Most of the time it is the lower bearing in the lower part of the clutch which is not too bad to replace (about $20) but sometime it is the upper bearing in the clutch which is a little bit more disassembly (another $20 bearing). That is what seems to go out. You can visibly inspect and make sure there is clutch material on it when you take it apart. Do some searching online, you can find it. Don't buy China bearings!

I would say your carb needs more cleaning. Did you take it apart and make sure the jets are clean or just "hose it down" with carb cleaner.

You will need to remove the engine cover, fuel tank and the whole blower housing to do the recoil repair. The bolts are shown as a replacement for the starter rivets if need be. Once off, don't remove the pulley- remove the old rope and wind the pulley in the direction the rope would pull out until near the end of travel. Drop a screwdriver through the slots in the starter to hold the pulley into position. The rest should be self explanatory. Good luck.

I can't say how very disappointed I am after picking up my "repaired" JD lawn tractor. After arriving home I was ready to cut the grass and see just how well the "repaired" mower worked. It took forever before I could even get it to move after starting it. As soon as I would hit the forward or reverse pedals the engine would hesitate or stop. There was a noise coming from the deck area that I had never heard before. Finally, after the engine stayed running for a few minutes I attempted to engage the blades. I pulled up on the blade engagement knob and nothing happened. The blades would not move. I tried it a few more times and finally the deck jumped as if it had been hit with something and then slammed back down, the blades finally turning. They weren't turning as fast as they turned before but they were turning. There was nothing under the deck that would have caused this. No rocks, timber or anything else under the deck that would stop the blades from moving, which is understandable since the mower was sitting on my clean concrete driveway; no obstructions under the deck whatsoever. I then decided to make a few passes to see how the "repaired" mower would cut. Unfortunately, whenever I tried to move forward or in reverse, or when I tried to engage the blades, the engine would hesitate or stop. I kept trying for another ten minutes or so and gave up. I called the JD dealer and was told to bring it back and they would look at it. The service man put it on a rack and removed the spindle cover. The left side spindle was at an angle and the deck had been bent. The deck was not bent when I took it to them to fix it. One look at the photos and it's quite apparent that any mower service tech would have immediately seen the angled spindle and the bent deck directly below it. The service tech said that I had hit something with the blades and that is what caused this particular problem. I informed him that I hadn't even had the opportunity to cut the grass yet. I asked him point blank "would a service tech have noticed the angled spindle and the bent deck when I brought it in for repairs and when they replaced the bad spindle" and he said "absolutely, without a doubt". During the time they had the mower nobody said anything about a bent deck or angled spindle, which is an indication that both were fine when I left it with them. I also noticed that there's a place on the deck where the paint is worn off. The service tech asked me what caused it and I said "I don't know. It wasn't like that when I dropped off the mower". The bent deck and angled spindle could not have been the result of me hitting something when I was cutting the grass because I never got the chance to cut the grass. The only place the mower had been since I picked it up at the shop was on a clean driveway. I'm not a service tech but I assume that whatever they did when they worked on it created the problem of the blades not turning, which caused the bent deck and angled spindle when the blades eventually started turning. I have no idea what could have caused this. I apologize for the photos not being correctly oriented. It doesn't matter how I rotate the photos before uploading them. They always show up in the post incorrectly. I'm going to call them tomorrow and inform them that I expect the deck to be repaired or replaced and the spindle mounted properly. I will also inform them that I have no intention of paying one penny for parts or labor since the deck was fine when I left the mower with them. I expect them to give me a hard time. I expect then to deny responsibility. I expect them to say that I have to pay for the work or they won't do it, at which time I'll tell them that I'm leaving the mower at their dealership until they fix the problem they caused, at no cost to me, at which point they'll probably just leave it outside. I'm done with JD mowers. I'm done with this JD dealer because I have no faith or trust that the service techs know what they are doing. I checked today and the mower has only 120 hours on it. However, I've had cutting problems with it since day one. It's simply no longer worth the time, the effort, the frustration and the aggravation. This mower will be sold or given away when it is returned to me. I'll buy a new one next spring, one from a different manufacturer, as long as that brand is not under the corporate umbrella of MTD, which will undoubtedly narrow my choices quite considerably. I'm almost certain that I'll purchase a zero turn lawn tractor at that time.