Bldes Won't Engage

Just finished repairing my Craftsman tractor's (917.289281) transmission. Tractor now goes forward and reverse without throwing the drive belt (transaxle mounting screws sheared off). I re-installed the deck and went to test it out, and the blades won't engage. The deck worked fine when I took it off a month ago to work on the transmission. I did not touch the cable where it attaches to the blade engage lever under the hood. I did unhook the cable and spring from the deck.

I attached the clutch cable to the deck, hooking the spring to the hole on the idler pulley mount. Cable is locked into the slotted hole that holds it to the deck. I've done this a dozen times in the past, and never had an issue. The cable seems to be working, when you shift the lever, the pulley moves into position to tighten the belt, but obviously not enough to engage the blades. What am I missing? I'm scratching my head, as it worked fine before I un-mounted the deck, and I've removed the deck many times before.

I could replace the deck belt, and then the cable, but since it worked before I took it apart, I am thinking it is assembly error....

check and make sure the cable is pulling the tension to the full travel to apply enough tension on the belt.

check that the belt is actually on the blade pulleys properly.
Then check you are getting full travel on the tensioning lever.
If your mower had spindle brakes some times they can jamb and prevent the tension arm from travelling fully.
And of course the position of the deck makes a big difference to the belt tension.

Finally got it fixed. I replaced both the clutch cable and the belt driving the blades. It was the cable. The blades now engage smooth as butter. Even when new it was never this smooth!

Of course, when I replaced the belt, I tried to loosen two bolts holding on a metal guide protecting one of the pulleys, and the bolts sheared off. Then I realized they also held the blade mandrel in place. So now I have to replace the mandrel. It never ends!