph! so my question is, is it possible the amsoil hydrost. fluid is too thin or too syntheticy and seeping/leaking past the hydrostatic pump in the drive resulting in loss of output? What other fluid should i try?
There seems to be zero information on these, some people claim they are made by tufftorq or whoever but i've called them and they don't admit to having one of their drives in it and what literature i got from them doesn't match the drive in the mower. And honda parts and mower shops all say it's a non-servicable part, there was no fluid to buy for it replace the whole drive for $300.
so my question is what fluid should i try to get back to 4.0 mph? I can't imagine it being some exotic fluid. it wasn't red so i know it wasn't atf, but should i try atf?
i'm pretty sure it wasn't basic motor oil when i drained it, it almost seemed like gear oil. I thought the amsoil hydrostatic fluid would've been good but i know it's getting full throttle and i can tell the output speed is not what it should be.
And for tractor or hydraulic oil, where can i buy just a quart? all i ever see is 5-gal pails.
There seems to be zero information on these, some people claim they are made by tufftorq or whoever but i've called them and they don't admit to having one of their drives in it and what literature i got from them doesn't match the drive in the mower. And honda parts and mower shops all say it's a non-servicable part, there was no fluid to buy for it replace the whole drive for $300.
so my question is what fluid should i try to get back to 4.0 mph? I can't imagine it being some exotic fluid. it wasn't red so i know it wasn't atf, but should i try atf?
i'm pretty sure it wasn't basic motor oil when i drained it, it almost seemed like gear oil. I thought the amsoil hydrostatic fluid would've been good but i know it's getting full throttle and i can tell the output speed is not what it should be.
And for tractor or hydraulic oil, where can i buy just a quart? all i ever see is 5-gal pails.