Right side went out on my zero turn. Need help? Anyone ever broke one of these apart. The transaxle new is $600 but I would rather not go down that road if possible. It's suppost to be the non serviceable trans from hydrogear. If any of y'all have ever been into one of the these and diagnosed the problem I could really use some help. Thanks.

Wish I could help. I'm sure someone here has some knowledge on it.

Thanks YEKRUT. I know someone on here has tore one of these open . No doubt about it. Just hope someone can point me in the right direction on whats tore up inside it. Lots of parts inside those.

Nobody?

My mom has a hustler zero turn and one side sent out. I noticed a spot on the floor where it would leak about the size of a quarter. It was leaking out of the filter for the hydrostat oil. The filter end was plastic and also had an O ring.

The problem was the filter was over tightened and the o ring was messed up and that made the seal broken and was getting air into the line ( my edumucated guess). I think of it as if you got air in the brake lines of your truck.

I put a new filter and o ring on the pump on the bad side and new oil and worked the leavers back and forth and took it for a test drive and works like new. That was at the beginning of mowing season this year

I hope yours is as cheap and simple to fix as the one I did. Those pumps are $$$$.

Thanks a lot. There saying this pump is not serviceable but somewhere someone put this thing together . All I have found is a seal that's bad and 1 bearing that's bad. All the other 200 small parts and gears and bearings are fine as I have went through each one. I'm going with new seals and a bearing and gonna hope for the best. 15-$20 bucks is a lot better than $600 plus . I would buy a new one but if the other side goes a few weeks later there's another one to buy. It's hard to believe all that stuff is inside those small transaxles on zero turn mowers though.

If I'm not mistaken someone on here works for hydrogear.

You are correct, sorta. The EZT's (Economical Zero Turn) were not designed to be easily serviced. They were designed to go on lower end ZT mowers and to outlast the rest of the mower. The thought was if the transmission lasted 5 or 6 years, the rest of the mower would be falling apart around it. These were the box store ZT mowers of <$1800 from 7 or 8 years ago.

For instance, most of the Hustlers mentioned above use the ZT2800 series of transmissions, not the EZT's. The ZT2800's have oil drain plugs and spin-on filters. Unless they've been recently added, the EZT's have neither. You can still change the oil on a EZT, but I think you have to take it off the mower, roll it over and drain the oil through the vent. So, it is doable, but requires a lot more effort than their more expensive units.

Do you have a parts manual? What exactly does the transmission do?

See, I knew someone would be able to help.

I'm no expert on these transmissions. We're an aluminum foundry and make castings that go in HydroGear transmissions. I know our castings well, but am not so knowledgeable about the assembly. The best help I can offer is having contacts within HydroGear to ask for help. If there's someone on hear that repairs the units, maybe they'll chime in.

I do know one of the biggest problems with the EZT's was bearing failure due to oil breakdown. The vent gets covered and plugged with debris while mowing. With the vent plugged, the transmission can't breathe as the ambient temperature heats and cools. Condensation forms on the inside walls of the transmission and gets in the oil. This isn't a big deal if you change your oil every year. But after 4 or 5 years, the lubricity of your oil is gone. Moral of the story - if you've got a mower with EZT's, you need to check your transmission vents ever so often.

Turkey you are spot on. My vent tube was clogged up by a good friend of mine .....the dirt dauber. Also love getting into the water pumps at the pee hole on boat motors but that's another story...

I was just going along mowing and bang it quit on the right side , no noise no nothing just quit working. I did have to turn it upside down and the oil was brown and looked awful. All the parts look great except for the seal that was blown under the main shaft that holds the hydro fan and pulley therefore the bearing right under it is in bad shape to. All I know to do is replace the seals and that main shaft bearing and try that. All the other parts look great and both piston tubes all have suction. Only thing I can do is try and see if that fixes it. Those hydro gear trans pump are a sight to see . It's like a rubics cube with stickers rearranged .

That's the one I have ......I think.

Sounds like you're on the right track. Good luck.

Thanks a bunch. Ill need the luck.