1982 John Deere 108 transaxle problem

Hi all, been searching on here for a dew days trying to find a solution. Having an issue that has been present since I bought the tractor used.

Ok, so in warm weather, in 1st and 2nd gear, the tractor lunges as if you were pushing the clutch in and bailing it back out. What I've been doing is as soon as the forward movement starts to disappear, I push the clutch in, put it in neutral, then back in gear, then go again. It does this until I'm about halfway done cutting the grass, then the problem mostly goes away. 3rd gear doesn't work. 4th, 5th, and reverse gears have no problems.

Now it is cold out, and we had our first snow, so I figured I'd try out the snowblower. Well, 1st and 2nd barely work, 3rd still doesn't work, 4th, 5th, and reverse are fine.

When I got the tractor, the guy hadown mentioned nothing about this problem, and the tractor wouldn't start, so I couldn't test drive it. He said that he put a non JD drive belt on it, so I changed it out to a JD belt, but it didn't fix the problem.

Sorry for the long post, but figured you are better off with all the info to start. I'd really like to fix this, and refuse to take it to a shop since I have the tools and ability to fix most anything. I just need a little guidance on where to start looking for the problem.

Thanks in advance.

hello kwilcox; sounds like a polterdise at work. the 108 is not a vari drive or that is where we would start,,investigate as to whether or not the previous owner may have
changed the pulley sizes as so many have done in recent years,the power train has slippage somewhere by pulley or belt size being wrong or sheard keys from the pulley on the
engine through the trans to the shafts on the axle which are keyed to the wheel hubs,pull the sheet metal and start checking..

How would I tell if the pulley size is right? Should there be part numbers stamped on them? I can start checking stuff this weekend.

http://www.link_disallowed/wwwboard/view_all.cgi?bd=lawn&msg=12163 go to this site and compare your stuation to his

I think you have a peerless 801 transaxle in your 108.
Punch up Peerless 740045 manual.
Mymowerparts has a pdf download for free that should cover yours.

Link didn't work, but after some searching I found it. Yep, that is the same problem. Looks like I have to replace the shift keys. Thanks.

Sweet, thanks. The manual was the next thing I was going to look for.

I had a 1984 JD 116 with peerless transaxle that did the same thing. As someone else mentioned it sounds like the shift keys need replacing. It not a hard job.
PS After you drop the transaxle there is a recessed area in the center of the housing that has a bolt in it. This can easily be overlooked with all the crude built up in the recess. Also if any of the bronze bushings in the transaxle need replacing I found matching ones at ACE Hardware where they have all the drawers of specialty items.

As mentioned broken shift keys are not uncommon on the 800 series transaxles. Seems that many think that it is a shift on the go transmission (without clutching) when it is simply a manual transmission with an inline shift pattern.