I have a Craftsman riding lawn mower. I ran over a cable and it is stuck in my lawn mower blades. How do I?

If it was an electric cable make sure it is dead/unplugged (if not already torn loose) lift the mower deck as high as it will go, throw some cardboard down and reach under and unwind it or just cut it out with wire cutters (insulation will be wrecked anyway). If it is a steel cable, wear gloves to remove, as the little strands that are damaged/sticking out will mess up your hands. If it is really snarled in there and you have to tip the mower, try going part way and blocking it up with cement blocks or something like that. You can tip it completely over but they are pretty heavy and sometimes the oil leaks out or into the air intake and causes trouble with smoke or getting it started again.

Lawn Mower Cable

It's pretty easy to pull 4 pins, disconnect the V-belt and slide the deck out from underneath the tractor. Then you can go from there. It's not safe to tip a heavy tractor and you also have oil, gasoline and battery fluid to deal with.To release the spring pressure adjust the deck height so the gage wheels are on the ground. Reach under and remove the 2 pins that lift the deck. Remove the 2 pins at the front of the deck. Reach in to the belt tensioning pulley and pull it with one hand while removing the belt from the engine pulley with the other hand. Pull the deck towards you to clear the tractor.I do all this work from the left side of the tractor. This is not as hard as you might think. As a matter of fact, the second time you pull the deck, it'll only take about 5 minutes.

It's OK to tilt it. Some gas and oil may leak out, but you'll have to do that unless you can lift the mower straight up or drive it onto a 'grease pit'. nce you tilt it, or whatever, I recommend that you remove the blade(s) and then you can upright the mower while you deal with the tangle and see if you need to resharpen the blade. Once you have the blade cleared and ready, you can tilt the mower again and put the blade back on. Clean up the oil & gas off the mower, and restart it. Be prepared for the mower to cough and smoke a little til the oil settles back down, though. Good Luck.

Papaw

Before you do anything under the deck remove and ground the spark plug cable. You wouldn't want the thing to start when you are down there. I would remove the deck rather than get under it usually just a few quick release pins and the deck will slide out from under the mower when you can safely work on it.

http://www.stevesequipmentrepair.net./

Remove the mower deck from the tractor. That will be the easiest way to get the cable out. Don't tip the mower on its' side, that is just plain stupid. You don't tip your car over to work on it do you? Anyone suggesting that you tip the mower on its side should consider not posting answers on this site anymore. Remove the deck, probably will need to remove the blades. Now you can clean and inspect the deck and sharpen the blades.

lift the front place it on cement blocks

untangle the cable let it back down

if you tilt it to a side oil will run into the piston & carb area and cause problems

Yeah you can tilt it on it's side