bertsmobile1
Lawn Royalty
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2014
- Threads
- 64
- Messages
- 24,705
The pulley with the buggered bearing would have been the prime cause and of course the spring will just make things worse.
When you adjusted the arm that works the two tensioning pulleys, did the front belt go loose enough not to run with the pedal up ?
If not you will need to back it off a little.
The front belt must have enough slack so as to slip when the brake is applied or the motion pedal is fully up.
If not you will damage the belts whenever you put the brake on, you will also damage the dogs on the F N R gear change.
That front rear pulley ( good english eh ) takes a beating and I usually replace it whenever I replace both belts.
I have been sold the wrong pulley a few times as MTD use exactly the same system on the lawn tractor series but with 1/2" ( 4L ) belts and somhow the smaller 4L's have gotten mixed up the the larger 5L's the right pulley is 3.5" diameter and of course the belt fits fully within the pulley.
The wrong one is 3" diameter ( 3.125 really) and of course 1/2 wide so only 1/2 the belt fits inside the pulley.
The wrong pulley works but wears the belt to a sort of step shape which will cause it to start slipping when going slow when the tension is low.
Generally you will change 2 rears for every front, that is just a mechanical thing, the rear is 1/2 the length so it wears twice as fast ( sort of ).
Because the rear runs a triangle the belt has an easier life than the front which gets bent backwards severely by the tensioning pulley and that action splits standard 5/8" belts.
Because of this rears wear thin and fronts tend to split and break up.
You have done all that you can other than change over the variable pulley
When you adjusted the arm that works the two tensioning pulleys, did the front belt go loose enough not to run with the pedal up ?
If not you will need to back it off a little.
The front belt must have enough slack so as to slip when the brake is applied or the motion pedal is fully up.
If not you will damage the belts whenever you put the brake on, you will also damage the dogs on the F N R gear change.
That front rear pulley ( good english eh ) takes a beating and I usually replace it whenever I replace both belts.
I have been sold the wrong pulley a few times as MTD use exactly the same system on the lawn tractor series but with 1/2" ( 4L ) belts and somhow the smaller 4L's have gotten mixed up the the larger 5L's the right pulley is 3.5" diameter and of course the belt fits fully within the pulley.
The wrong one is 3" diameter ( 3.125 really) and of course 1/2 wide so only 1/2 the belt fits inside the pulley.
The wrong pulley works but wears the belt to a sort of step shape which will cause it to start slipping when going slow when the tension is low.
Generally you will change 2 rears for every front, that is just a mechanical thing, the rear is 1/2 the length so it wears twice as fast ( sort of ).
Because the rear runs a triangle the belt has an easier life than the front which gets bent backwards severely by the tensioning pulley and that action splits standard 5/8" belts.
Because of this rears wear thin and fronts tend to split and break up.
You have done all that you can other than change over the variable pulley
