Front end smoke, not the deck belt.
Husqvarna riding Mower YTH24v48. New to me mower, and (shockingly) I have an issue. Mower starts up fine, but after about ten minutes of actual mowing (meaning blades engaged), I start getting smoke from the front end, it’s not coming from the exhaust pipe, but more the bottom of the front end. This only seems to happen when the blades are on. When I shut the blades off and mower is still on, the smoke stops. I’ve take the deck off, replaced the belt, and still the same issue. When deck was off, the blades all turned easily. Belt is on correctly, and old belt showed no signs of burning. Chat gpt is indicating clutch issue? Has anyone dealt with this before, or ran into a similar issue? I’m at a loss at the moment on next steps, and hoping the collective wisdom of the internet can save the day