When lowering the deck it goes vertically straight up and down. I'm sure when raised it used to swing forward and loosen the "motor to deck" belt so the brakes on the blade spindle would cause the blades not to rotate.

Now the belt never loosens and the blades are always engaged. I just pulled the deck of AGAIN. Watching the mechanics things appear to be working fine. The back section does move back and forth when lowering and raising. But once the deck is put back on it no longer has this motion.

Anyone have any idea what I could have done?

Seems that the lever that lowers the deck engages with a rod at the "engaged" position, when moved back to "stopped" this rod pushes the deck forward. I guess that explains why that last bit always felt tougher. I guess that's because it's actually moving the deck forward to loosen the belt.

Tried adjusting the length of the rod but ran out of thread. The new belt must be a lot shorter than the old one, even though it's a genuine belt. Hrmmmmm.

So i put a bolt in the slot that the handle engages with and things started to look good.

And of course another introduced problem. Now the darn thing won't start, electrically diabled i'm guessing. I have checked the seat swtich and the blade lock switch, the gears are in netural. Did I miss a switch somewhere?

So close but no cigar yet.

Tomorrow is another day.