"Sears DYS4500 Lawn Tractor - Replacing the Mower Deck Blades Engagement Clutch"

By Ron Stultz

24 May 2012

Summary: easy enough do-it-yourself (DIY) with minimal tools. Easier to take broken part out of new clutch assembly and install in old clutch assembly than to replace entire clutch assembly.

Background:

Sears DYS4500 lawn tractor with 3 bag catch attachment.

Bought new in 2008.

Recently went to engage mower deck blades by pushing engagement lever forward and around and suddenly no resistance in lever and no mower deck blade action.

Shut off tractor, open hood and look upward where engagement lever enters.

See where cable attaches that goes to mower deck and give it a pull.

Piece of mower deck blades engagement clutch drops falls out.

As lever held in place by hair pin and defective part by spring, easy enough to remove spring and lever.

From above, you can see that defective part had a flat place in the hole where the engagement lever goes and sure enough, if you look at the end of the engagement lever you will see it has a flat place on it.

Note: there is an electric switch installed on the clutch assembly that if not pushed by the lever disallows the mower to start. You can get around this by putting the lever in the blade disengage position and pulling the lever towards you as far as it will go and holding it and then starting engine. Once started, blade engagement lever can be released and tractor will run.

Replacement part:

Go to Sears parts on Internet and find diagram of mower deck blade engagement assembly.

BUT part broken on my tractor, not separately available, must buy whole assembly.

Buy (2).

Mower deck blades engagement clutch replacement:

When assembly arrives, notice:

- no plastic handle on lever, so must be moved from old lever to new (looks nasty) OR just use old lever.

- cable that is pulled by lever that goes to mower deck goes through grommet in clutch assembly and looks like one of those "meant to be assembled but never disassembled" components.

- old assembly not going to be easy to remove with how screws go through metal into plastic and will have to deal with electric switch installed on assembly.

- Going to have to remove lever from new assembly to install assembly.

- Going to have to remove spring to get deck cable installed.

SO with all that, why even remove old assembly and mount new but rather just replace defective part in old assembly??

And looking at under side of new assembly, easy enough to remove part I need and install in old clutch assembly.

Note how on new assembly, piece with spring up against metal "stop" when lever in disengage position. Must insert piece into old assembly the same way.

With part I need out of new clutch assembly, go to tractor remove lever completely.

Place new part between metal of old clutch assembly and looking down in hole where lever will go, align hole in new part with hole in tractor shell.

Make sure you have new part in correct position with end where spring will go angled down and against disengaged metal "stop".

Take old lever and turning it so it is more or less in the "blades disengaged" position, place it down in the hole and get it to go through the new part.

Replace hair pin through lever shaft.

Place pin down through new part.

Now, you will find that the cable going to the mower deck is too short to fit over the clutch assembly pin.

If you trace the cable down to the deck, you will see that it is attached to a spring that pulls a idler arm up against mower deck blade drive belt. Go around on the chute side of the tractor and using a piece of wood or other, block the idler arm so it is pushing the mower deck blades belt.

Now back to the clutch assembly.

Now when you pull on the cable going to the deck, you will have plenty of cable to slip it over the pin in the clutch assembly and then hook the spring around the pin and then onto the metal of the clutch assembly.

Unblock the blades drive belt and you will notice this pulls the lever even further in the disengage position.

Check everything over?

Slowly push the blades engagement lever forward and around. If you have to strain more than usual to move the lever, stop and check how you installed new part in old assembly.

Problem with new clutch assembly part install:

Cable end of new part angled in correct direction?

New part installed so it was up against metal stop in the disengaged lever position?