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Craftsman Lawn Tractor 917.270514 keeps breaking the blade belt. I didnt buy it new and im thinking maybe a Spindle has gone bad? Not sure how to tell if thats the case tho. Any help here would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!:smile:

After a few minutes of operation under load shut it down and compare bearing housing temperatures and idler bearings by feeling with your hand.

im waiting on another belt at the moment so i can't do that until it gets here. :/

Pretty sure the Lawn Tractor is ALL Original, so the Spindles have never been changed. its a 2000 model yr mower. How often do spindles generally last?

o domestics if they are looked after & greased regularly, 10 to 20 years if not more.
If they are abused less than 1 season.
Think you will find the owners manual says to replace them at 200 hours 4 - 5 years

RayMel1 said:

Craftsman Lawn Tractor 917.270514 keeps breaking the blade belt. I didnt buy it new and im thinking maybe a Spindle has gone bad? Not sure how to tell if thats the case tho. Any help here would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!:smile:

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A couple of things:

1. There are a few of the guides that the belt goes between the pulley itself and the guides. Make sure you have the belt between them and the pully. My deck has two of the "flaps" on one pulley. And one on the other. I went through two belts one day because I didn't notice the extra "flap"...
2. Also, usually if you have a bad pulley that keeps throwing belts, you'll be able to feel or hear it when you turn it by hand. It'll either be completely locked up or it you can hear it making sort of a metal on metal noise. But if it's bad bearings (in the pulley) you should smell rubber burning just before it throws a belt.

My guess is you're not getting the belt under all the flaps. And since the flaps are thin with sort of a sharp, it's cutting them very quickly.

Re: Keep breaking belt possible causes

hrdman2luv said:

A couple of things:

1. There are a few of the guides that the belt goes between the pulley itself and the guides. Make sure you have the belt between them and the pully. My deck has two of the "flaps" on one pulley. And one on the other. I went through two belts one day because I didn't notice the extra "flap"...
2. Also, usually if you have a bad pulley that keeps throwing belts, you'll be able to feel or hear it when you turn it by hand. It'll either be completely locked up or it you can hear it making sort of a metal on metal noise. But if it's bad bearings (in the pulley) you should smell rubber burning just before it throws a belt.

My guess is you're not getting the belt under all the flaps. And since the flaps are thin with sort of a sharp, it's cutting them very quickly.

Click to expand...

Very likely this is the case, indeed make certain you have the belt routed correctly. If you've determined that the belt is routed correctly, and you're still having broken belt issues, make sure all of the pulleys turn easily (other than the one coming from beneath the engine) meaning the blades are not locked up due to grass, rope, wire, etc. tangled around them under the deck.

Over the years I have run into several situations that have greatly contributed to fast part degradation on my riders. Once I was cutting very tall, thick grass (grass that probably should have been bush-hogged down first) where the grass under my cutting deck plugged up the exhaust chute and locked up my blades which immediately resulted in smoke, squealing and a thrown bearing within a couple of hours. In trying to mow down grass that was too thick and too tall, I caused myself a lot of work, time lost and expense in the process. It's not worth pushing these light duty lawn tractors, know the limitations of your particular machine.