New 3240 owner with stuck transaxle issue

[t6430gr]

Hello everyone. I am a new user to this site. Unfortunately, I am joining because I need advice, but can clearly see the enthusiasm about Cub Cadet tractors on here and I find that encouraging. I think I'll be sticking around checking out your great posts. I can see you are a great online community that’s eager to see the Cub Cadet pedigree live on!

Now for my novel: First of all, I live in a small town, and have been push mowing my small lot for almost 15 years. I recently purchased a large property in the country, and will be mowing around 4 acres of yard. I decided to buy the largest mower I could find without breaking my bank, and settled on a used Cub Cadet 3240 with a 60” deck that was advertised locally. The original owner only has about an acre to mow, the unit was in fantastic condition, and thought the $1,300 price tag was a bargain compared to most other mowers in this size range. I test drove it around and tested the blade engagement and hydrostatic drive. The deck wouldn’t lift properly, but I could see the obvious problem. Also, the seat didn’t want to adjust, and it was stuck forward. *NOTE* It has about 650 hrs on it.

I removed the deck, and put the mower on my trailer separate. I drove it home and parked the trailer in my garage to repair it where it sat. I had to replace the right side deck rod as it was snapped off, but that only cost me about $20 to fix. The deck lift should be good now. I was able to blow out the dust and grass clippings and lubricated the seat rails. All is good now. While I had the seat off, I used compressed air to blow off the buildup of usual junk from the transaxle area. I put the seat back on, started the mower on the trailer and double checked the deck lifts. All seemed great, and I couldn’t wait to use this bad boy! I set the parking brake and tied it all back down.

I drove it to my new property yesterday and removed the tie down straps and started it up. I disengaged the parking brake and began to move the mower backwards off the trailer. After moving about 2 ft or so, the mower stopped. Weird I thought, but jumped off to see if I left on a tie down or if my loose deck brackets had caught. Nope! Everything looked good! I started it back up, and tried again. Same thing. No more reverse. I pulled up to the front of the trailer and tried it again. Same thing, and it stopped in the same exact spot! I tried this several more times, and it would always move up to the trailer front, and back down normally until I got to the same spot. When the point that it would stop moving was reached, I could hear it load the engine and the transaxle would groan like it was really trying. I thought that I would try pulling out the lever that is supposed to free up the trans so I could at least back it off. Nope! That wouldn’t work either. I turned off the engine, made sure the lever was locked into the outmost position, and tried pulling it off. I rocked it back and forth, and it wouldn’t budge.

At this point, I was starting to see red! I started the engine back up and pulled it back forward. After a few more attempts, it actually moved about a foot more backwards from where it would stop in reverse. My wife clapped and hollered “progress!” Personally, I wasn’t feeling the moment. I thought ok, maybe if I get this thing off, then I can get it level and try it off the trailer. Unfortunately, I now noticed it had limited movement in the forward direction too! It was now stopping about a foot shorter than where it would before! It would move in reverse to the new spot further back and stop, but now I couldn’t get it all the way forward either. I turned off the motor and tried a couple of more times to unlock the rear axle, but it wouldn’t move an inch. I did check the axle fluid, but the trailer isn’t allowing the tractor to be completely level. Besides that, its level indicates between the tip of the stick and the add line. I’m picking up some Shell Rotella 15W40 after work today and adding some, but I don’t think it will make that much difference. My real concern is that the axle is shot since I feel the tractor was stopping at predictable positions. It’s as though an axle component allows limited rotation and physically stops the tractor, and allows only limited travel.

FYI, I tried holding down the axle lock pedal, and there wasn’t any perceivable difference in behavior. Also, I was careful to strap this tractor down using only the frame and not any linkage. I don’t know if I backed it in reverse the same length of my trailer or not when I test drove it, but I didn’t notice anything.

So, now I’m leaning on you guys to give me some advice. I think this mower is a supreme product as it's made right here in Amercia, but the carpet has been yanked out from under me emotionally. I have a really nice $1,300 paper weight that is stuck on my trailer, and my new yard is quickly turning into a jungle! I’m really hoping that I wasn’t just taken to the bank here! I thought my judgment was better than this, but I’m glad I didn’t check out this mower for a friend or relative only for them to have this experience.
I would GREATLY appreciate any advice you can give me. Thanks in advance!
Greg