My Murray riding lawn mower starts just fine and sounds fine but if I try to drive it or engage the blades..

Question

My Murray riding lawn mower starts just fine and sounds fine but if I try to drive it or engage the blades it dies, or rather the engen starts to die and if I do not disengage or step all the way back on the brake then it dies. I have checked the air filter, cleaned the spark plug, messed around with the adjustments. Any ideas and how much it should cost, estimate, if I cant fix it myself? Thanks!

Answer 1

Could be a bearing take the belts off and makes sure everything turns easily.  

Answer 2

My guess is the carburetor.  When you go to put a load on the engine it tries to die.  The governor is opening the throttle and the engine dies.  I would take the carb off, clean it, and install a rebuild kit.  The kit is around 15 dollars and it is not a hard job.  The best way to clean the carb is to soak it in a good cleaner than make sure all the passages are clean.  It has to be clean.  

Answer 3

i would also think RUSTED BEARINGS on one or more of the pullies that the belt goes around.   if one is jammed or rusted it becomes too laborsome for the engin to turn them.   it's not unusual for them to rust out when they get older.  most that i've seen don't have a grease fitting so you can grease them.  however i've also found that if you purchase a new unit or two, the replacement units might have that grease fitting.

Answer 4

Just a first guess- do you have any oil in the transmition?

It sounds as if as soon as you want to do anything it protests. Has to be clutch and or tranny

Answer 5

Hi,Sounds like you have some resistance in the lower cutting  area .I would drop it down and check for any binding,if you have not done this yet.You might have dry bearings that have gone bad.You have quite a lot of grease fittings on the  mower.Good Luck.