Clutch update

The PTO clutch that drives the mower was one part that I whipped off last year and hadn't paid too much attention to until last night. This part underwent some hardship at some time in the past (recall from an earlier post the picture of the crankshaft end that was all chewed up - that's where this clutch mounts). It's hard to tell what happened, doesn't really matter at this point. No matter how nicely the rebuilt engine runs, if we can't get power to the blades then this whole effort will have been for naught!
I looked more closely at the clutch and noticed that it had been repaired; there are three special bolts in it, each of which has a dish-shaped head that holds a matching lever in precise location. The three levers keep things centred when the clutch is engaged and disengaged. At some point two of these special bolts were replaced with POBs (plain old bolts), and those didn't keep the levers in the right place so only one of them was actually working. Anyway, I ordered a set of replacement bolts ($7 each) and will be able to re-use the levers, they're fine. There is also a "thrust button" at the centre of the clutch that the three levers engage with - this is the mechanism's G-spot, except that when you push on it, the mower stops working. The thrust button fell out when I disassembled the clutch because the threads on it were gone (broken off). I ordered another one of those as well.
All these parts should be in by the end of the week and won't hamper the progress getting the tractor back together.