1995 Simplicity Regent 1692403 Deck Belt Won’t Move

[GTurnerJr85]

Slightly long post, my apologies. As the title says, I have a 1995 Simplicity Regent 1692403, and the deck belt will not move fast enough. I think the problem may be the idler pulley. I had to replace the belt the other day, and the new one was ripped to shreds in just minutes, So I replaced it again. This time everything seemed fine, but while mowing the idler pulley flew off. Luckily I was able to find all of the hardware (3 washers, bolt, nut and guide arm). I put it back together, and now the belt either won’t move at all, or won’t move fast enough to turn the blades fast enough. I think I put the pulley back on right, it’s exactly as the manufacturers diagram shows, except that the diagram shows two washers, not three. If I tighten the nut up all the way so that the belt guide is tight, the belt won’t move. If I loosen the nut a bit it will move, but not fast enough and the belt guide moves all around.

Any ideas what the problem might be? Maybe the pulley just needs to be replaced? I’ve checked the rest of the deck and can’t find anything else that might be the problem, everything looks good and seems to operate correctly. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[bertsmobile1]

You are missing the stand off bush and the belt is probably wrong
Please slide the deck out and take a couple of pretty polaroids then post them so we can se exactly what you are trying to explain in words .

 

[StarTech]

Or the idler pulley bearing has failed which would be why it came off in the first place.

 

[GTurnerJr85]

Thanks so much for the replies, I appreciate them. I will slide the deck out when I can get to it. For now, I’ve attached a couple of video clips that may help. As you can see, when I disengage the PTO the belt does start moving at about the correct speed. But you’ll notice that it progressively slows down. This time it did not stop completely, but sometimes it does. I’ve attached two clips so you can see what things look like from each side of the deck. Don’t know if these will be helpful, hopefully they will. Volume may need turned down, the engine is loud!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v9e050_N6yx8H1KsOcLOOjgs6wGLlUiJ/view?usp=share_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16y4ivoo0zNr0_NInTnTBH5YJtiIb5qcc/view?usp=share_link