Craftsman LT1000 lawn tractor

I'm new to this forum, but not to lawn tractors. I bought a new Craftsman LT1000 lawn tractor in May 2005 for $900.

I do have a question. Lately the mower/blade drive belt has been slipping off (up) the idler pulley on the right side, the idler that gets pulled rearward by a cable to engage that belt. I can slip that back on by hand, but this never used to happen. So my plan is severalfold before next mow based upon what I read:
1. I bought a genuine spring 169022, think that spring was lost and I installed a too-strong spring.

2. Make sure that the mower deck is close to level or front edge is not more than 1/8 inch lower than the deck rear.

3. Bend the two guides closer to that idler pulley.

4. Try a new brand new belt.

5. Adjust the bracket (if there is an adjustment) to put more rearward tension on that idler pulley. It does have a new cable spring assembly there, my old one broke.

Anyway - I'm open to suggestions, thanks. I should say that both idler pulleys are new because the old ones had bad bearings.

Does this idler ride on the back side of the belt? If it runs on the v-shaped front of the belt the pulley should be a V type, not a flat idler.

ILENGINE said:

Remove the deck and look for any cracks in the metal plates that attach the idler pulleys to the main deck shell. Also check for wear and tilting in the idler arm itself. It sounds like for some reason that when tension is applied it is allowing the tension idler arm to tilt forward allowing the belt to ride up over the pulley. As a repair dealer I have seen both situations occur on craftsman/poulan style decks.

Click to expand...

tom3 said:

Does this idler ride on the back side of the belt? If it runs on the v-shaped front of the belt the pulley should be a V type, not a flat idler.

Click to expand...

The belt (on the right hand side, looking towards the front) has the V-side around the blade/mandrell pulley, then the flat side against that flat-surface spring-loaded idler pulley (#165888) then goes forward to the lower pulley on the engine.

Also, the belt seems to slip off over the little guide fingers more often if the deck is in a lower position. So the belt actually rides in an upward angle on that pulley (higher side towards the front of tractor) more when the deck is in a lower position.

:welcome:

Welcome to the forum!

I'm going to move this thread over to our Craftsman section.