Craftsman self-propelled mower stopped propelling self

[im1dermike]

I have a Craftsman self-propelled push mower not too dissimilar to this. I was mowing this weekend and unfortunately ran over a hidden root that immediately stopped the mower in its tracks. I leaned the mower up and saw that the blade was totally bent. After buying a new blade and installing it, I resumed mowing only to find that the self-propelled mechanism was not working at all.

I'm looking for advice/suggestions on determining the issue and/or fixing the problem. Thanks in advance.

 

[OutdoorEnvy]

Take the blade off and inspect the self propel pulley and belt, either the belt came off or broke or the pulley or flywheel key is broke. That's my guess anyways...

 

[im1dermike]

Take the blade off and inspect the self propel pulley and belt, either the belt came off or broke or the pulley or flywheel key is broke. That's my guess anyways...

Thanks for your advice. I'll check as soon as I can.

 

[im1dermike]

Take the blade off and inspect the self propel pulley and belt, either the belt came off or broke or the pulley or flywheel key is broke. That's my guess anyways...

Thanks a lot for your suggestion! It took me about 10 seconds this afternoon to see that the belt came off the pulley/axle. I only had to loosen the blade screw to re-attach the belt and it's working again!

 

[OutdoorEnvy]

Glad it turned out that easy!