Jammed deck on 420 mower. Now wont engage properly?

[MilesToEmpty]

Remove all of the blades, I'll bet one is bent and the resulting imbalance is causing a vibration problem. All the blades should nestle together when stack on top of each other.

Or, you bent a spindle...

The deck spins freely by hand. Whatever pre PTO that makes it spin isnt working properly.

 

[MilesToEmpty]

So Miles, you don't think you have that gearcase behind the double belts driving the PTO shaft?
From the parts manual, it is hard to decipher what is on the engine side of these double belts (shown here)

Maybe that gearbox previously shown is just for 540 RPM shaft on the front of the 420 tractor. And this pic of the double belts is a pulley direct off the engine.
With the deck off, what does engaging the PTO sound like? Normal?

Deck connected or not, the PTO is very very slow to start. No grinding noises or anything.

ONLY noise we hear is what sounds like a small air pump trying to speed something up; like a steam engine starting off. It makes no sense to me.

The engine runs perfect. The Pulleys spin by hand freely, as does the PTO and deck when you spin the top pulley on the engine by hand.

 

[tcartwri]

Sounds like you fragged the electromagnetic clutch.

 

[MilesToEmpty]

I expected I did a job on the clutch, but I dont know what I need to do to replace it, and what parts I need.

 

[beenthere]

Have you been able to track it down in jdparts?
There appears to be different parts for different serial numbers of the 420.

 

[MilesToEmpty]

Havent really been able to pick it out. What I thought was it, didnt look right at all, and it wasnt lol.

The SN ref number I have for the 86 is M00420X360001

 

[MilesToEmpty]

This is the pulley im interested in:

 

[beenthere]

That is the electromagnetic clutch between that pulley and the Onan engine...right?
Does that clutch wind up slowly when engaged?

Did you see this clutch on jdparts? or not?

Here is breakdown of electromagnetic clutch

 

[XSKIER]

You might consider replacing the breather tube, as well as clean the cooling fins on the left bank. That oil and dirt coating you've got going on there severely impacts the cooling ability. My dads 20 Onan cooked the left cylinder, it looked just like yours.

 

[MilesToEmpty]

Which breather tube? The one that breathes into the air filter container?

Last thing I want to do is cook anything lol.

Ill get some degreaser and clean up that side of the engine.