982 forward/reverse troubles

[Mayor]

I firedup the 982 yesterday and started too move forwards.....it is whining more than usual and was jerky moving forward......I drove it across the yard and smothed right out....so I put it back on the driveway and hooked up the tiller too the 3 pt., it wouldnt hardly lift the tiller...still whining. So I lifted the tiller by hand and it went right up with the aid of the tractor lift. Once up...it holds the load fine!. Now then, I wanted too move the tiller too storage so I moved forward...everything OK!. Drove around the back of the house and backed up....went too move forward and got a gear to gear clunking/grinding noise as splines were stripped on an axle. Eased off and tried forward again....smooth as silk that time and rolled fine, forward and back. 5 minutes later....same thing!.
Oh yeah......I pulled the rearend plug on flat ground too check the hydro fluid......actually overfull a little. Fluid looked good and didnt smell burnt......and I just put a new filter on the rearend!. (I didnt drain the rear for the filter change....just swapped them out while losing a handful of fluid!).

Runs great and once moving forward or backward, seems fine!....it just growls when starting too engage too forward and is very jerky!.

Any ideas before I start disassembling procedures?

[pattonacres]

how cold was it out> moisture in fluid? frozen?

[ksanders]

I assume it was a cub filter. I agree sounds like water

[Tom Scott]

I would be a little worried by the "grinding noise" description, but ice could have caused the pump to starve for fluid and cavitate. Cavitation can sound pretty bad, and it will destroy hydraulic pumps and motors if allowed to continue.

I would pull the rear cover to check everything visually (see if any stray metal chunks are there) and clean out any water logged fluid goop.