I have a 10-year-old John Deere LA 175 garden tractor with a Briggs & Stratton 26 HP OHV engine, 54 inch mower deck. I used the tractor primarily to cut the grass and also tow around a cart with mulch, gardening equipment, etc., on my 3-acre property. A slow oil leak developed in the front of the engine a couple of years ago; I was advised by my local repair shop that the repair would be costly because of the labor involved and I could put it off for a little while as long as I kept an eye on the oil level, which I have done. This year, the PTO clutch went, and when the estimate to fix the two items hit $1,000, I decided to put the money toward a new zero-turn grass cutting mower, and continue to use the JD for yard work, because it still ran fine. Today I decided to take the mower deck off the JD, since it doesn't work anyway, because it would reduce the width to park it in my shed. When I've done this in the past, the JD would still drive fine without the deck. But today, when I removed the deck and tried to start it, the whole tractor shook violently, as if the deck had been providing some sort of stability. I tried this three of four times, and got the same result; am now thinking about putting the deck back on. Any ideas about what could have caused this and any potential solutions? Thanks in advance.

My Raptor with a Kohler 25 when I turn the key the starter turns with no ignition to the motor, but wont stop turning over even when switch is off. The battery has to be disconnected for engine to stop turning over. What is the source of this? And why after turning over the engine didn't fire up? Help!!!