LT2042 going through belts

[ssallday]

Just got my mower running after fixing a few issues and now it's at it again. First off, I would like to point out that the belt would occasionally slip off when I was on an incline. I thought the belt was the problem so I purchased a new OEM belt. Unfortunately, the new one was doing the same thing so i dealt with it for a while. Recently, my mower chewed up both belts and the deck was vibrating. The belt also pushed and bent the belt guard. Can anyone chime in on this?

 

[boggen]

do not have a clue about your specific mower

the spindles that go between the blades on the bottom to the pulleys on top. see if they are bent / bearing out / wobbling.

check tensioner/idler pulley, to see if apply correct tension to belt.

check to see if you have odd "twists" between deck and mower. if you put twists in wrong spot the belt might be riding up and off.

do not use any sort of grease, oil, belt gripping stuff. just use the plain belt.

there are different types of belts. just because you said OEM belt, i would imagine local dealer just cross referenced the belt and grabbed one they had in stock. there are cheaper belts, and then more expensive belts. kevlar belts to to handle higher temperatures and do not stretch as much and tend to last longer.

 

[ssallday]

do not have a clue about your specific mower

the spindles that go between the blades on the bottom to the pulleys on top. see if they are bent / bearing out / wobbling.

check tensioner/idler pulley, to see if apply correct tension to belt.

check to see if you have odd "twists" between deck and mower. if you put twists in wrong spot the belt might be riding up and off.

do not use any sort of grease, oil, belt gripping stuff. just use the plain belt.

there are different types of belts. just because you said OEM belt, i would imagine local dealer just cross referenced the belt and grabbed one they had in stock. there are cheaper belts, and then more expensive belts. kevlar belts to to handle higher temperatures and do not stretch as much and tend to last longer.

Appreciate the advice. I will check tomorrow to see if there is anything wobbly or bent. I believe that the belt itself wouldn't be the problem because it chewed up the original belt that came with the machine.

 

[Richard001]

Just got my mower running after fixing a few issues and now it's at it again. First off, I would like to point out that the belt would occasionally slip off when I was on an incline. I thought the belt was the problem so I purchased a new OEM belt. Unfortunately, the new one was doing the same thing so i dealt with it for a while. Recently, my mower chewed up both belts and the deck was vibrating. The belt also pushed and bent the belt guard. Can anyone chime in on this?

When you had the mower in for service, was the belt issue one of the things to be fixed?

As boggen mentioned, make sure that your deck spindle bearings are in good shape. Also vibration could be caused by string or plastic wrapped around the spindle.

Here is a screen shot from the operators manual:

Make sure that this bracket is in-place and is in close proximity to the pulley.

Second photo from operators manual:

Make sure that the part labeled "belt guard" is in place.

Richard

 

[tomplum]

One thing I see on these a fair amount is that the brake on the left spindle is not pulling off far enough. They are always the last to come off, but make sure that it is not contacting the pulley at run. It is very odd that it damaged the guard unless they hopped up to 5/8 belt. Though some of these guards have a metal rod inside, unless the belt found the wrong side of that.

 

[ssallday]

I Just want to clarify some things in case there was any confusion. This problem started to occur 2 years ago. I was mowing the lawn and the belt slipped off sometimes when I was on an incline. I bought another belt thinking that the old one was stretched out. The new one started to do the same thing too and it only happened when the mower was on an incline. So I swapped the old one back on a couple of weeks ago and mowed the lawn with that. As I was cutting on an incline, there were pieces of the belt flying everywhere. I took it off and put the newer one back on and pieces were starting to fly off of that. I didn't bring it in for service because they were going to charge me a fortune.

 

[GBHRPS]

ssallday,

My thoughts: The problem occurs on inclines = the tractor is stationary on the incline, but because of slop in the deck attachments to the tractor, the deck slides more downhill (due to its weight) and changes the belt tension or distance to its belt guards = belt damage?

Maybe you need to bring those belt guards in closer to their pulleys? Just guessing here.

Gene

 

[ssallday]

I checked out all the pulleys today and they seemed fine. I was able to spin the blades with my hands so I don't think it would be the spindles, but I could be wrong. The belt that sits on top of the deck looks a little worn. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the tension because it's attached to the double pulley

 

[cooterdude]

have you checked the deck attachment points where the deck attaches to the mower over time the holes in the deck can wear out causing slop in the linkages
causing the mower belt to get out of kilter also check the belt tensioner for binding / low tension

 

[ssallday]

I bought another belt and threw it on today. The new belt was working good, but the deck belt was wobbling back and forth a lot a lot at low rpms. Once I raised the rpms it stabilized. I also noticed that it would run smooth when the deck was at 4 inches then it sounded like the double pulley was making a scraping noise when I raised it to 6