OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames Greenfield 5xl / 8xl Clutch Slipping in Reverse

Hi Guys,
I recently bought a Greenfields 5xl / 8xl Ride on mower runs great however when i got to heel it into reverse it goes nowhere? forwards is strong, its just reverse it seems the pedal is as far as it can go down and no to little movement... l would also appreciate a point in the right direction on where to get a workshop Manuel for this mower...
Many Regards Ben.

Greenfield does not seem to supply workshop manuals to the public. If you contact the company and give the serial number as well as the model of your mower, they may help you with some information.

I suggest you look at this thread at Outdoorking:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...6&Words=greenfield&Search=true#Post33655

That concerns a case where a member had a problem with drive belt slip, which has much the same symptoms as clutch slip, and happens to fit your problem quite well. This tends to happen sometimes when the Greenfield automatic belt adjuster doesn't quite click forward to the next notch, and needs a bit of manual assistance. The thread includes the page from a Greenfield owner manual telling you how to provide the manual assistance required.

If the problem is not due to belt slip, you may need to reline the clutches of your mower, which is quite a difficult job, though a number of Outdoorking members have done it successfully and documented how they did it in our archives. For now, I suggest you look carefully at the belt adjustment thread. Please let us know whether the belt tensioning procedure fixes your problem. If it does not, we can talk about alternative causes.

It could be the too and fro adjustment of the pedal is not centred.

Or the clutch faces are too worn and are now too far apart for posative engaement in both directions. This is adjusted by removing the drive assembly and pulling it apart and adjusting with shims. Its a bit involved.
As grumpy has said, there are threads on the form about it.


Cheers, Bob.

Bob, what I regard as the greatest weakness in the Greenfield wheel-drive design is that in order to get forward and reverse drive together with automatic belt adjustment, the spring-loaded idler pulley adjacent to the clutches has to take full belt tension when you are driving forward. Because of this it has to have a ratchet system: when it moves forward to remove belt slack, it clicks into a more advanced position, then holds that new position when the mower is driven forward (the load on the idler is much higher in forward than in reverse). The problem is that sometimes the wear is not quite enough for it to click into the next notch, so the belt is a bit loose when driving forward. If I hear about one that goes backward but not forward, I tend to suspect a "between notches" belt adjuster problem. It isn't likely that the reverse clutch will be more worn than the forward clutch. AFAIK the later Greenfields do not have a clutch linkage adjustment (some of the early ones do).

Yep, tension is the first check.


I would have assume some slippage and evidence of, were that happening. But never having been a greenfields operator it would be a big assumption.