It's not my intention to piss you off, but perhaps others can learn something constructive from your experience. Unfortunately, when Briggs & Stratton acquired Murray, Snapper, and Simplicity, they use this as a marketing opportunity to trade on the Snapper name with some of the old Murray designs. Your mower, as well as most of the walk-behind mowers on the Sears website are rebadged Murrays. Not necessarily junk, but not up to the standards of the "old" Snapper, which is now sold only thru authorized dealers or the the commercial space. That said, I'd take advantage of the warranty first. In the case of the drive cable, it might have come loose from the attachment on the deck, or the drive belt is broken or off the pulley. In any case, if you keep fooling with it and let your warranty run out Sears will tell you they can't help. Since you sound like you've lost confidence in the mower, I'd try to get Sears to offer your money back, and then move on to something else. Good luck.

Carburetor - from the original Greek word carbutaum which means don't mess with it Channel Locks - a substitute for every wrench you don't have Screw Driver - a chisel in hiding DVM - the best $3 you'll never spend at Harbor Freight Fuse - a hidden switch to turn something electrical on your tractor OFF

"Going back to ask them nicely to loosen and re-torque. I'm also going to nicely suggest that if they break them, they bought them since someone there was the last one to have a wrench on them. Sound reasonable?" Reasonable yes to a degree, but if you really had to could you prove it? I mean proove that no-one had any of the wheels off at some time in the last year? Most impact guns can be rated as high as 600ft/lb torque, but the truth is the wheel nuts would stretch and break long before that torque is ever achieved. While they could have in fact overtorqued them, and whether they did or not they will in all likelyhood break them loose for you and retorque them. There is a point where it would be perfectly reasonable for them to tell you they cannot and would not assume responsibility for the lugs and studs. Many of these allow wheels corrode between the nut and the wheel and bind the nut to the wheel with much more force than was used to tighten the nut. A properly torqued nut at 100ft/lbs may six months later require 300ft/lbs of torque to break it loose! In fact I have had some where the nuts simply would not stand up to the effort required to remove them and ultimately had to resort to drilling the stud out of the lugnut to get the wheel off. The blame for this wasn't the shop that put the wheels on last. It's the materials used and the fact that the wheels are almost never taken off the car by the owner!

Without hearing the noise myself, I can't tell what it might be. There are so many possiblities. I will list a few below: 1. Badly worn ball joint. 2. Dry joints needing lube. 3. Loose steering box bolts. 4. Loose and dry wheel bearing. 5. Brake parts. 6. Wheel cover (hub cap). A weak or cracked rim can flex enough to cause a 'scrunching' noise from a poorly fitting (metal) wheel cover. Once, I had such a wheel cover and did not discover the noise source until one day while driving with the window open and passing a short wall, I head the sound reflecting off the wall. One of the friction tangs on the wheel cover was scraping back and forth as the wheel rotated and flexed. 7. Separated engine mount. 8. Dry shaft at rear of transmission. This splined shaft is supposed to be lubed to allow a small amount of sliding of the drive shaft. 9. Worn out holes around the lug nuts. Dryed out steering damper. ( This is a samll shock absorber fastened to the steering rods.) Let us know what you find. You may need an observer standing outside the truck while you produce the noise.