Locate the brake arm at the transaxle . It could be simply rust at the back of the arm or the caiper may need to come apart and be freed up and lubed.

Nice find, daddymack! I do recall looking at Agco tractors once, but this is Simplicity country and there are no dealers within 200 miles of me. You are correct, the Agco 1800 series is a mirror image of a Prestige, even down to the front bumper. The Kohler Command is one of best engines out there I've heard. One thing that the JD and the Kubota don't do that the Agco will do is stripe your lawn if you chose to do so. You can have that baseball field look and even make unusual patterns with some practice. For me, it makes mowing a little more fun. The power of the Kohler and K71 transaxle will knock out any job you can throw at it. Power steering and good ground speed are nice features too. Sounds like a winner! That's a lot of tractor for the price and I wouldn't hesitate if I were you. I would LOVE to have a power lift deck on my Simplicity. The dealer is nearby and it sounds like you are comfortable with them. I would hook up a blower, not a snow blade if it's in your budget. You mentioned you may want 4wd. I wouldn't spend the extra money on that if I were you. You give up maneuverability with 4wd and it doesn't sound like your terrain requires its use. If you get bogged down, get some weights and chains. Also, the locking differential will get you through just about every traction related problem. I wish my current property required the use of that tractor, I'd buy it for sure. The entire product line (Simplicity, Agco, Massey Ferguson, Snapper, etc.) has a lot of history and integrity. Yeah, I think Briggs owns all of it, but they seem to be maintaining the standards that these companies were based on for decades. Good luck and let us know which way you go.

OK. I have the belt ordered. I found out why the trans selector returns to Neutral when you let go of the lever. There is a mechanism that White calls a "scissors assembly" that operates exactly like scissors (the motion, not the cutting) to force the selector to Neutral when the brake pedal is pushed. The scissors assembly on my machine is lacking some crucial parts (they were there once but not now). The missing items can be viewed by going to your favorite website that has a link to Empart web. Choose White Outdoor > 1993 Garden Tractors > model 143U836H190 GT 185. Go to transaxle drive. Look for the inset that features item # 108 ("scissors mounting bracket"). My machine is missing: item 100 "compression spring", 2 of item 101 friction washers, 2 of item 102 bell washers, and the 5/16" nut and flat washer to secure all the other items onto item 112. Without this "friction grip" action to maintain the selected position, the "spring loaded to center" character of the tranny itself returns the selector to Neutral. I'm thinking of trying to come up with some substitue components to replace the missing items. I feel pretty certain that some shock absorber cup washers (of the right I.D. & O.D. of course) would serve as the "bell" washers. I"m thinking that some thick rubber flat washers with nylon or poly washers to actually "grip" the scissors bracket ( cause I think rubber alone would wear too quickly) A suitable compression spring could be had from a parts house (even Lowe's or Home Depot has a selection). If anybody on this forum is familiar with this topic and would like to throw in......please do.

mownie: Stalling as in "engine RPM stays high but the tractor stops moving" I managed to solve it. Turns out that topping off a T-2 is more involved than I thought. (Transaxle was shipped FedEx, and arrived with a light coating of oil. Probably came out the overflow breather as it was tipped). I pulled the transaxle off the mower after my prior post. The oil was to the bottom of the threads. However, I went ahead and filled the threads to the brim. I had the oil... why not? After about 10 seconds, there was a bubbling action and the oil went back down to the bottom of the threads. I repeated that process 4 or 5 times. Then I proceeded to hand-turn the pulley, which helped pull the oil down. I alternated between turning the pulley and adding a thimble-full of oil each time, occasionally stopping to switch the bypass on or off. Once this was all done, and the transaxle reinstalled, it didn't stall once. I would guess that I added 2 or 3 ounces of oil after it was already "full". So there's my solution. When you fill it, exercise the pump on the bench before declaring the job done.