Deck not engaging on Craftsman riding mower

[gradymotorco]

Hey y'all,

I have a Craftsman riding mower with a 15.5 hp B&S single cylinder, hydrostatic drive, and a 42 inch deck. For the last couple of weeks the deck has been acting like it didn't want to engage when i hit the lever, but it always did after a few seconds. Today when trying to mowing my yard, I went to engage it after driving to another part of the yard, and nothing happened. I've tried playing with it to get it to go ahead & run, but it won't. What do I need to check into to get it back up & going?

Thanks!

 

[daman]

Stick your head under the frame and look at the engaging linkage and see whats going on.

 

[gradymotorco]

When you hit the engagement lever, the linkage moves but the belt doesn't start spinning.

 

[JTK]

This particular model doesn't have an electric PTO? I didn't know Craftsman offered one with a mechanical PTO anymore. Electric PTOs commonly drop out due to breaks in the wiring to the coil or low battery voltage. Mechanical PTOs not working could be a lot of things. A deck adjusted too far forward will slacken the drive belt enough to cause issues.

Joel

 

[gradymotorco]

I forgot to mention in the original post that this particular one is 14 years old... It may be out of adjustment because i did tighten it up a little a couple of weeks ago since it didn't seem to be mowing evenly. I'll loosen it off a little and see what happens.

 

[RUSHCO]

How long has it been since the belt was replaced. Old belts will stretch and/or get hard and glazed and won't grab anymore. When they start slipping they go fast do to the extra heat put on it. What you thought was uneven do to the deck adjustment could have been do to the belt was slipping and not able to cut right. The deck definately has to move like JTK said for the mechanical engagement to work right.