Mantis tiller problem

[Mike ware]

I have an older Mantis, circa 1990, that was working just fine through the end of 2017. Circumstances prevented me from using it until this year. Not surprisingly it did not start. Long story short I replaced the cracked gas tank, replaced the worm gear grease, replaced the carburetor with a new one and throughly cleaned the whole thing. Tiller started right. But. It’s running backwards.
Can someone please tell me what I did to make this happen, and how to correct it?
Thanks in advance for any help. Stay safe. Mike

 

[DirtMechanic]

So you replaced the grease in the box and may have turned the gearbox 180 in doing so. Some attachments to those machines actually require motion that is reverse to that of the tiller action and this is a planned function you may have stumbled across. My stihl mm55 is that way on purpose as well.

 

[mgmine]

Well, it's not the carb or the gas tank so that only leaves the worm gear. Obviously, something got switched as DirtMechanic pointed out. I'd head for Youtube or give Mantis a call. Let us know what the answer is for anyone in the future that has the same problem. If there isn't anything on Youtube then it would be nice to post something. I'm guessing you're not the only person in the world that has had the problem.

 

[Mike ware]

I’m an idiot.
As I said in my first post. “... and throughly cleaned the whole thing. “ That total cleaning included removing the handles. This idiot reassembled them facing the wrong way! No wonder it went “ backwards”.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I’m an idiot.
As I said in my first post. “... and throughly cleaned the whole thing. “ That total cleaning included removing the handles. This idiot reassembled them facing the wrong way! No wonder it went “ backwards”.

Well the upside is that at least they were on the correct end of the machine! I have probably done worse!