Chosen Solution
Craftsman Lt1500 stuck in gear, won’t start won’t move
Try rocking the lawn mower forward and back while shift the gear selector .Once its in neutral it should start. Hope this helps
jimmydawson0420 worst case scenario would be a bad transaxle. If the trick by @jimfixer does not work, try purging your transaxle. Directions for that are found Mower is stuck in neutral gear
I have a similar problem with shifting on a 917.272672. Very difficult to shift. I may not have the answer but I can tell you what it is not., at least on my unit. I removed the transaxle opened and cleaned each part. The grease was like clay except where the parts made contact. I installed new grease , “S Cotton Picker Spindle Grease 00”, that is the actual name, not a opinion. Well it helped the overall shifting but it is not as good as expected. I did not need to replace any parts but that may be where I errored. I had noticed over the years that the transaxle drive pulley would wear and vibrate when running and have replaced it some time ago. It is back to that point again and needs replacing but I don’t think that is my shifting problem, but due to that vibration the drive shaft from it to inside of the transaxle has a bit of slack and can be moved. I think my problem is in that shaft is binding with the gear inside . I neglected to say that when the motor is off, it shifts as expected. That means the gear shaft is under stress when you push on the brake because the motor is still pulling on the pulley. In starting my rebuild project of course I tried to find out the availability of parts and the bearings for the shaft are not available . If you know of a supplier please post the information. Charlie C.
