I have a 22 inch cut Craftsman self propel mower---I had no probels with the self propel cutting off until the other day. You must release the safety bar on the top of the push handle for a slit second to get the self propel mode to cease. Now when I do this- the seld propel handle does disengage bu the mower keeps self propeling but not in full gear---also the mower cannot be pushed as if the self propel was still fully engaged. Why will the self propel not fully disengage. If I release the bar fully, the mower will cut off as it should and the wire does does move the wower to the stop mode. Any Ideas?

The gear from the motor to the back wheels for self propulsion might be getting stuck so flip it over and wd40 anything where two pieces of metal are touching like were the blade shaft comes out of the motor

Most Sears mowers use a belt to drive the rear wheels so would check to see if the spring loaded tensioner pulley is getting hung up and not completely giving enough slack to the belt. Do not use this mower until this safety feature is repaired.