On 6/1/2011 12:33 PM, Tom wrote:
I've got a Craftsman mower (917.372852, roughly ten years old or more)) that
worked fine until one day last week when cutting heavy, wet grass. Since then,
the self-propelled mechanism has little power. It'll work on a bare surface
but gives up whenever there's any resistance. So the behavior is like
night-and-day, from before that one day.

I took the top cover off and can see that the belt looks okay and the inside
area is *not* all clogged with debris. However, I cannot see where the belt
wraps the pulley underneath the engine, on the main shaft. That part has a
heavy cover underneath, that prevents access but also presumably prevents
grass from getting up in there.

Drying for a week didn't help.

What should I check next? What part would be slipping?

The belt tensioner would be first guess....I've got slow dialup so
didn't try to look up parts diagram to see the particular details, but
that's where I'd start to see how it actually is put together.

Got to be some way to replace the belt so keep digging to see the drive
end/in-betweens. The answer's gotta' be in there somewhere. Or the
hand lever isn't actually moving the idler linkage to engage it, perhaps?

--