I have a 2017 Zforce 800 EX and the park went out in my transmission, it indicates but isn't there, all the other gears work normal and I was told by a few mechanics to just use the emergency brake and not waste money on replacing it. I want to make sure that it won't do further harm not have the park as I don't have a problem using Neutral and the E Brake as most machines don't have the park feature anyway. Thanks in advance for any advice that can be given.
Well, the parking paw or lever engages to a gear on the driven shaft that locks it from turning. That Lever is more fragile then most people know. It can easily be cracked , bent, broken or break teeth off as there can be easily be greater stresses on it that it can handle. In that light, it should never be used in transport or on most any sloping hill. Basically the safest use is...never use it or only on level or near level ground. I never use it.
With that said, as far as your question, it would depend on what has happened to it. If it has lost part of it or some teeth, it can move around and might...might get pulled-up into a gear-set under the right conditions.. and if that happens that's the end of that engine case usually. On the other hand if it just cracked the ring like most, it is still around the drum and is just laying away from its mate on the driven shaft. If that's the case it will just ride there from now on and cause no problems. So you see, it a tough question to answer. If it were me I would go in through the drain plug with a small flex magnet to see if I could find any sign of metal parts. If none were found I would assume the ring was cracked and I would go a head and run it as is with the thought in the back of my mind that I might need to...at some time..buy that crate 1000 from CFM to drop into my 800. That's just me
