I've just taken delivery of a McCulloch M145-97TC mower but I'm having trouble getting it up and running. I have run the purge transmission sequence as described in the manual but I can't get the transmission to engage. I have moved the freewheel controller as shown but the wheels will not turn. I release the parking brake and press the drive peddle but no movement. An other oddity is that the throttle control only moves about an inch yet there is about 3 inches of available range. If there is an owner of a McCulloch machine can you tell me if this is as it should be.

The reason I'm not initially going back to the supplier is that I've just moved to rural France and I'm hoping to solve this without the need to get it to a dealer and my French is not up to describing the problem on the phone just yet.