I have an 18 hp Troy Built 18/42 lawn tractor with an 18 horse Briggs engine. It is 12 years old and has been very dependable to this point. However today I started it up to cut my impressive stand of weeds and as usual it started right up and I started cutting. It ran and cut good for a moment. My yard is on a grade and I cut up the grade to start as usual and when I started down the hill white smoke started boiling out the exhaust and it choked down. I started it back up and it continued to smoke until I moved it to level ground. I let it run, it stopped smoking so I started cutting again and it cut normally for a moment or two but stated smoking again and stopped. I started it back up and parked it. I don't know if the mower being out of level makes any difference.

I have a problem, I have an Ariens 28in deluxe snowblower model 921022, it is a year old and is the one that has what looks like a bike brake lever under the throttle cable to lockout one wheel to make it easy to turn, the left wheel has no power. It is like the turning mode is engaged all the time, the right wheel drives and has plenty of power, but the machine is behaving like it is one wheel drive. I started troubleshooting by making sure all the cables where properly adjusted. then I put the machine up on blocks and started it with the wheels off the ground, the right wheel engaged and ran so did the left until I put my boot against it, then it stopped, while the right kept on going. I then pulled the bottom inspection plate, the lockout mechanism appeared to be working properly and would engage and disengage when I squeezed the lever. It looks like it should work....but it doesnt....is there a shear pin in there somewhere that I missed?