Should the deck belt be tight?

[Little John]

Hi all, have a Craftsman LT1000 (917.271811), and through my own stupidity I ended up needing to replace the mower deck belt. So I did, and it was a PITA, and the belt, in disengaged position, is tight. Really tight. Should I expect the belt to loosen after a couple minutes of running, or did I screw something up? I'm reluctant to even start it up, but it looks like everything is where it ought to be. Any common mistakes in doing this sort of thing?

 

[reynoldston]

Belts do not loosen up. You got something wrong. Are you sure you got the right belt.

 

[noma]

Hi Little john

Do you have the belt route right there should be a diagram of the belt route on the mower deck or look in your manual , yes that belt need to be looser and no it will not stretch out that much. By change do you have the belt lever in the engaged position , have you tried to move the lever back and forth ? Do you have the spring in the wrong hole and that's why the belt is tight? Just some ideas for you good luck there:licking::licking::licking::licking:

 

[Little John]

After looking around yesterday on the forum, I believe that the idler pulley might be hanging up or otherwise stuck. I'll take a second look this morning to verify proper belt routing and the idler. I quadruple-checked the belt PN before I bought it!

 

[Little John]

How free-spinning should the blades be when no belt is attached?

 

[Carscw]

How free-spinning should the blades be when no belt is attached?

With the belt off and the pto engaged so the blade brake is off the blades should spin free.

(( racing is the only sport that you need two balls ))

 

[Little John]

With the belt off and the pto engaged so the blade brake is off the blades should spin free.

(( racing is the only sport that you need two balls ))

How about when the deck is off entirely? Free-spinnign like a bicycle wheel, or like one full revolution after I give it a decent spin?

 

[Carscw]

How about when the deck is off entirely? Free-spinnign like a bicycle wheel, or like one full revolution after I give it a decent spin?

Should spin a few times

(( racing is the only sport that you need two balls ))

 

[Little John]

Wow, what a headache! The belt I got from Home Depot was mislabeled: lesson learned here is that I should check the PN on the belt itself, not just the package. They didn't have the right belt, so I went to Sears and paid a lot for the new belt. Installed it, destroyed it. I missed one of the pulley retainers. Sooooo, I'm done for the weekend, I ordered a new belt through Amazon. The blades are spinning fine, I was initially checking with the brake engaged. So it wasn't entirely my doing, but I did manage to extend a one hour mowing to about a week now. :confused2: