The Sears Suburban SS16 Garden Tractor is finally back on its wheels.

What started as a simple brake job turned into a longer journey (delays including general life stuff, holidays, and other fun projects) than initially planned and we ended up doing several other upgrades (it was tore apart anyways so why not do a few extras?) as part of this effort as well.

We have a few projects that are queued up so we should be able to finally put this machine to good use other than a paper weight!

Notes:

Dropping the transmission/transaxle is like peeling an onion. Just take apart anything connected to it until it falls out!

Feel free to use this as a reference at your own discretion or seek out better instructions. There are plenty of experts in cyberspace that may have different and better suggestions. Whatever you choose to do please use caution and be safe.

It seems that there are a couple of options to drop the transmission/transaxle from a Sears Suburban of this model but the general disassembly approach that we took on this project was roughly as follows (and reassembly was in general the reverse):

Block/Shim the space between the front axle and frame to avoid an unexpected pivot when lifting the rear of the tractor.

Remove the rear mower deck attachment bracket. It is bolted to the frame by 2 bolts each side. Not sure if this is required but having it out of the way seemed convenient.

Disconnect the drive belt. There is a belt guide attached to the transaxle that is connected by 2 bolts. I also disconnected the belt at the engine for more slack.

Disconnect the brake attachments to allow removal of the transaxle: a) The brake is attached by a turnbuckle to the brake arm assembly, b) the parking brake yoke is connected to the parking brake handle assembly by 2 small bolts, c) not sure if necessary but we also removed the parking brake handle assembly which is held on by a single nut on the handle.

The hi/lo shifter handle is connected by a cotter pin that must be removed.

The gear shift knob is screwed on.

The front of the transmission/transaxle is attached to the frame by a bracket. I unbolted the 2 bolts that were directly connected to the transaxle but if I were to do it again I'd probably try to remove the bolts to the bracket instead.

The approach shown unbolts the hitch plate as part of the transaxle assembly. The hitch plate is attached to the tractor frame by 3 bolts on each side. (This tractor was missing one bolt on each side.)


I also removed a lot of other items for painting purposes:

* Seat. Held on by 1 bolt.
* Tail Light Assembly. Held to fenders by 2 small bolts each side.
* Both fenders. They are held on by 3 bolts each where one of those bolts is shared with the hitch plate.
* Fuel Tank. Held on by 4 bolts. (This tractor was missing one bolt)
* Seat Spring. Held on by 2 bolts. (This tractor was missing one bolt)
* While the transaxle was out I removed the hi/lo shifter for painting purposes. It has 2 brackets held on by a bolt each. The knob is screwed on.


On reassembly we replaced missing and previously damaged bolts.