48" Mower Deck 2 Blades Stopped Rotating

[plottamus]

I got everything put back together this evening and went out for a mow. I also spoke with Terry at PowerTrac this morning about how tight the belt should be. He said to clear the debris on the deck, don't mess with any adjustments, and see if the belt slips again. I'm a little rough sometimes going in and out of float... about halfway through mowing I dropped the deck back down on a gravel driveway and the belt slipped again.

I'm going to see if I can tighten the tension pulley a bit to fix it. Any thoughts on how tight the belt should be? Terry said that I have to be careful not to tighten too much as it can wear out the pulley bearings.

One thing I noticed while cleaning Mickey and his nest off the deck was that he and his head seemed to have been in there for awhile. They may have or have not been the root cause.

I like the shroud removal idea. However, one of my dogs enjoys going after the mower deck sometimes when she gets out. I have to shut it down and put her back in the house. She's relentless.

 

[MuncyBob]

I too removed the covers years ago. A stick found its way in there and I could see problems in the future. So easy to blow it clean w/o the covers on. I replaced one of the pulleys many moons ago and just used a snug but not too tight guide when putting tension on it. When running I don't want to see the belt wobble. Has worked fine for me. I too have a tractor hating pup, but he's mainly a tire chaser.

On a side note, about 6 years ago I noticed the belt looking a bit shabby so I ordered a new one thinking the original belt was going to snap any day now. Still have the replacement belt hanging in the garage

 

[WinterDeere]

Not related to this brand, but I guess applicable to any brand running an electric PTO clutch to a mule drive belt on a mower: I had to replace the PTO clutch on my Deere 757 ZTrak, and after seeing the price the OEM units were fetching, I went with an aftermarket unit advertised to be more heavy duty than the OEM. I can verify that, yes... the aftermarket one has very-substantially-faster lock-up, its frankly jarring. It has also lead to more thrown and broken belts in the 2 years I've been running it, than in the 12 or 13 years I spent running OEM clutches. I've recently switched to Kevlar belts, to see if I can resolve that issue, without spending 5 bills on a new OEM clutch.

Everything is a "system", and stronger isn't always better, at least in the case of clutches!

... and yes, before everyone asks, I'm engaging at the lowest possible RPM, without stalling the engine. If I even try to engage this new clutch at high RPM, it throws the belts off their sheaves, as it completely bottoms out the travel on sprung tension arm on the deck belt.