My Lawn Mower Deck Belt Won’t Engage

There are 2 types of engagement methods on a riding lawn mower. One is a manual lever and the other is a PTO or Power Take Off.

Depending on which one you have, they are completely different methods to engage your lawn mower blades.

The manual lever uses mechanical action to move a cable that is connected to a lever on the deck. This cable can break, bind or freeze up if it becomes rusted. The lever on the deck can also become stuck and not allow the deck belt to move to its taught position.

The PTO is an electrically activated device. You pull the knob and it provides power to the PTO assembly that is located at the bottom of the crankshaft. All of the safety devices must be in their proper positions for it to operate. For example, the operator must be seated, the mower must be in neutral or a forward gear. When the conditions are correct, the PTO engages a large magnet and then the belt will begin to spin the deck belt.

If either of these two systems are not working properly, contact a lawn mower repair technician in your area on our Locations page.