OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Four Stroke Lawn Mower Frames Toro AWD

I had a Toro AWD dropped off here this morning for a service and to look at why the rear wheels were not driving. When I lift the front wheels off the ground they spin as you would expect but when I put them back down they stop. There is no sign of the rear wheels attempting to drive. I have adjusted the cables so they pull evenly but still no go. I haven't had a real study of it yet but just wondering if anybody has had a play with one and has any pointers?

Hi Norm,

I've only had a few of the 2 rear wheel drive Toro mowers but they look the same as the AWD except no front self drive axle.

I probably just check the drives the same as you Norm ,spin the pulley make sure the axles turn then remove the wheels
and check the drive gears ,the drive type is common with the drive key having a flat on the drive side and a taper on the
freewheel side , then making sure the parts are installed correctly and not excessively worn.
The drive key shouldn't be stuck in the axle slot it should move freely.

When I get Toro mowers I throw them out after taking parts off, so I may still have working self drives if you need free parts.

Some people hate these mowers with a passion.

Cheers
Max.

NormK can you post the model number? If so I see if I can find a SM on the Toro site.

Hi AVB,
It is a Toro Recycler lawn mower model number 20353 and the serial number is 407655672.
This mower has done very little work and looks in very good condition so I am not sure why the drive would be playing up so early in its life. The drive engage cables appear to be moving ok, I adjusted the rear cable because it wasn't moving but that made no difference.
Thanks Max,
I will see how I get on, there can't be much wrong with it, the thing is newly brand new, it has done no work at all.

NormK apparently Toro doesn't have a service manual for this model but is a little info of the drive cables adjustment. It might help.

Thanks AVB,
I did the cable adjustment thing but it made no difference. The cables are moving so I will have to delve deeper and look at what is happening with the gearboxes when he brings it back.

As the front wheels spin fine with them in the air that tells me the front belt is on but when I put them on the ground it doesn't drive, to me sounds like there is a problem with the gearbox. The rear wheels make no attempt to drive so that may be a belt problem

Toro can't make a decent residential mower to save their life. For a thousand dollar mower, they are poor quality and gearboxes strip out and on some models its a PITA to even replace the belt.

Pair that with the fact we only have 2 dealers in the entire state over here (1 in perth which mainly deal with commercial toro which is quality equipment) and you have no hope

Hi Tyler,
The plastic gear boxes turned me off straight away and you are correct about the rear belt being an absolute PITA to get back on. And to make matters worse these numbnuts use a square Robertson head screw and on rear drive you can't get at these screws without removing the rear axle. At least on the rear drive models they have a panel on top you can remove to get at these screws but on the AWD they didn't bother with the panel.

Yerp ,worst mower ever ,I guess that's why Bunnings sell it, just like the YardKing self propelled mower.

I like the 1953 Toro Whirlwind 18 inch mower though , sold here as a Rawco in 1956.

The Toro had a mesh that was inserted to turn the mower into a mulcher mower.

https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au//forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=61757

Cheers
Max.

And this Toro is back again, the rear belt has come off again. So now to get to the belt keeper and close it up I have to remove the complete back end so I can get to the 3 screws holding the belt keeper on. Fantastic design
Ended up getting the belt keeper off after removing the back end ( in the end if anybody ever has to do this you don't have to remove the back end, found that out later) if you remove the spring from the keeper you can then rotate the gearbox forward and get at the 3 screws (as long as you have an SO2 square driver bit) I then welded a piece of 3mm flat on the inside of both sides of the keeper (had to grind a little bit out to clear the pulley as the 3mm was too tight on the pulley. No there is no chance that the keeper can let the belt come off as there is only a few thou clearance. See what happens this time. Getting sick of this rubbish machine

I feel your pain Norm. I'm too is getting tired so much junk being put out by the factories. Only the consumer would be willing to pay for quality instead quantity. What worst is the OEMs are now limiting the parts availability in order to force the consumer into buying new equipment every time their machine breaks down.

And I don't think even an engineer that has actually had to repair the equipment is ever involved in the designs now.

And for the third time this POS is back. Completely locked up with grass that has locked the rear wheels up solid. I told him they were not suitable for cutting long grass they are for mowing lawns every couple of weeks. At least he did say that if I didn't want to fix it again he would understand

I somehow doubt he would understand after you clearly told him not to mow overgrown grass with it.

Hi MF,
I can't believe how hard the grass has wrapped around the rear axle it is so tight it has locked the axle solid. This type of self propelled is totally useless except for mowing lawns every couple of weeks

Do it but charge him more.