The blade on my MTD Lawnflite 603 won't disengage.

[Island Life68]

Hi folks,
A couple of weeks ago, the belt which drives the blade snapped and yet was in very good condition... I ordered a new one and when fitting it, I discovered a damaged spring lying on top of a pulley and a broken cable still attached to the front of the frame. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the belt got cut by the cable when it broke. I had no idea where the spring was supposed to go and where the cable was supposed to be attached to... I decided not to bother with either, fitted the new belt and gave the mower a spin... Everything seems to be running smoothly apart from one thing... As soon as the engine turns, the blade engages. Safety-wise, it's far from ideal and I suspect the missing spring and cable have something to do with the problem. Has this happened to anyone on LawnWorld? Thank you in advance for your help.:thumbsup:

 

[MowLife]

There is a spring on the idler arm to disengage the belt tension and apply brake for blade spindles. Your belt staying engaged explaines the missing spring. Where it goes depends on your deck model. If you look at the idler arm you should see where a spring was hooked by wear marks or download a parts breakdown to see where it is supposed to go.

 

[Island Life68]

Hi Mowlife,
Thank you very much for the explanation. I did suspect something to do with the idler arm and I've been on hundreds of diagrams but I'm still no further...:confused2: I'm not proficient enough to be able to read and work out those blurry messy drawings! I would need some good sharp photographs to make my job a bit easier! And what about this cable that snapped? Does anybody know what its function is/could be?
Here are photos of the broken cable and the damaged spring:

 

[MowLife]

The cable is your blade engagement cable. This goes from the engagement lever to the decks idler arm also. The spring on the cable keeps tension on belt when blades are engaged. The missing spring and the cable work together on the idler arm. I just got rid of a similar setup on a deck I just got rid of or I would get you a picture.

 

[Island Life68]

Thanks again for your help MowLife,
So, the cable and spring work together which bundles my 2 problems into 1! We've got results!:thumbsup::laughing:
From what you're saying the cable goes from the engagement lever to the deck's idler arm but on the first picture I attached in my last thread, you can see the cable held by a loop and bolted onto the front frame of the mower... On the diagram, it's cable nº20 and spring nº23. I'm just not mechanically minded enough to understand how all these moving parts work together and where they attach. That's a shame you got rid of a similar deck because a couple of photos are what I need!
At least I can cut the grass and just need to be extra careful and keep my feet on the deck as soon as I switch on the engine!

 

[MowLife]

Yes the cable gets secured to the deck. Mine had a plastic holder that fit into a bracket on the deck to hold the cable. The wire cable was attached to the spring and the spring to a small hole in the idler arm. I have seen some where the spring hooked on the pulley bolt on idler arm instead of in a hole.