Got lucky

My wife was kind enough to mow the yard before we left on vacation with the 919. After mowing for over an hour she called me and said she was smelling burnt grass so she shut the mower down thankfully. I arrived a half hour later and checked the mower over. I could smell a hint of burnt grass but could not see anything obvious. Grabbed the 917 and finished mowing.
Finally got around to see what was going on today, figuring the main drive pulley had went bad. Turned the pulley and it seemed to be fine although a little resistance could be felt. Pulled the drive belt covers and found out why she smelled burnt grass. It was packed tight with grass clippings and down near the base of the deck around the center arbor it was burnt. Only reason it didn’t catch fire was due to the belt shields suffocating the fire. I acquired this mower last year from my cousin. It has done very well mowing. After removing the grass I found out where it was coming from, he had patched the deck due to rusting. I removed what was left of the patch and made a new patch. Deck is now too thin to weld a new patch so I bolted my new patch. Guess I need to start searching for a new deck at some point, patch should buy me some time. So thankful she shut it down when she did.

That's why I do not run with deck covers.  I can blow off all the grass from on top of the deck.  With covers, it does not get done often enough.  Den

Well, went to run the 919 today. It’s been almost 4 weeks since my wife last mowed since we have had no rain. Just cutting down the weeds mostly. Apparently the pto clutch went out also. Ole 917 came to the rescue to knock it out. Will see what it looks like when I tear it apart.