Well, I went back out, looked around the pulleys, grabbed one or two, kicked the tires and went for another test run.....and it drove great. Didn't slow down on the gentle inclines, accelerated smoothly, no whining or strange noises....IDK what happened, but what ever it was, it's not doing it anymore.
Thanks Thomas - I'll look around for leaks and what not but I didn't see any initially.
Pilgrim - It's a CVT with 2 belt drive system. I have a FWD gear, a N position, and a REV gear. When I push the clutch/brake pedal in, I put the gear shifter into F or R. When I let the brake/clutch out, the mower doesn't move until I push on the right pedal. Which is the way it is supposed to work.
Same goes for Reverse, shift into reverse, let brake/clutch out, and then push on the right pedal to move in reverse.
As far as the engine goes, I'm thinking it was just the EX valve loose again...maybe the push rod 'jiggled' out of the valve arm thing when I did the install...IDK...operator error most likely. At that point though, I decided to tear it down to the crankcase to see if the cam gears were good and whatnot.
Everything looked good on the motor, got new closure gasket, put everything back together according to the Kohler service manual -including setting the proper gap on the ignition module...I stumbled across that section in the manual...I would've had that wrong for sure.
Sanded down the ignition coil/module and magnet on the flywheel, inspected wiring harness....(found one bad spot near the coil and put 8 layers of electrical tape on it and routed it to where it wouldn't rub anymore).
New plug, filters, oil....
And it's running and mowing just fine. Cutting better than my JD L100 with a 17 HP INTEK BnS.....same size mower as the CC basically.
Question: When I shouuld check the valves again. Before I mow again?