Okay folks, I need some help here and and saying "thank you" in advance for whatever good stuff you can tell me. Got on the mower to cut some grass but when I engaged the PTO...the deck "shudders, pulls to the right and the mower shuts off. I have peeped under the mower but since I don't know what I am l ooking for specifically, I guess that is an exercise in futility (But I just bought the mower from Wal-mart last May and didn't expect anything to be wrong with it so soon. I have tried to find the "kill switch" for the PTO/deck action..but again...don't know what to look for...The mower does what it is supposed to do when I get off the seat (cuts off) and I am sure i the PTO was engaged and I tried to put the mower in reverse,.it would cut off) but I can't quite get to that point either. So, what could be doing this? Loose belts?uneven mower deck? bad switch? Yall know that this grass is getting ready to jump off here and a push mower (been there..done that!!!!) was to be for backup last spring and this spring... So before I have to take it to a shop ($$$) I will defer to your opinions, suggestions, offerings, ideas...otherwiuse.. HELP!!!!.

 

From your description, it sounds like the one of the deck blades is jammed. Either it has something wedged in it, or the spindle has a frozen/bent and won't allow it to turn.

 

I jacked the mower up and found out that one of the blades would not move. I checked to see if something was caught up in it but there wasn't. I sprayed some WD40 on it and with a towel around the blade anbd som eelbo grease...got it to move. You can believe that I got some grass cut today!!!Thanks a lot! I lift my glass of diet Pepsi to ya!!!

 

Oh, I bet the mower is making a pretty good roaring noise when you turn on the blades, huh? The bearings are bad in the mandrel assembly. This is not an expensive repair, but if it is used too much with bad bearings, it can ruin other parts as well and begin to run up a repair bill. If you have the newer style mandrels, the bearings can be easily replaced...usually at around $15-$20 parts per mandrel. Yours should have 2 or 3 mandrels, depending on the width of cut. On MTDs, the 36, 38, 42 inch decks have 2 mandrels. The 46 has 3.