I mucked with the drive belt length and now its sweet. Found some info on it and it was missing a spring which helps with drive engagement and one of the linkages had two holes and it was in the wrong one. Mine pushes out of the shed and along the lawn no worries. The tennis club i bought it from said the secret to helping push it and get the old scooter brake to work properly was high tyre pressure in the front wheel. Amazing the phone number for the company still works and found out a lot more info about who built them. I can mow right into a corner and still manage to turn out without any problems. I have over the years always adjusted garden beds etc to make it easy to mow, no whipping. I mow the front yard with it and it always manages to stop traffic lol.
Will get back with the machining results.
