changing mower blades on john deere zero turn

This is the answer to the problem - bar none. due to the places on the deck it mounts to and so on getting a bit out of wack or just wear and tear over time.

You may need just a bit of an adjustment to get it to push that button in all the way.

Now that rod and spring may be just fine - but there is a nut at one end - adjust that nut in or out - that rod is threaded.

When you go to start the blades and your mower is running fine but it dies when you start them - that button is not getting pressed in all the way - due to that slack - and it will kill the engine. well there’s a shape like this now imagine a spring and washers on the inside of that on both sides - well how the bar stays inside of that - there is two little bumps - well once that metal bracket thing is worn to an oval that bar will go right through - so there is NO spring action - that spring action is just enough to put pressure on the switch - when there’s no spring action, that switch can not get pressed. Well if that switch isn’t getting pressed or depressed correctly by a rotating piece of metal connected to the engage wire or in my case, it’s all metal pieces - I have a SABRE and there’s a rod with a spring on it - that rod that goes through the spring will get out of circle and wear out to an oval shape. When the mower deck safety switch is working correctly - you can engage the blades and the mower will not die. On some Craftsmen like the Troybuilt TB 30 MTD equivalent they have a safety switch around the deck shoot and if that is not positioned right or goes bad the engine will die when the blades are engaged. Then put a new bearing over the shaft bottom and then add the spacer sleeves and push the shaft through from the bottom. You can leave the blade on the bottom of the shaft after taking the big top bolt off. Make sure you leave the spindle on the deck when you remove the spindle shaft because often the brittle aged attachment bolts will snap off if you try to remove them. Get them by sets of 10 on Ebay really cheap. Most all these spindles can be taken apart and you can easily replace the bearings. You may hear some squealing sounds from the spindle and the belt may smoke. It may be a bad spindle bearing that is seizing up when you engage it which puts too much load on the engine and makes it die.

Changing mower blades on john deere zero turn