My mower won't move, and I noticed I have a spring that is hanging. The end that is remaining hooked up is on the parking brake / clutch mechanism. From what I can see this would be the return spring to tension back the pulley when the brake is off.
I cannot figure out where the other end of this spring goes.
Yes you will need to make a spring hook of some kind to stretch the spring back & fit it
You are correct that it moves the tension rm in the opposite direction that the brake moves it when you put your foot down .
That set up with the big washers to support the belt run reminds me of
some of the Troy Built branded ( made by MTD ) mowers where the brake spring anchored to a tab that was bent down from the floor.
I only remember this because I had to make some new ones & weld them back on
In any case pull the spring back and swing it in an arc
you are looking for a hole 1" to 2" past the end of the spring where the hole is slightly keyholed or has shinny wear marks around it .
A strong pencil beam torch goes a long way to finding the anchor point
That set up with the big washers to support the belt run reminds me of
some of the Troy Built branded ( made by MTD ) mowers where the brake spring anchored to a tab that was bent down from the floor.