MTD blade disengagement question/blade brake

[paulbaker1954]

Hi
I have just acquired a MTD J/136 ride on, this has a single blade 30 inch cutting deck.

My question relates to the blade disengagement system as this is not working.

I am just trying to figure out how this works so i can fix it.

There is a single belt driving the blade off the bottom of the engine and there is a blade brake that clamps on the blade pulley. It looks like the blade brake is not pushing on the pulley at all so something is amiss and i will drop the deck to investigate.

My general question is if about how this system works, is it just the blade brake that stops the blade pulley and the belt then just slips around the pulleys or is there some other mechanism in play that adds tension to the belt as the engagement lever is moved down froom the disengaged position.

I have added a pic of the mower so you can see what it looks like

 

[StarTech]

J/136 (13AA458C611) Appears to an European design and sold unit.​

I haven't this style mower here but it appears to be the old style of drop and shift rearward the deck to tight the belt belt and raise fully to disengage. The brake appear to loosen as the deck is fully raised and the spring attached to the brake engages the brake. Now the brake pivot may be rusted up and not moving.

 

[paulbaker1954]

Thanks StarTech
Thats what i thought it looks like when the lever is moved to the disengaged position that for some reason the deck is not moving rearward enough to take the loosen the belt and engage the brake. I will do a bit more investigation

 

[bertsmobile1]

There should be an adjuster under the mower
However these systems suffer really badly from flogging the holes in the adjusters oval as it is a very large & strong spring that you are pulling against
It is not a particularly good system, but MTD had the patient on it so it had to be used till better ones ran out of patient so MTD could copy one of thm without having to pay royalties .

 

[paulbaker1954]

Problem Solved
ON investigation found that a split pin had come off the piece that goes on the bracket that pushes the deck forward when the lever is moved to the disengaged position.

That said it was a major battle to get a new split pin in as it was hard to reach, had to drop the deck and also half remove the large bracket that moves the deck forward. Took me a couple of hours.

All working now

 

[bertsmobile1]