LX277 Drive belt loose

phoogles · May 25, 2017

bear with me as i am learning as i go. I've inherited my father's lx277. I just replaced some pulleys and perfomed some basic maintenance. I put everything back together and now I'm having an issue with the belt that connects from the tractor to the deck (?drive belt). The mower runs fine but when I try to engage the blades, the belt practically falls off. The rear pulley, the double stack one, seems to not engage enough to keep tension on the belt. I *think* I may have found the issue but I'd love some more input. The tightener arm seems like it has some slack in it. I've replaced the short, fat tensioner spring. I came upon just one website that mentioned that the tightener arm has a cable in it. I suppose that's what's under the black plastic? The website said that the cable can tend to rust causing slack on the arm. It looks like that makes sense to me but seeing as though I've google'd for hours and I only found one site I wondered how common this really is? The PTO clutch is working. And the double stack pulley moves freely. Thanks for your input!

tomplum · May 25, 2017

I don't understand the cable comment. What deck? Maybe the bracket that the spring loaded link hooks to is flipped?

phoogles · May 25, 2017

it's a 48". What confuses me more is what seems like double names for everything. On this picture it's #10-12 that seems like is loose. The black part (#10) doesn't look like a spring, to me. More like a housing of sorts. That's why it made sense to me if there's a cable under it. I just don't understand how the tightener/rod could go bad? I can definitely check the bracket tomorrow. Could that be something I did in my junior league mower repair? Thanks

john-deere-x540-belt-drive-idlers-deck-rotatable-anti-scalp-wheels--030000.jpg

beenthere · May 25, 2017

I believe #10 is a compression spring, and it is in compression when the tightening rod is locked in place.. which needs to be for the belt to become tight so the mower deck will spin and turn the blades to mow.

Do you have the operator's manual?

phoogles · May 25, 2017

beenthere said:
I believe #10 is a compression spring, and it is in compression when the tightening rod is locked in place.. which needs to be for the belt to become tight so the mower deck will spin and turn the blades to mow.

Do you have the operator's manual?

No, I don't. It must be a much finer spring that I can't really tell it's a spring with my bad eyes, which is no surprise! I think I'll go to JD tomorrow and pick one up. Thanks for the help, otherwise I would've been asking for some sort of cable. I'm sure they would've gotten a kick out of that!

beenthere · May 25, 2017

phoogles
Try this link for the view of the operators manual, and also how the mower deck looks and functions.. you should see there what the problem is that you are having. Scroll down to "service mower".

Service Engine

tomplum · May 25, 2017

Your #10 spring isn't meant to be a fine spring. The #11 washer goes against a bump in the rod, or possibly a cotter pin which the spring will push on to get tension.