# Changing Transaxle Oil on GT 5000



## jeffgt

Yesterday on Garden Web the subject of changing the transaxle fluid came up. I had been thinking of doing it for a couple of weeks, so decided to give it a shot. This is a fairly long post so I'm cutting and pasting it here.

When this topic came up yesterday I decided to find out how hard it really is to change the transaxle fluid on the GT 5000. For anybody interested this is what I did.

I had bought a set of Hydro Gear service video from Ebay that demonstrated tearing down and rebuilding the transaxle so I felt confident an oil change would be straightforward. On may way home I stopped at Walmart and picked up 4 quarts of 15w-50 Mobil 1, Hydro Gear ships them filled with 20w-50 dino oil.

I drove the tractor around the yard for five minutes to warm up the oil as the video recommended. I then brought the tractor into the garage, removed the wheel weights and loosened the lug bolts. Then I lifted the back end with a floor jack under the hitch plate and removed booth rear wheels. Remember to block the front wheels since they do not have breaks. I released the idler puller arm that keeps the drive belt in tension and worked the belt up and off of the transaxle. All the control links are on the right side of the tractor, near a hole in the frame allowing good access. I pulled the cotter pin holding the parking brake linkage, removed the washer and freed the linkage from the transaxle. Then I set the parking break to pull the bar out of the way.

The motion control lever linkage is attached by bolt with a lock nut. Those came off quickly. The next item to go is a bracket on the lower front center attaching the transaxle to the tractor frame. Remove the three bolts and pull the bracket free. The only things left are four bolts, two on each side, holding the axle to the frame. I removed those and pulled the transaxle as far to the left as possible, this allowed me to slide the left side of the transaxle free from the frame and rest the hub on the floor while I freed the right side. The free wheel engaging rod is attached to the transaxle with a spring and can be left on, just make sure it doesn’t catch on the rear draw plate as you remove the transaxle. This was my first time removing the transaxle and it took me about 25 minutes. But now that I know what I’m doing I see it could be done in less then 10 minutes.

Before going further I cleaned the transaxle off, it’s surprising how much mud and other stuff gets caught on the top. The cleaning took about 15 minutes to do a through job. Then following the videotape instructions I removed the breather tube from the top and inverted the transaxle over an oil catch pan. I left it drain for 20 minutes, came back and removed the plug covering the oil top off port found on the upper right rear of the axle housing. I left it for another 15 minutes before moving the transaxle to the bench and examining the oil. These was some milkiness, which I took as water contamination along with slight smell of carbon. I measured the oil and found it was slightly more than 3 quarts.

I then started to add oil through the breather hole on the top. The oil level reached the bottom of the oil top off port at about 3 ¼ quarts. I put the plug in and added another ¼ quart to compensate for trapped air. I reattached the breather tube and reinstalled the transaxle in the tractor. I didn’t time it, but I think it took 15 minutes to get it back together. I then started the tractor and purged the transaxle.

All together it took about 1 and a half hours to do. Since the oil was not in perfect shape, and was low I think it was worth doing and make it a part of my 200 hour service. Keeping in mind I put more than 200 hours on the machine the first year I’ve owned it, and worked it very hard to boot, I think for many people there would be no need to perform this oil change in the first 10 years they own the tractor. There is an internal oil filter that I left alone. To change it the transaxle’s bottom cover plate must be removed, and a seal kit (which I did not have) is required to reseal the unit. The procedure I described will probably work for Craftsman lawn tractor too, but I don’t know.


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## GT5000

How much oil is in the GT5000 6sp manual transaxle?


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## aegt5000

Jeff...

Great Post, thanks for the info.
Does the guy you bought the HydroGear service tape from 
regularly sell the tape on an e-bay store ?
If so, could you post a link.


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## jeffgt

aegt5000,

It was just a regular Ebay auction, I just searched for "Hydro Gear" occasionally things pop up.


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## leolav

Good Post. Good to hear that you like your machine also.

LL


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## Argee

Jeff,

I'm assuming yours is a hydro tranny. I have a 6 speed like GT5000 and a quite a few others out here. The manual informs how to add oil via the pipe plug on the side, but they don't give any views on draining it....Just curious if this tranny was covered in a portion of the video?


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## jeffgt

I do have a hydro transaxle. The video only discusses Hydro Gear products, I do not know who makes the gear transaxles for AYP.


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## Ed_GT5000

There is a drain plug on the 6-speed manual trans.... at least there was on my GT3000. I assume the GT5000 is the same.........




:tractorsm


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## Argee

> _Originally posted by Ed_GT5000 _
> *There is a drain plug on the 6-speed manual trans.... at least there was on my GT3000. I assume the GT5000 is the same.........
> 
> 
> 
> 
> :tractorsm *


Where is the drain plug located?


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## john walsh

This reply likely won't help Randy, but on my Craftsman GT w/ a 22HP Kohler and 6-speed transaxle, once the left rear wheel is removed (I used a floor jack under the left rear) the drain and fill plugs are pretty easy to spot. I drained it overnight to try to get the maximum gunk out, reinstalled drain plug and refilled with 30wt until it oozed out of the fill plug hole. My memory of amount to refill is not coming to me, but it might have been a bit more than a quart.


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## newbie2

That "milkiness" was due to water getting in there. I had that happen on a mower that sat outside. When it rained water drained down the gearshift handle and into the tranny. You also see that milkiness on outboard motor lower units when the lower unit seals start failing.


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## wjjones

I did mine a few years back, and used synthetic 20w50 oil. I dont know if the synthetic is better, or not but it whines way less. I still havent figured out why it still drives forward with the purge lever out though.


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## newbie2

The synthetic can tolerate higher temps better. I am surprised that it would make a noticeable sound difference but maybe that oil gets pretty hot. It could be the dino oil thins out more. I read something similar regarding changing the oil for a skid steer.


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## wjjones

Yep when I drained out the conventional oil it was foamy, and smelled burnt. I checked it the other day while I was trying to troubleshoot the driving forward with the freewheel lever out issue, and it still looked really clean.


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## newbie2

What kind of mower/tractor is it? It sounds like it may not have adequate cooling for the oil.
Good reason to go synth. On my JD2210 there is a large cooler and fan on it and the oil still looks new even though it is DINO oil. Synthetic would be a good thing for it too except it takes about 4 gallons. 

Some folks are afraid of synth as they think its somehow artificial but it is chemically engineered out of natural gas instead of the gooey stuff. The molecules are created "to be all that they can be" and it needs less viscosity improvers.


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## wjjones

Craftsman ys4500 917.276800 it started the first time I used my new trailcutter bushhog. It did fine, and when I got home I noticed some large weed stems, small tree limbs, etc had wedged up in between the right rear tire, and the brake, freewheel lever, etc. I removed the wheel, and discovered they had tore the mow in reverse sensor wire loose. I repaired it, and put some new conduit on it, and zip tied it back in place. But the first time I pulled the lever out to purge the transaxle it will sit still in the reverse pedal position with the lever out but when I push the pedal forward the tractor takes off. I was under the impression that when the lever is out its not supposed to pull at all? So thats the problem Im having I can mow, and drive it with no problem it just won't sit still for the forward purge procedure. The engine has to be running at the lowest idle on the throttle for the purge procedure.


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## newbie2

I assume that your brushhog is self powered or does the mower have a pto?

I wonder if you could jack up the rear wheels and try to purge it that way so the tractor wouldn't be moving in the process. Either that or there must be another purge release screw somewhere not obvious.

I have had similar problems mowing with my JD2210 invariably a limb pops up and gets wedged somewhere. I've started mowing with my front end loader down low in the front so that I have a chance of scraping things out of the way.


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## wjjones

Yes it has its own engine. I will try jacking it up to I just didnt think it would have the same effect as the normal procedure.


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## newbie2

wjjones said:


> Yes it has its own engine. I will try jacking it up to I just didnt think it would have the same effect as the normal procedure.


well, I'm certainly no expert , just thinking what I might try, be careful if jacked up, use jack stands too.


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## BigRed1

Argee said:


> Jeff,
> 
> EDITED: I have a 6 speed like GT5000 and a quite a few others out here. The manual informs how to add oil via the pipe plug on the side, but they don't give any views on draining it....Just curious if this tranny was covered in a portion of the video?


 Changing out the oil for the manual 6-sp is really quite simple.
Chock front tires to prevent from moving. Do on level ground. Keep trans in any gear, set parking brake.

Jack up from center of transaxle enough to get both rear tires off ground and put jackstands under the axle housings. Remove left wheel assy, but be careful as the weight will/could shift back to the right side. You will need the height as you'll be putting an oil pan under the transaxle to catch old oil, so you may need to raise up more.

Once left wheel/tire assy is remove, you will need to lower the lift jack and move it to the left wheel axle hub. Lift enough to remove the left jack stand. If your lift jack loses pressure you'll need to move the left jackstand out as far out as possible to give a clear work area to get to a couple pipe plugs, but if your lift is good leave under axle wheel hub, but remove the left jackstand and you'll see why later.

Looking straight on at left side of transaxle you'll see a couple "square" pipe plugs. One is down low and the other is up about axle height.
It takes either a 3/8 or 1/2 inch ratchet w/extension, don't remember which as it's been a couple years I did mine.

Remove lower plug and let drain into oil pan. It will take awhile as it's 30wt oil.

This is now where the lift jack comes into play. Just lower some to get the drain hole lower than the right side to help facilitate the draining process and get out as much of old oil as possible.
After drain of old oil, lift back up into level position and replace with the jackstand under left axle to stabilize safely.

Replace lower plug and tighten up to a tight snug. It is a tapered pipe plug, so it gets tighter the further it goes in and no gasket sealer, tape or pipe dope is required.

Now, remove upper plug. You may need a funnel with clear hose to put in oil, a oil dispenser bottle or whatever you think you need to get oil into this hole without making a mess. A squeeze bottle with a long neck to get neck into hole works great also and keeps messes to a minimum. I don't remember the exact amount of oil that's required, but 3qt seems about correct, but do watch.

Fill the transaxle up until you have the oil level with this hole and it's just barely dribbling out. Stop filling and replace the pipe plug. You're done and just need to clean up and replace wheel assy and lower to ground.

Keep watch for a couple days on the lower plug to be sure no oil seeps out. Tighten 1/16 to 1/8 turn if need be and repeat watch until no oil seepage. It's a heavy duty aluminum transaxle, but still aluminum and can crack if you do the gorilla torque with the pipe plugs.

BR1


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## wjjones

Yep I took mine out a few years back its a 356-0510 hydro gear. I just pulled the filler plug, and flipped it over to drain out that way. It does have a filter inside but I didnt change it yet.


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