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Got my tiger cat with 125 hours and it's making a scraping noise while blades are engaged. Anyone have any problem with the sealed idler pulley. I don't know if it's coming from there or somewhere else. Also I don't know if it's normal for the 61 inch deck to be loud.

Do you have a bent blade or string or other debris tangled under the deck?

Nope. New blades and clean deck and spindles.

Run it several minutes, shut it down and feel like bearings and compare for temperature.

SeniorCitizen said:

Run it several minutes, shut it down and feel the bearings and compare for temperature.

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Yes
If you have a bad bearing that thing should be hot to touch.

Did you have the deck noise before you replaced the blades?
Did you install the blades correctly? Bolt, blade the correct side down, then the spacer?
Correct blade size?
Have the spindles ever been lubricated?

Yes noise before blade change.
Yes grease all fittings every 10 hours.
Yes blades installed correct.
Yes correct blades.

Inspect the above deck area and deck drive belt path for anything that shouldn't be there such as a branch that may be interfering with the belt travel.
Jack up the machine and look for a bent baffle where a blade tip may be making contact.
Release the deck drive belt and secondary belt tensioners and free spin each blade.
Inspect and spin each idler/tensioner pulley.
Inspect the clutch, its mounting bolt and torque arrester.
With the deck drive belt removed from the clutch and secure so it won't get caught by the pump drive belt, start the engine, turn on the PTO to check for unusual noise.
Spindle lube interval is 40 hours and with a specific type grease.

Problem resolved. It wasn't the deck it was the idler pulley for the drive. Sealed bearing was loose. Replaced it today. All is well.

I'm glad you found the bearing. Was it hot to touch?

Isolated the noise to drive area and took off the belt. Wiggled the ildler pulley and knew that was the issue. Sealed bearings can't stand them. My Locke mower is 45 years old every bearing has a zirk grease fitting. I have yet to replace a bearing. I bet the mower has 4000 hours. Rebuilt the engine one time.

Probably wasn't hotter than usual but noisy. Was it the smaller diameter pulley? I replaced mine when I replaced the drive belt at around 400 hours. The smaller diameter pulley turns many more times than the larger one.

Yes it was the 3.5 inch one.

When I replaced the small pulley on my machine, I opened it up and inspected the bearing, it was dry and the balls had started to get flat spots.
During the course of its life, this pulley turns millions of times more than the larger one.
This fall my machine will be at 800 hours and again due for a drive belt change and I'll do both pulleys at the same time.
Mad Mackie in CT:smile::biggrin::laughing: