Yardman deck won't disengage

Hi guys,
i have a MTD yardman i have done a partial restoration on. I have put the deck back on, but it doesn't seem to be moving forward at all when lifted, so the belt is still tight. i can't see any way the deck is meant to move forward. Can anyone help me with some advise or even just identifying the model of yardman i have?

this is it now

No you have just painted it black.
The first part of a restoration is the documentation.
Followed by the research.
Followed by a dry assembly.
Followed by a full assembly and mechanical test.
Followed by cosmetic work and the final assembly.

The usual reason why those decks will not move back and diessengage is the belt on them is too small
After that the No 2 reason is a bad, missing or missplaced deck spring.
They are a bugger to get on and I see a few where they have simply been discarded because the owners was not strong enough to refit them.

hey mate thanks for the reply.
Let me add some more detail. sorry it was late last night.
When i got this mower, it was full of rust, the engine didn't run at all, the wheels were falling off and the belts had deteriorated.
When i first obtained it, i was able to track down the full manuals for both the mower and the engine, however unfortunately i lost all the data on my laptop, and during the bodywork i had to remove the stickers on the mower which led me to those manuals.
the engine has been completely re-wired and fully serviced, the belts were replaced with genuine items, the wheels have been repaired and re-attached, the belt adjustments have been done to factory specs, the brakes have been adjusted to factory specs, the ignition barrel had to be removed as it was seized.
The only thing i did not end up restoring was the cutting deck, as i spoke to a few people who warned about them warping.
When i bough the mower the cutting deck was not completely disengaging, but it was better than it is now. i initially put the disengagement down to bad belt and worn blade brake shoes.
the belt is the correct one as far as I'm aware (compared to the original manual when i had it...) but what i can't work out is what is suppose to force the deck forward.
There are 2 large springs running from near the from axle down to under the footrests, however these pull the deck backwards not forwards.
Should there be any other springs?

Just as well this is not a computer forum or you would be getting lecture about backing up your data files.
Vitally important if you have a PC and some what less important with a Mac which auto archive as long as you have an external drive connected.

Those gut busting springs work against the PTO lever which sort of works backwards.
When you "engage" the PTO, the lever links go slack and allow the springs to pull back against the belt.
When you dissengauge the PTO the lever pulls against the springs to allow the belt to run slack.
Take the springs off and check that the PTO lever can move the deck foreward & up till the pulleys hit the brake pads.

Every one of these types of decks I have worked on all of the linkages were flogged out oval and needed to be welded up and redrilled.
As for the deck, check that it is flat at the bottom.
Usually the bridge piece & skid plate under the discharge chute is broken off and that allows the front of the deck to collapse onto the blades when you hit solid things with it.
I usually tack about 1-2 meters of 1/2" reo bar around the perimeter of the deck inside the lip ( Oxy welding and hot bending )

hi mate,
thanks again for your reply.
funnily enough i had a backup off all my data on a NAS running RAID 5. unfortunately it dropped 1 drive, then dropped a second drive when rebuilding. i lost about 4TB of data. i thought the manual was still on this computer but i can't find it, and gmail seems to have deleted the attachment when it was email to me.

Do i have to remove the springs or just the linkages running from the springed part to the deck lowering rods?
as for the rest of the deck, its fairly straight. it has been repaired numerous times in the past by the looks of it. the bridge piece has been welded back on previously.
I probably won't have time to play with it again now for a few days.
Thanks again for you help.

thanks for your help mate.
I had a chance to do some more work on it today. you're spot on, i think a lot of the linkages are pretty badly worn.
i ground out the front 2 holes where the rod that the spring pulls on goes and sleeved them. this has helped it a lot.
i poured a bunch of powdered graphite on the belt as it was spinning as well.
it now seems to be disengaging to the point that the blades will stop. if i leave it long enough disengaged i start getting a small amount of smoke coming off the belt. Not sure if the belt will loosen a little as its brand new...
next thing is to try get the deck adjustment a bit better. the side opposite the chute seems to be higher on the first 2 levels but lower and you go down more on the deck.
i have a feeling i might struggle getting it right as i think its a combination of worn and bent linkages ...