JD X300 Loses power

11 years ago

First post here on Garden Web. I have a 2008 John Deere X300 with 180 hours which I purchased along with my house. The mower is immaculate and seems to run fine except that as it warms up it has a harder and harder time making up the hills in my yard until it can't make it at all. No spinning wheels and no belts seem to be slipping. It does make a slight whining when driving forward. Air filters are clean.

Any ideas what could be causing this?

Comment (1)

javert
11 years ago
I kinda hate to be the first to weigh in on this, but ... Despite the low hours on the machine, this could be a case of drive belt slippage OR contaminated/low oil in the transaxle. I believe the x300 has a Tuff Torq K46 hydro, which is normally provided as a "never-needs-any-service" unit. However, it can be serviced. You can find several work-arounds on YouTube and lawn tractor forums. I prefer the method where you removed the transaxle from the tractor and turn it upside down over a plastic tub to drain it. Draining and refilling is done by removing the fan and prying out the black cap under it. The K46 holds 1.9 liters of 10W30 motor oil. ALL THAT SAID, the most likely reason I can think of for a tractor with only 180 hours to have contaminated transaxle oil would be pressure washing the underside of the tractor and hitting the axle unit.
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