Tips for When Your Mower Won’t Engage [Video]

This question comes from Brenda in North Carolina. The engine of her five-year old lawn tractor runs fine, but the mower won’t engage. Why?

The first thing to do is make sure there is a belt on the mower deck, says Gary Oshel, a national account business manager and former product support representative with John Deere. If it’s there, the problem is either mechanical or electrical. Start by checking the PTO.

“If you have a manual PTO, not all of these things have to be done with the engine running,” Oshel said. “If you know the engine runs, you can turn that off and start flipping up your manual PTO switch and seeing if it moves freely, or if there’s some tension there. If it moves freely, it’s the linkages between your PTO switch and your clutch, or your belt.”

If the PTO is electrical, you should hear the PTO …