Really sorry. I found it was the drive belt, which I thought “Belts go bad, this should be an easy fix.” Boy was I wrong. Had to remove electronic clutch, need an impact wrench for that job. I’m a weekend warrior at best, I don’t own an impact wrench. Luckily I have a friend who owns one. I borrow his and get the clutch off only to find that there are metal tabs on the frame that close the gap around the engine pulley down to a quarter of the belts actual width. Options are pull the engine pulley down, good luck if your machine is as old as mine, that thing wasn’t budging. Option 2 unscrew the engine and lift it, no thanks, besides I couldn’t get to the rear two bolts (remember weekend warrior here). Option 3 bend the tabs back to get the belt off and on. Seems like a bad idea but also seems like the least bad of a nimbler of bad ideas.
So I bend and I bend and I bend those tabs back. Oh man did I need to bend them. After much frustration finally the old belt is off the new belt is on. I re-attach the electronic clutch, put the steering rods back on, put the deck and deck belt back on and fire it up.
It runs!!!
This was quite possibly the worst repair I’ve ever done on any piece of home equipment. Terrible design and not made to be easy for the weekend diy’er.