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1K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  bakerla 
#1 ·
I am a newbee to this site. I have owned a Craftsman 42" 21HP lawn tractor since 2010; Model 917.28922. In addition to cutting grass, I use it in the fall to mulch leaves so they deteriorate more quickly. The last two times out to mulch, the temperature has been low and the transmission has been very sluggish. I could not seem to get the tractor to go faster than a snail's pace. The mower blade performance was fine. Is there a problem with my motion drive belt? Or is there another issue? If it is the motion drive belt, can I reasonably replace this myself?
 
#3 ·
Hey. I worked out the transmission issue. Yesterday I was doing a delayed winterizing on the Craftsman, oil change, etc., etc. I also wanted to dive into some of the suggestions forum members have made about my problem. I started her up and nothing - no forward or reverse. I cleaned out as much as I could of the residue of leaves possibly impeding free operation of the drive belt - at least as much as I could without removing the mower deck. Still no movement. On a whim, instead of simply releasing the brake with my foot, I forcefully pulled back on the foot brake with my hand, and the tractor sprung into forward motion. Reverse also worked. All forward and reverse speeds appeared normal. I turned off the tractor to see if this was a fix, or if I needed to yank on the release each time. Thankfully, the tractor moved with only the normal release of the brake. Back to normal.

My conclusion: When I mulch leaves I sometimes take too large of a "bite" and the leaves get jammed everywhere under the unit, impeding proper operation of the pulleys and the belt associated with the drive. This situation has only happened twice in the 7 year history of this tractor; and both times it was when I was dealing with heavy leaf mulching.
 
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