Gt2544 eating pto belts

[hondarancher4435]

I recently purchased a gt2544 one of the newer body style ones. Came with a bagger, and snow blade. It was set up with the plow when I picked it up. The deck was a little rusty so I sanded and painted it before installing on the tractor.

I installed the deck on the tractor with the belt that came with the mower it wasn't in the best of shape. Just getting don't cutting my 1 acre yard and it chews up the belt. The belt didn't tear but the v-portion seperate from the flat backing. So I figured worn belt. I get a new belt and install it paying careful attention to belt routing and how it runs through the pulleys ran the new belt for a while and it's smoking hot. Didn't break yet but after 2 minutes of cutting you can't hold the belt in your hand it's so hot.

So far I've double and triple checked belt routing I am positive it's correct. I ground some metal off the quick attatch bracket as I saw it had rubbed there. Checked all pulleys for burrs in metal and smooth bearings. Greased pulleys they all turn well and sound good. Adjusted deck pitch to make sure belt has a straight shot to the deck pulley from the mule drive.

I'm at a loss I figure I've covered most of the bases only other thing I want to do is check the pulleys with a temp gun but I didn't have one with me that way I can see if one of them is creating the heat.

While searching I found a few threads with similar issue but no one ever posted what they ended up doing to fix it. Maybe they sold the tractor lol

It's an excellent machine runs and drives great just need to get this belt issue sorted out as I can't even cut the grass with my new mower

 

[GBHRPS]

hondarancher4435,

I had a similar issue with the used Z Force zero turn I purchased 3 years ago. It went through PTO belts, chewing them up and throwing them off the deck drive pulley within 10 minutes of starting to cut the lawn. As you know the good Kevlar belts are expensive.

What I finally did was to add two belt keepers to the deck assembly to ensure that the belt staid on the deck pulleys. I used ordinary bolts in both locations.

On the Deck Upper Drive Pulley I drilled a hole through the deck so that the (5 inch long bolt, a guess as to it's length) keeper bolt was at the 9 o'clock position on the drive pulley (viewing the deck from the rear) and about 3/16's of an inch from the pulley. The belt could spin on the pulley but not get dislodged from the pulley. The bolt head was above the pulley, the shaft stopped at a nut on the top of the deck, and was tightened in place by another nut on the bottom of the deck.

The second keeper bolt was located on the spring loaded idler arm pulley assembly. That idler pulley is flat, and the backside of the drive belt runs on it. I drilled a hole in the idler arm and used a (2 inch, a guess) bolt, double nutted as before, again about 3/16 of an inch from the belt.

Since installing both belt keepers I have mowed for two seasons without another drive belt issue. If and when a new belt is needed, the keeper bolts will need to be loosened sufficiently to allow the old belt to be pulled past them, the new belt installed, and the keeper bolts retightened. Maybe this will work for you.