My deepest apologies for posting this inquiry without considering its effect on the forum members. I can see now that the stuck parking brake is probably not correlated to the performance of my mower, so the question is no longer valid or relevant. I will, of course, remove the horrific video so as to relieve anyone of the disturbing consequences of it's viewing. I can only hope the moderators will be kind enough to delete my questions so that viewers will not be confronted with the abomination of the oblique and unfocused pics that only serve to confuse, confound and vex them.
We are here to help and we enjoying helping others by which we also learn.
I do around 200 repairs a year and would be lucky to see the same machine more than once every 3 to 4 years.
I don't remember exactly what all of them look like or work like.
The brake interlock gets blown clean , checked for proper operation then lubed with some dry lithium chassis grease spray.
Thus unless one requires a repair I for one will not remember it.
You are there with the machine right in front of you.
We are thousands of miles away with nothing more to go on but what you present us with.
You give us good information and you will get good advice.
It is not a common problem or one of the 20 or so professional service technicians here would be familiar with it.
Thus we can only see what you give us to look at.
Videos are a PIA we have to view them multiple times and most people take them with their smart phones so the quality is very bad and if you are trying to see detail they are a waste of time.
I asked you for PHOTOS and from memory I also asked for them to be clear & in focus.
You have seen the real item in the flesh ( well metal actually ) so a fuzzy poorly framed photo will bring the clear real life photo to mind in your brain.
We need to see the whole of the locking lever, brake on , brake off.
From that we can work out where things are supposed to be and from that how to get them there.
We need to be able to see things like scuffed paint, wear patches, frett marks etc etc etc.
None of these are visible from your video or still from the video.
In particular the locking lever needs to be full frame so we can see both the pivot end and the locking end at the same time, brake on brake off.
We can not help you unless you help us.
And just so you know,
After you posted the video , I went to 3 different web sites, downloaded parts books and owners manuals for your mower.
I dragged out my copy of the MTD service manual to see if there were any clearer photos of the locking image that the ones you provided.
IF I wanted still from the video , I could have done that myself, in fact I did step frame through it several times before I sent the reply asking for stills.
All you could be bothered to do was to pull a few out of focus & badly framed images off the video which was not good enough in the first place.
There is a massive difference in the resolution of a video and a photo and we need the detail in the photo , not the motion of the video.
The only thing of any use in the video was the brake pedal being applied but again you only showed 1/2 of what we needed to see and shakey hands did not help.
There is a reason why movie makers spend $ 20,000 on a dolly to hold the camera and then pay 2 or 3 people to move it while another operates it.
The under mower section was a total wast of electrons as all that can be seen is glare .
Now if you want help fixing your mower do what we asked for .
If you want to storm off in a petulant frenzy then print out the replies put them on the floor, hold your breath and jump up and down on them till you are blue in the face.
My mower works. your mower does not, your decision.
...