Riding Mower - One Blade Harder to Turn - Feels Weak When Actually Mowing Grass

[opeepingtomo]

blade brake is on inside of right spindle mounted to deck, item 5 in ipb,illustrated parts breakdown, it looks like a bracket, fastened to deck with 1 bolt and a self locking nut, so yes, it can be adjusted for proper positioning and clearance.

Okay. Thanks.

I am going to check it out this weekend and see if I can get it fixed.

Guess ill start by looking at the brake and if not that then ill see if it looks like its something in the spindle assembly.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[opeepingtomo]

Okay. So I wanted to update what I found (or didn't find) when I had a few minutes.

I checked the blade brake, and that is indeed what was causing one of the blades to be hard to turn (by design) when the blades are not engaged.
When engaging the blades, it looks as if the blade brake already had enough clearance to not interfere with the blades operation, which i confirmed by being able to spin the blade freely when the blades were engaged (and motor off of course).

And speaking of spinning the blade, I had to remove the belt in order to do this. The blade did spin freely, but I couldn't tell if the spindle assembly was bent or not. If there was a wobble at all it was very slight.

I am not sure where I really go from here to be honest.

I did fix something at least while working on this thing. I noticed that i had to turn the steering wheel further than i should to actually get the steering to engage the wheels, and that the steering wheel was not necessarily "straight" when driving straight. So i straightened the wheel and also tightened down the little gear that is turned when you turn the wheel so that now the steering functions correctly. Not really what I was wanting to fix, but i guess it's a start, lol.

Any ideas where to go from here?

Thanks again.

 

[mechanic mark]

Okay. So I wanted to update what I found (or didn't find) when I had a few minutes.

I checked the blade brake, and that is indeed what was causing one of the blades to be hard to turn (by design) when the blades are not engaged.
When engaging the blades, it looks as if the blade brake already had enough clearance to not interfere with the blades operation, which i confirmed by being able to spin the blade freely when the blades were engaged (and motor off of course).

And speaking of spinning the blade, I had to remove the belt in order to do this. The blade did spin freely, but I couldn't tell if the spindle assembly was bent or not. If there was a wobble at all it was very slight.

I am not sure where I really go from here to be honest.

I did fix something at least while working on this thing. I noticed that i had to turn the steering wheel further than i should to actually get the steering to engage the wheels, and that the steering wheel was not necessarily "straight" when driving straight. So i straightened the wheel and also tightened down the little gear that is turned when you turn the wheel so that now the steering functions correctly. Not really what I was wanting to fix, but i guess it's a start, lol.

Any ideas where to go from here?

Thanks again.

good deal, with ignition key removed , belt removed, and deck lowered, try to move pulley's on top of spindles side to side and up and down, if little to no play your ok, also spin pulley's to see if they're wobbling, making noise or stopping prematurely, if not your ok. on steering gears, apply lithium grease thoroughly, i do this every time i service my lawn tractor, you can apply grease by hand with a nylon glove on, shop rag, etc. after you complete this, try mowing and see how she does, looking forward to reply. Good Luck and GOD BLESS!