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My lawn is quite long right now, and when i was mowing yesterday I took a turn and the mower made a squeaking noise, then emitted thick white smoke. Now when I mow, the deck shakes violently when i engage the blades. When the blades are not engaged however, the mower runs fine. Its also worth noting that I just recently had a company put new blades on for me.

Anyone know why this happens/how I can fix it?

Check your deck belt. Most likely something is either stuck not letting the belt move or it's just worn. If it had a burning rubber smell than that's most likely the issue.

What he said ….. the long grass may have clogged up the deck or chute …. and the blades won't turn. The engine is probably turning the belt on the blade pulley causing the belt to white smoke (& squeal). The other blades are probably turning, but one of them is not, … causing the unbalanced deck to shake. In example, the left blade is rotating and the right blade is stuck …… the left side of the deck is whirling and vibrating without the right side of the deck to balance the left side out.

This unbalanced deck vibrated violently ….

With blades like that you would not need to hit anything for them to shatter.
They should have been replaced 200 hours ago.

bertsmobile1 said:

With blades like that you would not need to hit anything for them to shatter.
They should have been replaced 200 hours ago.

Click to expand...

Yeah, probably right. These were on the mower when i bought it at the end of last season. They were worn down quite a bit. Figured I'd use them (sacrificially) in favor of new blades ..... Admittedly, I was doing more of a bush-hogging some neighboring "woods" than actual mowing and didn't want to waste new blades.

That's one of the reasons I bought a familiar (and cheaper) mower .... I was going to use it to cut back some encroaching weeds, vines and yes.... Small saplings ....
Once that was done, I started "leveling" the high spots of dirt, rock, etc with the deck on the lowest setting. Literally, mowing rocks and dirt. Couldn't do that with a new mower.

Not smart and completely lazy .... But it worked. Weeds cut back and somewhat leveled.

Old blades swapped for slightly newer blades .... and a brand new set sitting on the shelf ....

Here's the latest fiasco .... Weed eater string... A whole spool...... Locked the blades up in an instant.

Just to bring my wanderings back on topic, here's mine getting clogged up with grass doing just as you described.

Mother's place hadn't been mowed in several weeks. It took a lot of cross-cutting and re-cutting just to distribute the clumps.....
With brand new sharpened blades and new tight belts, this mower would have worked like a champ.... It still did great, but I really had to slow it down a lot to keep from choking up the deck and burning up the worn, loose belts.