Changing the drive belt on a Cheetah

PeterJones

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Hi,

The drive belt on my Cheetah broke the other day and I got to work with the spare I had and it became apparent it was no easy job. So I checked the forum for advice and found quite a bit - all pretty much saying it was easy. It seemed to me that most of the helpful post were written assuming some prior knowledge (which I didn't have). So, if I ever have to replace the belt again this will be the steps I would take.

  1. Remove the rear wheels.
  2. Remove the covers over the drive pulleys. Just in front of the battery both left and right side.
  3. Release the tension on the Idler Arm Assembly (Part No 462492). I did this with 1/2" breaker bar into the square hole.
  4. Put something in the slot where the Idler Arm moves back to prevent to moving forward once the breaker bar pressure is removed. In my case a piece of wood.
  5. Remove the blade drive belt from the clutch. This is needed because the drive pulley from the transmisson is above this belt (just below the engine).
  6. Put the replacement belt into the drive pulley and then start threading it forward so it can be threaded through the pulleys below the two fans exposed when the two covers were removed.
  7. I found threading the belts to be finiky but not too hard. The rubber fan blades certainly helped.
  8. Once the belt was in place I could easly turn the belt by hand and could see the fan blades turning.
  9. Replace the two covers over the fan blades.
  10. Put the cutter belt back into place.
  11. Replace the wheels and all is done.


The first time replacing the belt took me 4 hours but I reckon I could do it within 30 minutes the next time.

Cheers, Peter
 

Darryl G

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I've only changed belts on Exmarks and don't have a Scag but just curious why it's necessary to remove the rear wheels. I've always left the wheels on and pulled the rear wheels onto ramps to give me room to crawl under/work.
 

PeterJones

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Hi Darryl,

Actually I'm not sure that it was needed. I removed the wheels when I had no idea what I was going to do. However, just thinking about it, having the wheels off certainly made things a lot easier because I don't have a hoist. I just jacked the scag up from the rear.

Cheers, Peter
 

jekjr

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I am not sure about the Cheeta without looking at one. HOWEVER, we can change the drive belt on a Tiger Cat in a very few minutes especially if it sits a few minutes to cool off. This summer we changed drive belts on two different Tiger Cats in the yard with out any jacks or removing anything really. I always keep a drive belt and a deck belt in the truck.

Because they are so close in design if memory serves me correctly, I would think that they are similar to change belts on.

Normally to change a Tiger Cat drive belt I take the deck drive belt off to start with because the pump drive belt goes on above it. Then I put the belt on the motor shaft but not on the drive pulley on the motor yet. I then reach through and put it up over the pump pulleys one at the time. Then bring it inside of the stationary idler. Then put it inside of the tensioner idler. Then taking the tension off with a half inch drive breaker bar I put the belt on the main drive pulley. Then let the tension off of the pulley. After that install the deck drive belt and you are ready to go.

It is tricky if you do it immediately after it breaks because you can easily burn your arm if you do it before it cools off.
 

jekjr

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I am not sure about the Cheeta without looking at one. HOWEVER, we can change the drive belt on a Tiger Cat in a very few minutes especially if it sits a few minutes to cool off. This summer we changed drive belts on two different Tiger Cats in the yard with out any jacks or removing anything really. I always keep a drive belt and a deck belt in the truck.

Because they are so close in design if memory serves me correctly, I would think that they are similar to change belts on.

Normally to change a Tiger Cat drive belt I take the deck drive belt off to start with because the pump drive belt goes on above it. Then I put the belt on the motor shaft but not on the drive pulley on the motor yet. I then reach through and put it up over the pump pulleys one at the time. Then bring it inside of the stationary idler. Then put it inside of the tensioner idler. Then taking the tension off with a half inch drive breaker bar I put the belt on the main drive pulley. Then let the tension off of the pulley. After that install the deck drive belt and you are ready to go.

It is tricky if you do it immediately after it breaks because you can easily burn your arm if you do it before it cools off.

I have changed one by myself in the field before and for me the struggle is getting and keeping the tension off. However with somebody to work on top to hold it or you it is a 10 minute or less job.
 

PeterJones

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Hi Jekjr,

I've had a look at the Tiger manual and the drive system is different to the Cheetah (a smaller machine). I can see from the schematic of the Tiger's drive system that the pulleys look to be more accessable. Certainly on the Cheetah there's no way (that I could see) of threading the belt without removing the covers over the pumps - even with the covers removed it was a bit finiky.

Maybe someone who is familiar with both machines could comment...

Cheers, Peter
 

jekjr

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Hi Jekjr,

I've had a look at the Tiger manual and the drive system is different to the Cheetah (a smaller machine). I can see from the schematic of the Tiger's drive system that the pulleys look to be more accessable. Certainly on the Cheetah there's no way (that I could see) of threading the belt without removing the covers over the pumps - even with the covers removed it was a bit finiky.

Maybe someone who is familiar with both machines could comment...

Cheers, Peter

I know the first time I tried to put one on a Tiger Cat we were in the field and it was like trying to put a cat in a quart jar. After that though I got the hang to it and now it is easy normally.

Hope you have success. Sorry I can't help more.

I see you are in Australia and I am in The US. so I can't just run by on the way home to give you a hand.
 
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