Belts on going good in my troy

I got the belts right the first time, I put  about a half hour on it messing aroumd in my driveway......the belts are working the clutch the way they should , when i get off the pedal it stops and it ganes speed as i go down on the peddle, high gear is actually pretty fast [I wouldn't mow that fast].........low gear is very low and reverse is reverse......now for my questions,;

it seems to be shifting hard???.....maybe the operator or maybe it needs a little work it has been sitting a long time....

I put it up against a tree in low gear and dug two pretty deep holes in packed gravel without hesitation.......but I locked up in gear, and had to shut it down to get it out of gear......that is a pain in the butt when you put a blade on it and get in a place where you can't push any more.....I have 1960 something wards that does the same thing, i figured after all those years that would change.....correct me if I'm wrong, they didn't change much under the deck.....????I guess I need to find me a little tractor

I'm hoping I can fix it..........but i doubt it.......please clue me in

while I was waiting for my belts this morning i got to looking at the steer linkage both tie rods have worn an oval in the end at the gear and have a little slop.....I took one off and it looked like it could have had a bushing in it at one time......there are remnants of something in the hole.......???   if there are bushings I need to get some......

It's pretty common with the VariDrive for it to lock in forward/reverse gear when met with resistance because the rear belt can't fully declucth to let the trans freewheel so the gears bind, what I have to do is rock the tractor back and forth violently while holding the clutch in and pulling on the lever until it pops out.

VariDrive is great for cutting the grass and not much else, this from a guy who has a VariDrive offroader! Lol

and I thought I was buying a good pusher, that is how little i know about these machines.......I've got my eyes on a little mitsubishi diesel
SATOH tractor that was made in japan and shipped to the states with the service man who bought  it......four wheel drive pto......the lady is just wanting to hold on to it in memory of her loved one......the older i get the more i can understand her feelings...........

thanks for all your help.........

I'm sitting here thinking [ that gets me in trouble sometimes ]......If a guy could build a lever to release the pressure on the short belt tensioner, that would free up the gearbox wouldn't it???  and let you shift when under pressure???......that belt is pretty well set, I don't THINK it would jump out with a little slack??

You guys have probably tried this, so if you get some time let me know your thoughts......I kind of like this toy........I would like to keep it......just don't like the gear jam...

I haven't officially tried it yet but something I've been toying with is figuring a way to make a connection between the clutch rod and the rear idler pulley, it doesn't seem to need to move too much to create the slack (I've tested with the cover plate off) but belt guides will be needed so the belt doesn't jump off the rear pulley trust me on that!

I've got a lot of other things that i want to do before  i start that project.......but i'll be thinking about it .............My first thought would be just a lever handle with a small cable going to a little pulley and then to the tensioner arm...........when I took the belt off and put new one on I just used a small bar to give me enough slack ...seems like a cable and pulley would give it enough slack to unlock the gear.....maybe ?????......I can't wait for that little project    

nice to hear this isn't a completely stupid idea ;-)