Pawl

(Previously had replaced the self-propelled control cable. The drive shaft would now spin but wheels still didn't pull.)
Prop up the front of the mower. Remove hub cap, remove wheel nut and wheel on the wheel that is not pulling (both on mine). Some parts are left/right specific. Remove the E clip that holds the drive gear. (min ... Read more e had rusted and broken allowing the pawls to fall out and get lost, purchased new E clips at local hardware store) Remove the drive gear and interior parts including the large flat washer with a slot. The projection on the pawl goes into that slot. Clean all parts, the hole where the round lobe of the pawl fits especially and the slot were one end of the circular spring sits. Lubricate the assembly and make sure that the pawl is pushed outward by the circular spring (stretch it if need be), this does the drive action and allows the front wheels to free-wheel forward. Reassemble the drive as it was, replace the spring if broken, put the E clip next to the drive gear. Be sure that the shield and wheel flange will keep grass out of the drive gear and wheel -- I replaced the wheel because the flange was broken off all around the wheel. The shields were both broken on the bottom so I reversed them (left and right) so the broken part was on top. Replace the wheel, nut and hubcap.