Help with riding lawn mower belt

I have a Craftsman 48 inch cut riding lawn mover. Last year, the belt that drives the tranmission had a tendancy to sometimes slip off when I would puch the clutch in to change years or stop.

Last week that belt broke. I bought a new one and had a terrible terrible time putting it on last night. I finally thought I had it on. I started it and put it in reverse and nothing happeened. I noticed the belt had come off. So, either I did not have the blet on right or there is some other problem. It seems like a simple system, it goes around the engine pulley, around an idler and around one that is attached to the clutch then aound the transmssion pulley. There does not seep to be a tensioner per se, just the clutch pulley.

What can I do to adjust or fix this?

Also is there an easier way to put this belt on? I had a terrible time reaching under there with my hands. There is not alot of room and those wire rods that I guess help keep the belt on the pulley were hard to get around.

Reply to
stryped
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Do you know the model number? If you provide that we might be able to look at a parts diagram on the Sears site and give some suggestions. It should be something like 113.226423.

Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com

"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"

Reply to
Keith Marshall

Sounds like my Sears mower. Pull the gear shift cover off, it's the only way to both see and understand the path of the drive belt. There is a belt path guide on the mower deck and in the manual, look it up as the right way to put the belt on is somewhat convoluted. Auto parts stores have the replacement belts at half of Sears parts online.

Ed Angell

Reply to
Ed Angell

Model number: 917272233

Thanks!

Reply to
stryped

No there's not a easy way to do it. The easiest is if you can raise the mower up in the air and take the deck off but that's out for most people.

There's probably a adjustment or two on the clutch setup. Usually there will be two adjustments one for the brake and one for the clutch pulley itself. They are interdependent so when adjust one the other will probably need changing as well.

Assuming you ran the belt in the correct pattern the single biggest problem I see on these is that people change the belt and just bend the little wire rods as you call them out of the way. In most cases you're better off loosening the rods (they're held on with double nuts on the body) and you will nearly always have to take one or both of the idlers off to get the belt past the metal finger that holds it on. If the rods and other belt retainers have been bent then you will have to bend them back. They are what keeps the belt in place when you push in the clutch.

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

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Reply to
Wayne Cook

Reply to
carl mciver

Well it seemed like a good idea at the time but the parts drawing for that mower is pretty useless for belt routing. Sorry. :-(

But it might help you to sort out what's under there. You can view it by going to

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clicking on the parts link and entering

917272233 as the model number. The section you want is called "Ground drive".

Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com

"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"

Reply to
Keith Marshall

Just encountered this very problem with my neighbor's mower. The pulley on the transmission had slid up on the shaft causing a misalignment in the belt path. Are any of the edges of any of the pulleys starting to get sharp? If so, check which pulley is out of alignment with the rest of them.

Shawn

Reply to
Shawn

My first thought was the belt guides. They can be fussy to adjust, and should NEVER be bent out of the way. I forgot to reset one on my Cub and the belt kept jumping off until I got smart enough to take a closer look. Bugs

Reply to
Bugs

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