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Something bad happened. Ventrack 3000 series lawn tractor

Melensdad

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
The little lawn tractor is a Ventrac. It is a rear engine, articulated & oscillating side slope mowing, 4 wheel drive and bumpy ground breast of a machine with a front mower deck.

Something bad happened.

The rear wheels are no longer powered. There was a noice. There was white smoke. I thought I burnt out a belt but premlimary inspection seems to show the belts are in tact. I need to do a deep dive.

On the bight side, mower unit is powered, front wheels are powered. So it still owes on flat ground. About 80% of what we use it for is flat or gently sloping lawn areas. The other 20% is going to be a challenge if I can't figure out the repair for the rear drive.

Looks like it might be hydrostatic drive? I'm oping that is belt powered and the belt failed. But I didn't see a broken belt anywhere. So I need to dig in and try to figure it out. My machine is long discontinued. But dam it has served me well.

IMG_2453.jpeg
 
Hope you get it figured out soon Bob. The other day when you mentioned mowing with a cub cadet I wondered if you still had the Ventrac.
 
Doc said:
Hope you get it figured out soon Bob. The other day when you mentioned mowing with a cub cadet I wondered if you still had the Ventrac.
Click to expand...
Ventrac replaced the Cub Cadet

My Ventrac is now so old they don't seem to support it anymore.

It is an amazing machine. How many tractors articulate and oscillate and are stable on side slopes? Ventrac is the only machine that I found that 'owned' my slopes without a but pucker.

I'm hoping the rear hydrostatic drive didn't fail. All I know is that I had a lot of white smoke and lost the rear drive. Dragged it up to the driveway to let it cool. Rain storms started and it drove to the far garage/workshop with front wheel drive, while mowing. So the failure seems to be the rear hydrostatic drive???
 
This site has the owners and parts manuals for your machine.
www.ventrac.com

Download Operator and Parts Manuals

Download Operator and Parts Manual for Ventrac tractors and attachments.
www.ventrac.com www.ventrac.com

In the owners manual, page D-6, it states "The VENTRAC 3000 has three drive belts: onePRIMARY drive belt, one REAR transaxle belt and oneFRONT transaxle belt."
Page D-7 shows the rear belt. It appears to be hidden. Viewable only from the bottom of the tractor?
 
bczoom said:
This site has the owners and parts manuals for your machine.
www.ventrac.com

Download Operator and Parts Manuals

Download Operator and Parts Manual for Ventrac tractors and attachments.
www.ventrac.com www.ventrac.com

In the owners manual, page D-6, it states "The VENTRAC 3000 has three drive belts: onePRIMARY drive belt, one REAR transaxle belt and oneFRONT transaxle belt."
Page D-7 shows the rear belt. It appears to be hidden. Viewable only from the bottom of the tractor?
Click to expand...
I'm hoping that is what it is. I've got it back in the garage but have not had time to really look at it. Hoping to get to it tomorrow. I towed it up to the house driveway. Started it up and it barely drove up a mild slope in the yard to get it back to the workshop garage. The traction on slopes apparently comes from he rear drive? The front drive works fine, there is no rear drive. On the flat lawn it mows fine, so even if it takes some time to get to I can still mow the front lawn.

I didn't see any broken belt on the ground, but a rain front was coming so I was more worried about trying to get the tractor back up the hill.
 
So I got an access panel off and found the belt was NOT broken. It slipped off the pulley and cut through a plastic cooling fan that was mounted on top of the pulley... or cut through 1/2 of it. Which is what caused the noise and the smoke.

Found the tension arm. Found the 2 springs that control the tension arm. Released the springs so I could get the belt back onto the pulley. A bit more complicated than it sounds because the belt was still stuck in the plastic fan, which it has melted parts. But eventually the belt was in place, tension reset. The fan is still going to do its job, at least well enough.

But, me being me, I did manage to get battery acid on my arm. So baking soda bath for my arm and all is well.

Charging the battery now.
 
Well a bit of a premature celebration.

It won't start. Not sure what it up. I had it on a Battery Tender to charge. When I got off the big tractor the green light was illuminated indicating it was charged. Tried to start it and it clearly was not charged. Honestly sore and crabby at the moment, so it is just sitting in the dark, like a bad child, waiting for me to return and dispense justice. . . or perhaps to just hook it up to a real battery charging unit?

I'll get to that later. But for now a good bit of the yard is mowed, with the big tractor.
 
Fingers and toes crossed for you. I'm lucky my jacobsen fired up. It needs work this summer. I have a bent tie rod rubbing on the oil pan that's created a pin hole. I have to keep filling the oil every time I mow.
 
I'm sure you're on this but how old is that battery? Maybe a new one while you're tearing into everything would not be a bad idea.

I feel your pain. In getting my 19 year old Cub Cadet ready for a new mowing season, I attempted to replace both front tires that were getting dry rot and cracking. Both had tubes. Still holding air after 19 years. The tires were literally welded to the wheels with rust. I had to cut the tires off with a Sawzall.

After almost 2 hours trying to install the new tubes and tires with arthritic hands and a lousy attitude I took them to a tire store and had them do it. They told me I pinched one of the tubes in my futile effort to DIY but they patched that. All told, $125.00 for 2 new tires installed. Not bad I guess, but I remember the day one could get 4 new tires on a Spring tire sale for $99.00 and no sales tax in those days. :ROFLMAO:
 
Well I'm sort of stumped?

Before the belt issue that affected the rear drive, the engine was running like a top.

Now I have the belt back on, but the engine won't start.

It is now cranking over just fine, but seems like it is not getting spark?

Sequence of events:

Horrible squeal, puff of smoke, engine still running. Mower deck still cutting. Rear drive is not working.
Drive it across the valley under it's own power, to the slope near the road, turn it off.
Tow it up to the driveway.
Start it up and drive it to the workshop.
Sits overnight.
Reinstall the belt.
Won't crank over, so betting there is something that belt has to do with the charging system too?
Charge the battery.
Sits overnight.
Cranks over just fine.
Keep cranking.
Doesn't start.
Cleaned air filter.
Checked the wiring (I had a start/charge issue in the past) and all looks good.
Cranks over fine.
But while cranking over it doesn't start. Doesn't even pop or sputter like it wants to start.

At this point maybe flooded? Never had that issue with this engine before. Usually it sputters a couple times while the 'choke' is pulled out and then fires up. Again, the belt issue doesn't seem to be related to the engine issue, and the engine issue is new.

Engine is a 21hp Kawasaki. Vertical shaft. 2 cylinder.

Walked away. Sitting with a dog and a diet Pepsi. Computer on my lap. Debating next step.
 
Let is sit about 45 min.

Tried again.

Nothing good. Just keeps cranking over but won't sputter and start. I smell gas, so its getting gas, going with flooded engine at this point.
 
5th time I walked over there to try. Nothing.

This is with the choke OFF, you can hear it sputter a couple times.

Anyone got any suggestions?


 
Really really hoping I don't need to pull the plugs. I can get to 1 of the 2 of them. It would be a major disassembly to get to the other plug, require pulling the gas tank.

I did "one more try" and it started to fire up but I let off the key too quick and lost it. Tried again, same thing. Probably chugged to life for a second or two. So if flooded was the problem, I'm going to wait it out.

Besides, the oven repair guy just showed up to pull our oven out of the wall and replace both of the convection fans and both of the sensors. Under warranty. So I figure I have 90 minutes of 'babysitting' to do before I go back out to the shop and get frustrated again.
 
It'll start tomorrow. Unless the carb is somehow leaking fuel into the intake.
Pull the easy plugs out and let it sit for the night
 
Wouldn't start at first.

I thought maybe the belt that slipped off and then re-installed, was slowing down the cranking. So I took off 1 of the 2 tension springs.

Got the tractor to start, with 50% belt tension, not sure if it was coincidence or not.

Went out to mow, but there is still no power to the rear wheel.

Went back to the shop, put the tension spring back onto the belt pulley.

Tractor sat for maybe 30 minutes as a friend stopped by briefly to talk.

Barely touched the key and the engine fired right up. Thinking the tight belt would drive the hydrostatic rear drive turned out to be a mistake, the belt tension did NOT engage the rear drive. So I can mow the flat areas but not the slope area, and the tractor got stuck several times in the front yard and the pool yard.

It is manageable. At least I can get a mower into some of the tighter places and under the shorter trees.

But I need to do more digging. I'd like to get the rear wheels working again.
 
I finally found the correct parts and operators manual for my tractor.

Apparently the belt is for the rear transaxle. So now I need to see if a seal for the the hydraulic fluid got blown out? If the transaxle case is damaged, etc. Or maybe the belt is improperly installed and not properly installed on the rear pulley?

Screenshot 2025-05-08 at 1.42.11 PM.png




At this point it is lower-mid priority on the "to do" list because at least I can cut most of lawn with it and I can get to the tight spots where the big tractor is a no-go. I wish this hadn't happened at the start of mowing season!!!
 
What kind of clutch assembly does it have to engage the mower?
When my clutch went bad, I had all kinds of smoke and it really bogged the engine down. After replacing it, the tractor was fine.
 
bczoom said:
What kind of clutch assembly does it have to engage the mower?
When my clutch went bad, I had all kinds of smoke and it really bogged the engine down. After replacing it, the tractor was fine.
Click to expand...

It has a lever that switches from "Park" to "run" to "run easier"

Not the actual terms it uses, but the thing is really weird. 2 hydrostatic drives, both driven by belts, with a center articulation and oscillation for steering.

I looked at the price of a new unit in case I need to replace it and decided it would be financially wiser to simply shoot myself in the head than to buy a new one. They discontinued the "3000" series and now only sell a more traditional looking but still articulating/oscilating belt driven dual hydrostatic drive tractor. They cost as much as new car! WTH??? I'm too cheap for that crap. Used units are in the $20+K range for a glorified lawn tractor!?! $25K+ for a new one. I'll argue this is a far more robust machine than a Cub Cadet or JD lawn tractor, but damn.



bczoom said:
That's life my friend. Mom nature throws us thick, lush (and wet) grass at the beginning of the season. A strain for most mowers thus it eats parts, especially belts. Come August, it's crispy dry and very easy to mow.
Click to expand...

I keep extra mower belts on hand for this very reason. But not these specialized drive belts.
 
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