QUICK AND EASY!! Tools Needed: Not much -- one foot length of 1/2' nylon rope, vise grips, and large ratchet wrench with 5/8" socket Now you can spend a lot of time trying to figure this out on your own -- there are a lot of ways to skin this cat -- But do it this way and you'll be done in 10-15 minutes with a little practice. 1. Loosen deck deck belt so that it can be removed from PTO pulley by "rolling" the belt off the PTO pulley (or spindle pulley). From rear of mower reach underneath with both hands and pull belt with left hand downward and rearward while turning PTO pulley to right. Maintaining downward tension while turning PTO pulley edge belt off the pulley. 2. Remove old transmission drive belt. Typically will already be broken or hopelessly worn so from rear of mower, section with knife and discard. 3. Lower PTO assembly from rear of mower to thread new transmission belt onto engine pulley. NOTE: This is necessary as there is an anti-rotational bracket that is welded to the framework and prevents the belt from being positioned in place otherwise. To lower the PTO assembly you must loosen the 5/8" bolt at the bottom -- but to prevent the flywheel from rotating while loosening the bolt you'll first need to remove the spark plug and feed into the spark plug hole a foot or so of 1/4" nylon rope. The piston will come up, hit the rope and lock up the engine. This will allow you loosen the bolt at the bottom of the PTO assembly. And the nylon rope will not hurt the piston or head -- just remember to leave enough rope out to remove the rope afterwards. Once the PTO assembly bolt is loosened slowly unscrew ONLY ENOUGH so that the PTO assembly drops below the anti-rotational bracket and the belt can be put into place. Use the notch where the anti-rotational bracket engages the PTO assembly to facilitate placement of the belt above the engine pulley. Once belt is in place retighten the PTO assembly bolt making sure the anti-rotational bracket is aligned with the notch on the PTO assembly. Remove nylon rope from spark plug hole and replace spark plug. 4. Finish placement of belt. To complete placement of belt you have to remove tension on the transmission idler arm. So begin by detaching the spring from the mower frame to release the tension on the idler pulley so that the belt can be placed. Read below on methods to replace spring. From the rear of mower FIRST thread belt around the right transmission drive pulley and then onto the left transmission drive pulley. The transmission drive belt is then positioned onto the engine pulley at the top of the PTO assembly and then on the drive idler pulley. Tension is then reapplied by reattaching the tension spring. NOTE: Replacement of the tension spring is a "simple yet a hard to master" move. Using a pair of vise grips placed right at the base of the spring's hook and oriented so the hook is at 90 degrees to both the hook and the hook's latch on the framework the spring is pulled into position and hooked onto the latch. Adjustment and placement of the vise grips is critical to prevent near misses and frustration. And unless you have the upper torso of a gorilla, position your body so that you are using your legs and not your arms to pull back the spring. For those less inclined to use their legs and biceps you will appreciate the use of a wire cable or ratchet drive to unload tension from the spindle arm! The manual describes the use of 3/8" drive long-arm ratchet being placed in the square hole of the drive idler bracket and used as leverage for releasing tension on idler pulley; others have left the spring in place and pulled the idler arm back by threading a wire cable into the square hole in the idler arm and extending the wire to the underside of the framework to the right side of the mower where it could be attached to fulcrum and secured. 5. Replace deck drive belt. First place the deck drive belt on all mower blade pulleys and spindle pulleys. Then sitting at rear of mower looking forward reaching underneath grasping the belt with both hands pulling back and sliding the belt back onto the PTO pulley. 6. Remove rope from spark plug hole and replace spark plug. Job done.

***"the only time the M terminal is in the circuit is with the switch in OFF"*** Yes, that is valid and correct. M is for "Magneto". This engine, as most OPE, uses a magneto based spark ignition. Magneto coils produce their own electrical power for the spark when a magnet on the flywheel passes the magneto as the crankshaft spins. Magnetos do not need any external battery power to operate. What you see on the schematic is how the engine is "killed" when the key is turned OFF. Turning the key to OFF connects the magneto kill circuit to ground, and this stops the magneto from producing spark. Most seat switches and interlock systems also have a way to connect the magneto kill circuit to ground to kill the engine the same as if you turned the key off. I suggest you be very careful when checking circuits wherein you might be "probing wires" with a "hot wire"!!!!!!! If you inadvertently send 12 volt power back on the magneto kill wire, it will do exactly that.......kill the magneto! Then you can post and tell us what a Kohler magneto costs :^) Oh, I guess I spoke too soon when I warned that chafed or pinched wires seldom turn out to be the culprit. Just my luck to say that and then have your issue be caused by that. Realistically speaking though, chafes and pinches are rarely at fault, so it's usually best to check the things that can be checked without any hacking first. Glad you followed your intuition based on the evidence you saw and are now up & running.

If you bought your BS 30 inch range from Costco you should know this. Three years ago, disappointed that the only option offered was a new oven door at over $1,000CA I demanded a full refund from Costco. This was 13 years after purchase. My case was two-fold. First, customer service. Costco knew the names of everyone, probably in the low thousands, of members who purchased the range. When hinge problems emerged they did nothing to notify the buyers and consequently, we missed the period where BS was supplying new doors at no cost. Further problems emerge because front line Costco staff have no authority to provide solutions and great difficulty getting the ear of those with that authority. After months I had logged the names of 11 agents. I was then able to tell their supervisor, who I met at last, that they were beginning to feel like family. Pro hint. Derision can be effective. Second. Misrepresentation. Costco's sale literature shows 2 cosmetic compromises, the flimsy backsplash and the stainless steel insert replacing the center top castings. There were no other amendments to the otherwise standard BS product description. I did eventually buy a replacement range, a real BS and while doing the propane conversion had both stoves apart and side by side. Here I could observe that instead of individual spark igniters, the Costco version had a single igniter that sparked all 4 burners. The entire front-mounted burner control knobs were also downgraded to slightly smaller, far less precise units. Possibly unrelated but the broiler ignition on the Costco range failed rather quickly. All BS tech advice could offer was cutting away the guard on the glow-stick. In any event Costco eventually got worn down and I was given a full refund and deservedly so. It was a mystery to me that Costco could retail a CA$4000 range for CA$1900. Mystery solved. And BTW my CA$500 replacement bought from folks who had paid CA$6000 has worked beautifully for the last 3 years. It too had oven door issues and I received uninstalled replacement hinges along with the stove. the hinges work but the door is damaged and fragile from the sticking issue. My advice for anyone owning a big gas oven is this. Add something like a Miele 24 inch electric wall oven and you'll use it almost all the time.

That is so funny, especially because it reminded me of me, sort of. We were pulling a trailer with a small tractor on it and the tongue broke, shooting sparks, at 4 AM near Little Rock, on the interstate. After working on it for 2 hours in the dark, Woody left me there at dawn to guard it while he found a guy to weld it. There I was, in the tall wet grass, freezing my butt off, standing at the fence line hiding from view, scared to death that someone would stop and try to steal the tractor or that I was going to be attacked by a pack of wild dogs, I could hear them getting closer, yikes. lol This was a long time ago. After he got back and got us all fixed up and ready to go, a state trooper finally stopped. Woody jumped right down that poor guy's throat, "where the he!! were you guys when we needed you?" We had seen at least 4 troopers turning around about 50 yards down the highway, right before they got to us, even though they had to see our flashing blinkers. Poor trooper, he started stuttering all over the place. We were ticked. I was soaked up to my knees in 40 degree weather, my lips were blue, it was about 5 hours since it had happened and we weren't happy. I'm glad your friend didn't have any real troubles, Trin, other than getting busted by a cop. lol