If you haven't yet verified the cable action at the transmission lever- that would be your next step. These transmissions are fairly easily removed, though a grimy job inside. Parts should be serviceable inside the trans yet. Your other option may be to simply loosen the cable tension so that the you are able to feather the drive control and give the belt less tension- thus less instant torque and speed.

Thanks for the response, Tom. I submitted a request online to Gatorblade (or whatever the mfr's website is called) to see if they even make a blade for this mower, and you may be right that the Gatorblade may not make that much of a difference. If I could find one locally that fits, I would definitely give it a try. . . . and I agree that a lower height setting should help. The problem with this machine is that the lowest setting doesn't really get that low to the ground. I am toying with the idea of changing to a smaller diameter wheel to get closer to the ground. It seems Deere has ignored the need to ever get the deck really low to the ground, but they have upper height settings that I can only wonder in what sort of conditions someone cutting his/her lawn could make use of those very high settings. I guess the limitations on the low end have something to do with the one lever sets all wheels feature on this mower - a feature with which I am not really thrilled. It's easy enough to change the wheel height of four individual wheels, and, if raising the deck, the best way to do so is to take the weight off the wheel being raised. This is actually harder to accomplish when one must use a single lever that raises all the wheels simultaneously. All the "professional" reviewers make such a big deal of this feature, downgrading their ratings on mowers that require the user to set each wheel height separately . . . I think it is silly, actually. Anyhow, thanks for the response. I will continue to search for a suitable solution to this problem. I hate to have to go out and purchase a new piece of equipment to pick-up my leaves. With the Lawnboy, it was simple and fast. Caruso

I have a GX75. Great mower. Sure I have had to work on it a few times but it has got to be the best mower on the market. Still going strong after 15 years. I cut my yard and my neighbors yard. Change belts once in a while. Oil change every two years. Blade sharpen every year.

Before you shell out the big bucks for a new PTO there is one more thing you might want to check. PTO coils are huge inductors. They should have a diode across them to protect the PTO switch from the inductive kick that happens when you turn off the PTO. Without the diode the switch will have a short life. I don't know how your tractor was made. If it has a diode it could be someplace in the wiring harness or built into the PTO itself. If you did your resistance check properly, you disconnected the PTO completely from the harness when measuring. Then you would have gotten a good reading provided there is not a diode built into the PTO assembly. If there is a diode built into the PTO assembly you have to be aware of the meter polarity. One way the diode is not a factor and the other way the diode would likely cause a lower reading, like you measured. One more possibility exists, if the diode is built into the PTO. The diode itself could be bad! If you have a good schematic of the wiring it should indicate where the diode is located.