Cub Cadet Recon Zero Turn Hydro Pump

[BrianX128 107]

I have an older commercial Cub Cadet Recon 60 and the hydro pump is beginning to fail (I think). Last fall it was struggling on hills and just seemed like it was fighting everything. This winter I took the engine apart and re-did valves, new head gaskets, re-surfaced heads, etc on the Kohler Command 25. Was down to 80psi compression, now back to 140 and running a lot better.

 

That being said, it's still losing 600rpm on hills with the mower deck on and you can hear the hydro pump chattering when it's really fighting a hill. It appears to have a pump that is unobtainable and I'm not really sure what to do or try. https://www.cubcadet.com/en_US/all-products/pump---hydro/02004242P.html

 

That is what the pump looks like, but I can't find anything that isn't 2600$ price tag. I'm not even sure the mower is worth that if the pump was working properly. 

 

Symptom wise it just doesn't want to move without stuttering until it's warm. Once it's hot it's a lot better. More than half of my yard is flat and when you are mowing there you really wouldn't know much is wrong with it, but as soon as I get to the smaller portion of my yard that has hills it's just frustrating to use. Now that the engine is healthier the symptoms are a lot less noticeable with the rpm loss, but I'm thinking I'm on borrowed time with the pump. The "tank" models of the same era used a different pump and wheel motor config that is so much cheaper. It would be nice if there was a known way to use a different pump with the wheel motors or something. Just curious for any info or ideas anyone may have.

[JoeM 7,907]

Any YouTube vids on the pump repair? Looks like a Tough Torque Pump??? 

[BrianX128 107]

1 hour ago, JoeM said:

Any YouTube vids on the pump repair? Looks like a Tough Torque Pump??? 

All I've found is articles saying that the rebuild parts aren't available because the company that manufactured it got bought out and the company that now owns it only sells them fully rebuilt. I havent successfully found anything confirmed to work. Just threads of people trying similar parts to a version of this pump that was on some john deeres that don't work.