Hey,

I recently developed a problem with my JD lawn tractor. When I engage the mowing deck, the engine nearly dies out, regains itself and I can mow on the level but just okay...problem gets correspondingly worse as the uphill grade increases and then it gets to a point where I have to basically crawl up the hill to mow at all. The deck rpm's decrease as engine struggles to make it up the grade. This all developed rather suddenly a couple of weeks ago and since I live in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains, I have to deal with somewhat steep terrain. I already changed all 3 belts and that did nothing to help solve the problem. I can take the deck off and all that but I cannot quite figure out this problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.