I have a model TG1860 Kubota riding lawn mower that lately when pulling hills the hydrostatic transmission stutters and slows. http://www.kubota.com/F/products/tg1860.cfm. It is about 7 years old and probably out of warranty. I have done some searching on Google and found that the tranny fluid may be low and/or need changing. The service manual says change it at 200 hours, my mower has 215 hours, so I drained and refilled with Kubota tranny fluid. The stuttering now isn't any better and may even be worse.
The Google searches say that the only fix is rebuilding the tranny with parts costing ~$1,500 plus labor. Does anyone have a similar experience? If I could find tranny repair instructions I might break it down myself and replace only what is broken.