OP update: Success. And I have no idea how.
Thanks to Eagle1's suggestion and illustration, I easily found the tensioner and promptly snapped a crescent wrench by turning it in the wrong direction. The tractor gods demand tribute. So, I checked out the vid and discovered the proper rotation to loosen. And that is what I did, again assuming that relieving the tension would allow me to depress the brake pedal and release it. Nope. Loosening the turnbuckle did not have that effect. And the pedal remained unresponsive to to my repeated mashing. It just travelled to the end and caught. Until something happened, too fast for me to process. The pedal came back. Frankly, I was a bit of an idiot and figured I could reproduce it, so I depressed the brake again. And was back to square one. So I figured that there must be something going on with the locking mechanism, not the brake pedal, but found nothing in the operator's manual that helped.
As I was about to pack it in, I happened to press on the differential lock pedal, and as soon as I did, the brake pedal released. This time, I finished my mowing before doing any more scientific experiments. Once parked, I lightly engaged the brake, and then tried to release it, without success. The brake just locked further each time I depressed it. And then I hit the differential pedal, as before, and Bob's your uncle. The pedal released.
I will be very interested to know if any of you knowledgeable folks can explain that one. For the time being, I think I shall try to avoid using the brake.
My thanks again, to all of you, especially Eagle 1, for the good help. I have had the BX2200 for 20 years. It is one of the best investments I have ever made.
David
Thanks to Eagle1's suggestion and illustration, I easily found the tensioner and promptly snapped a crescent wrench by turning it in the wrong direction. The tractor gods demand tribute. So, I checked out the vid and discovered the proper rotation to loosen. And that is what I did, again assuming that relieving the tension would allow me to depress the brake pedal and release it. Nope. Loosening the turnbuckle did not have that effect. And the pedal remained unresponsive to to my repeated mashing. It just travelled to the end and caught. Until something happened, too fast for me to process. The pedal came back. Frankly, I was a bit of an idiot and figured I could reproduce it, so I depressed the brake again. And was back to square one. So I figured that there must be something going on with the locking mechanism, not the brake pedal, but found nothing in the operator's manual that helped.
As I was about to pack it in, I happened to press on the differential lock pedal, and as soon as I did, the brake pedal released. This time, I finished my mowing before doing any more scientific experiments. Once parked, I lightly engaged the brake, and then tried to release it, without success. The brake just locked further each time I depressed it. And then I hit the differential pedal, as before, and Bob's your uncle. The pedal released.
I will be very interested to know if any of you knowledgeable folks can explain that one. For the time being, I think I shall try to avoid using the brake.
My thanks again, to all of you, especially Eagle 1, for the good help. I have had the BX2200 for 20 years. It is one of the best investments I have ever made.
David
