troy bilt 42" mower deck spring

jeff_d

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Sep 27, 2012
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Hi,

The blade belt broke so I pulled the deck off and I noticed the heavy spring (shown in attached picture) on the left. It is connected on one end to a bolt mounted to the deck and the other end is hooked into an arm that has an idler pulley.

I tried to pull the arm in the direction of the spring tension but I couldn't budge it.

Is this arm supposed to move? It is pushed up against two rubber stoppers which is a position that puts maximum tension on that spring.

There is a bolt near the center of the arm that looks like if it was loosened would allow the arm to pivot. It seems that if the arm could move, the spring would pull the arm in a direction that would add tension to the belt.

I haven't made any adjustments here at all, this is the 1st time I looked at it closely.

Thanks for any help,
Jeff
 

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ILENGINE

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The pulley and spring that you are referring to are is not the moveable pulley, the one that tensions the belt is the one at the top right hand corner of your picture. the other setup may act like a engagement cushion, which is something MTD started a few years ago, due to using a belt that is too light for the job. Have seen electric pto engagement snap 1/2 belt in two more than once.

the best way I have found to determine belt routing sometimes is the tension idler pulley is 99% always the one first pulley on the slack side of the belt.
 

chance123

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Aug 14, 2012
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In that photo, I am surprised how many shop owners never knew that the square hole by the spring is for inserting a 3/8 or 1/2" socket driver as leverage to stretch the spring for when you install the belt. This system is used on many different brands.
 
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