I'm back again about the same garden tractor but with a different problem (the last one solved thanks to your help). I was driving the tractor yesterday, parked it and shut it off. When I restarted it, the tractor would not move forward or backward. When I looked under the tractor, I saw a pulley or pulley guide on the ground and the drive belt looked limp to me, so I assume the pulley is connected with that. Can someone tell me where this goes and how to reattach it? Is there a link with a diagram of the drive belt for this tractor so I can see how it is supposed to go? Any other thoughts are appreciated. I took a photo of the pulley but am not sure how to post it on this site. I can e-mail it to someone if you'd like to see it. Thanks!

I have a JD lawn tractor I rescued from a state of total dereliction. I got it running rather easily in it's "as found" (+ carb cleaned, battery, etc.) condition. It's a 2003 model with a single cylinder OHV Briggs & Stratton 19HP engine. Now, after replacing the steering gear, rebuilding the deck, paint, & miscellaneous clean-up & tune-up work, I have it running as an operable lawn tractor. Immediately, I found that - especially under loads - it was smoking. I also noticed the fuel pump (pressurized from a line to the crank vent (sounds typical for these & I don't know if it's necessary once the engine is running) was getting doused with oil. Pulling the dipstick with the engine running causes a lot of oil to rush out...so, as I was originally suspecting worn rings (which the power & sound of the engine doesn't really seem to support), it seems like the crankcase is pressurized and sending oil via the fuel pump into the carb...so, basically, in addition to loosing crankcase lubrication, I'm getting oil injection. So, some 'net searching seems to imply that the head gasket is a common source of this problem & common on these engines. Changing it & re-adjusting valves seems easy enough. I read (here I think) about loosening the rockers to keep the valves closed & pressurizing the cylinder via a spark plug fitting...is this basically the test? I haven't checked the compression, but based on how it runs (despite the smoke), i'd be surprised to find it low (and, frankly, I don't know what it *should* be anyway). Is there anything else I should check or look for that would cause the blow-by or case pressurization? thanks in advance!