Replacing the transmission drive belt on a LT1045 '08

I have read this entire thread and I was rolling in the floor laughing my butt off :laughing: at all you males, so much so I went to the trouble to set up a user account just to tell WENDY, YOU GO GIRL. You guys beating and cutting and banging and using pullers and bending pulleys and cussing at your mowers and this woman figured out a better way to fix her lawn trackor than you did. I just did it Wendys way and it took me 3 hours with blade replacement and no cussing. Except I used an adjustable 6" wrench to bend the tabs out of the way and I removed the tie rods for ease of access.

So everyone out there, don't remove the pulley, use a small adjustable wrench to bend the tabs away from the pulley to squeeze the belt on and I suggest removing the tie rods to make room for the adj. wrench movement. It is much easier that way. Good luck.

cutter1429 said:

I have read this entire thread and I was rolling in the floor laughing my butt off :laughing: at all you males, so much so I went to the trouble to set up a user account just to tell WENDY, YOU GO GIRL. ...

So everyone out there, don't remove the pulley, use a small adjustable wrench to bend the tabs away from the pulley to squeeze the belt on and I suggest removing the tie rods to make room for the adj. wrench movement. It is much easier that way. Good luck.

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WELCOME to LMF...

Glad you joined, regardless of the reason :thumbsup:...

Bending the belt guard, Tabs, Will work... but you know about bending things... That will weaken them, eventually they will break, but in the great scheme of things, I suppose it will be some time in the future, so you can get the job done now....

I'm all for removing things to get better access... but I will also try to work 'around' something that I might Not have to remove...
Thanks for joining & post back often... :smile:KennyV

Hi guys. This this thread was so dang helpful. Trust me guys like me who don't really know a whole lot about this stuff really appreciate all your help.

Now that me and my father in law have successfully replaced the drive belt the PTO won't engage the blades. I did have 1 successful mowing after replacement but during my 2nd mowing I had to get off the mower to pick up a stick so the safety switch killed the blades. When I went to engage the blades again they would not work. After inspection I can see loose wires near the bottom that connect to the PTO we pulled down last week. My question is the wires coming from the PTO are in a "sleeve" and when I squeeze it it feels empty. I havent had time to take the deck off again, I will this evening when I get home. I'm wondering if the wires got cut? Or just came loose? And if it should be a big problem finding the wires that were in that sleeve and reconnecting them. Thanks a ton guys

Sdot said:

...
...My question is the wires coming from the PTO are in a "sleeve" and when I squeeze it it feels empty. ...
I'm wondering if the wires got cut? Or just came loose? And if it should be a big problem finding the wires that were in that sleeve and reconnecting them. Thanks a ton guys

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WELCOME to LMF...
Those wires go to the field coil in the magnetic Clutch... There could be 2 (one is ground the other 12volts, hot)... or 1 wire (12 volts hot, ground in that case will be supplied by the mount)... Most have 2 wire...
There should be a 'plug' of some sorts where the wires connect to the mower wiring harness...
When you reconnect things insure that these wires are going to clear any moving parts & belts.... :smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

WELCOME to LMF...
Those wires go to the field coil in the magnetic Clutch... There could be 2 (one is ground the other 12volts, hot)... or 1 wire (12 volts hot, ground in that case will be supplied by the mount)... Most have 2 wire...
There should be a 'plug' of some sorts where the wires connect to the mower wiring harness...
When you reconnect things insure that these wires are going to clear any moving parts & belts.... :smile:KennyV

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Thanks Kenny. Yes this afternoon I had time to crawl under there and check it out. There is 2 wires. I couldnt tell which one was hot they both looked exactly the same. I hooked them back together because I wanted to see if the pulley would spin and it did. I had the deck off, but I wanted to see what could have cut the wires. Well when I shut the PTO off it rotates real fast half a turn backwards and when it does this it seperated the wires again.

Is the PTO supposed to rotate like that when you disengage the blades?
We obviously did something wrong installing the clutch after we had it off to put on a new drive belt, hopefully you can tell me what we did wrong. It is nice to know that with the wires connected the pulley spins. Just have to figure out how to stop it from pulling the wires apart when it shuts off

The wires have no particular polarity ... just need one hot and one ground.
The clutch housing should have an attachment point, usually a spring loaded clip or the like... It captures the outer case to prevent rotation... it should not be rigidly mounted, but rather captured to allow some self alignment but No rotation... look around it's perimeter, you will find the attachment point.
If you don't, click a couple pictures and post them... :smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

The wires have no particular polarity ... just need one hot and one ground.
The clutch housing should have an attachment point, usually a spring loaded clip or the like... It captures the outer case to prevent rotation... it should not be rigidly mounted, but rather captured to allow some self alignment but No rotation... look around it's perimeter, you will find the attachment point.
If you don't, click a couple pictures and post them... :smile:KennyV

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Can't thank you enough. Sorry for the noob questions. No dad around when I was young and I didnt learn crap!!! Lol.

Just to be clear the clutch housing should not rotate at all freely with my hands correct? I have the deck and belt off (obviously) so when I reach up to the housing to get to the seperated wires I should not be able to rotate it if it was installed properly?

Sounds like I'm gonna have to get that sucker loose again and look for the attachment point, then tighten the bolt again. Am I on the right track with this assumption? You the man!

It will not be firmly bolted but will Not rotate....
Here is a parts breakdown for your clutch: Parts and Diagrams for Cub Cadet LT1045 Tractor (2008 & after)
You will not have something connected to the outer shell of part number 20 or 21, depending what deck you have...
See the group of holes the line from #20 is lined up with... One or more of those holes should be the caging point on the clutch... When you find it, click & post a picture if you can.. :smile:KennyV

finally! got it working. here are some pics.. my model is older than 08 04/05 range.. in order to keep the housing from rotating/spinning when the blades disengage thus pulling apart the wires the housing needed to be resting up against a what i describe as a "brake" it's the yellow piece in the pic. once resting against the brake i reconncected the wires tested it out and everything is fine now..thanks a ton.

pic kinda sucks but hopefully you get the gist. hope this helps somebody else out down the road.

I just finished the same job on my 2006 LT1050 last night. It has about 850 hours on it, and this was the 2nd drive belt I've replaced in 6 years. First time, we just ground off all the tabs except for two. This time around, I was able to get the belt off and back on without even messing with the tabs. Used the rope down the cylinder trick since I don't own an impact wrench... worked like a champ - used quite a bit of rope. Just lowered the PTO enough to slide the new belt off the pulley -- I remember last time it took me at least an hour to get the PTO back on even though it's keyed and the shaft is grooved -- never did figure out why I had so much trouble with that, so I didn't remove it this time. I think it took me longer to disconnect the PTO electrical connection than to do anything else... that was a bear trying to separate the plastic plugs without breaking one side or the other. Replacing the drive belt is a nasty ugly job, but the 2nd time around I got it done in about 2 hours rather than 2 days like the first time!!!!

I break about 1 or 2 deck belts per season, and I can practically change those with my eyes closed... piece of cake! I always keep a spare deck belt on hand. I buy all my belts and parts online for about half of what the dealers and big box stores charge, too.