The DREADED Tuff-Torq K46 Tranny
OK guys. I have a 2012 Husqvarna YTH 22V42 lawn tractor with 340 hours on it with the
"DREADED K46 TRANSAXLE". I noticed that my transaxle was starting to growl & whine and wasn't operating up to standard especially going uphill. After reading tons of "gloom & doom" postings on the internet forums regarding this "inadequate and/or under-performing" unit that incidentally is used in approximately 50- 60% of all lawn tractors manufactured across the board, I decided to do some independent investigating. I contacted Tuff-Torq (the manufacturer) and found out that this unit was designed with drain plugs in that transaxle and the recommended fluid change interval is after the first 50 hours and then every 200 hours thereafter with Full-Synthetic 5W-50 oil. In addition to this information, I learned that in order to cut costs, most (if not all) manufacturers specify Tuff-Torq to not provide transmission drain plugs and to fill the transmission with
conventional 10W-30 oil.
Fast forward to this past week:
I decided to change out my tranny fluid in my Tuff-Torq K46 transaxle after 5 years of service and 340 hours. I researched hours of youtube videos from people who had approached this subject in the past and was not intimidated by what I saw in their experiences. I called Tuff-Torq, ordered a drain plug kit and their standard gasket kit for a tranny rebuild (about $60 including shipping). My plan was to crack open the tranny, visually inspect the "damage" (if any) and then order replacement parts as needed as Tuff-Torq has a 25% re-stocking fee and return shipping isn't cheap.
The parts arrived and fearing the worst, I dropped the transmission and cracked it open. All of the magnets had a
very light blackish coating on them and no visible wear was observed on the gearing or other transmission parts. Cleaning off the old sealant and removing the rear wheels from the axles was the toughest part of the job as they were rusted on. To avoid this problem in the future, copious amounts of "NEVER-SEIZE" was applied to the re-polished axle bearing surfaces prior to re-assembly. New "Factory-Specified 5W-50" oil was installed along with drilling and tapping the lower transmission case cover for drain plugs. As my Husqvarna has the front-mounted fuel tank, all I have to do to change my tranny oil is to pull the plugs, remove the battery and battery box, remove the fan and pulley from the transmission and let gravity take over. I would have attached photos, but the server has a limit well under the capacity of my cell phone. I have posted pictures on garage journal and you can go to that via this link:
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=366290 Good luck! These are fixable as mine runs better than new. There are some other issues that can give the impression that you have tranny problems that are addressed on the garage journal forum site.