Whart are the symptons of a faulty electro magnetic clutch on on stx 30 John Deere mower? [Kohler Eng]

Present symptons:

A) Starting the mower in neutral resluts in smoking belt.
B) Manually depressing manual clutch stops smoking belt.
[i.e. induces slack in drive belt]

Flo Damron, December 2005

Sounds like you have something jamming the belt and when you push in clutch it releases the belt.....look under mover and check for limbs ect on belts or pulleys

bg, December 2005