I have a Murray select wide body LT 42" 16.5hp riding lawn mower. While I was cutting my grass today, my mower stopped working suddenly. I had restarted it with no problems, til I tried engaging the blades and then it comes to a screeching hault causing the engine to shut down. My model # is 42544X8E and serial # is 7371906091X00363. I have checked all the safety switches as described in your threads and it still does the same thing. I have also replaced the motion belt as well with no luck, can someone help me please? Also my engaging lever pops now when I engage or disengage the blades which it has never done that before.

Ok guys - I'm Stumped I have gas in the oil. It runs for 15 seconds, then stalls in a cloud of smoke. I read the forums and thought it was: 1) Carburetor problems - I checked the carburetor and the float is fine - it rises and falls with the gas level. The carburetor is clean, not gummed up at all. There is no excess gas in the carburetor, and the air cleaner is dry - no oil or gas in the air cleaner 2) Cranckase recirc vavle - it seems to operate fine -sucked on the hose and it draws into the air breather chamber fine. 3) Head Gasket - Head gasket is in perfect condition - no breaks or cracks. 4) Compression - the compression seems good- hard to turn over the engine by twisting the "fan" cover by hand Last time I used it it was hesitating (misfiring). This time it only ran 10 min before stalling as described above So now I can't figure out what was wrong. Any help would be appreciated Thx