Hey folks, so I'm posting this follow up in my original thread because I think I have a related problem. Last year, I replaced the PTO drive belt and the mower blade drive belts on my inherited JD STX 38 Yellow Deck. Today I took the mower out (NOT the first time this season) and had some serious issues. First of all, the grass is tall - 18-24 inches. I had the mower height set to the tallest height. The grass may have also been slightly damp - although not wet. I was able to cut basically one path, then I realized that although the PTO was engaged, the blades weren't cutting the grass. I was going at the slowest speed (first gear) and even tried cutting using only 1/2 of the mower deck width at a time - no help. I took the mower back to my driveway, cleared out lots of old clumped grass from the blades, and started the mower and the PTO. The blades were definitely turning. I turned off the mower again, and noticed that the PTO drive belt is looking terrible - it's all pitted and slack - it's not tight around the PTO shaft! So, my theory is this: the PTO drive belt is shot again (Although not broken yet) - so the blade spin when I'm not trying to cut anything, but when I come in contact with any sort of grass of substance, the slack belt is "slipping" and resulting in the blades not cutting? Does this make sense? Solution: replace the belt AGAIN???? A few more things to note: 1) I tried cutting shorter grass and drier grass and had very little luck. 2) why would my PTO drive belt, just replaced a year ago, be so shredded already? That's worrisome... any advice would be appreciated. thanks.

Best that you test the wire at the PTO clutch connector for voltage when the PTO switch is turned on. Do this with the key on, engine NOT RUNNING. If you do not have voltage at the clutch when the PTO is turned on, your PTO switch may be bad or there could be a broken wire between the PTO switch and the PTO clutch. If you DO HAVE voltage at the PTO clutch wire connector but the PTO clutch will not engage.......your PTO clutch has likely failed. You might even get lucky and find that wire broken or unplugged.

If you have the tools, I would check the battery and charging circuit. If this circuit is working you would not be able to run the engine until the battery was drained. You could run out of gas, but if it is working not drain the battery. Note: in the future, when the standard function to hot stop the engine, you can stop the motor by shorting the spark plug to the block with a screw driver. I have done this numerous times with small engines. In fact, on some of the older engines there was a strip of metal attached to the engine,, that you would push against the plug to stop the engine. I am new to dual cylinder engine, so you may have to short both plugs at the same time to stop that type of engine.

I don't have a schematic for that, but typically, the wiring will go from the S terminal of the ignition switch, THROUGH the clutch/brake switch and to the starter solenoid. There may or may not be a PTO switch involved. I'd check the brake switch first.