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The handle to engage the blades is extremely difficult to push up and engage the blades on my craftsman Rider. It takes two hands to accomplish this task and I am not a small man. I have had the deck off and applied no seize grease to every surface I could see that might cause this issue but no luck. Does anyone have a suggestion?

can you move the engaging pulley easily back and forth by hand? The parts involved are supposed to be flat sliding over top of each other. They have a tendancy to develop a lip on the edge making it hard to slide over each other. I take a grinder or a sander to them and it fixes it right up

Remove the plate that has the pulley that moves when you pull the engage lever.
The hole in the middle floggs out oval over time which makes the cable hard to pull.

Thank you. I will check these items out. There was one other thing I noticed when I had the deck apart. The pads on the brake arms have grooves worn in them. Is it possible that these grooves are causing slight misalignment of the brake arm, therefore making the cable hard to pull?

Yes if they are deep enough to go over the lip and drop down.
Pay close attention to the tabs that activate the brake release, they get worn so they no longer run smoothly against the engagement lever
Excessive vertical movement of the engagement lever can also allow them to slide under the wear pad they press against.
That whole set up needs top be silky smooth .
The area under the large washer on the pivot bolt also wear a grove with allows the lever to flop around all over the place.

It would help to know which mower you have model number wise.

Many AYP had small roller bearings on the brake arms that like to seize which can cause hard engagements.

Even having a too short of belt can cause engagement problems. Usually this is a result of using aftermarket belts. I had a customer that came with the engagement belt on his Murray rider where had a belt installed on the deck that was 1-1/2 shorter than the correct belt. Due to age of the Murray it was produced by Murray Ohio and I almost never found a new lever. Most place had it list as NLA but my distributor file said it was still available from Briggs.

Thank all of you for the input. The model number of my mower is 917270920 and the brand is a craftsman. When I had the deck apart I didn't notice any excessive wear on the plates. The large washer had some rust and pitting on it and I ground it as smooth as I could. The brake arms are deeply grooved. If I was to try any one thing, what would you recommend.

It is an all or nothing case
I usually fill in the wear with some weld then smooth off with an angle grinder
That is to the tension arm pivot and the brake activation tabs
The pads are replacable as is the entire arm with brake pads
The shouldered spacer usually gets replaced as it tends to wear and is too fiddley to weld & file
When everything is well lubed ( with dry lithium grease ) I can push the tension arm across far enough to dissengage the brakes using my thumb with the deck off the mower .

I would check the two roller cams on the opposite end of the brake arms. They tend to seize up requiring replacement. PN 532174284 (roller cam) is available from the OEM but PN 131340 (shoulder bolt) is not. Both of these are available in aftermarket parts.

Also it can be the PTO cable itself as they bind up from internal rust.

Thank you everyone for your help. It turned out to be the brake arms. Replaced them and works like a new one.

Thanks again.

Now on to the next challenge. Can anyone tell me how to install the torsion springs on my craftsman dual bagger cover hinge?

Thanks