murray lawn tractor cut problem

[rookiefred]

I have a 42" Murray lawn tractor with a cutting problem. The mower now leaves a "mohawk" under the center of the right blade (discharge side). I have cleaned the deck, new belt, new bearing adapter on that side, swapped pulleys and shafts from one side to the other, leveled the deck and new blades. At the old house, never had a problem. My wife has been doing the yard since we moved here and I don't know when the problem started. Does explain why it took her so long to do the yard. Someone suggested synchronizing the blades, but there is no such procedure in the owners manual. Anyone have any suggestions or ideas or know what is causing this problem. thanks

 

[The kid]

I have a 42" Murray lawn tractor with a cutting problem. The mower now leaves a "mohawk" under the center of the right blade (discharge side). I have cleaned the deck, new belt, new bearing adapter on that side, swapped pulleys and shafts from one side to the other, leveled the deck and new blades. At the old house, never had a problem. My wife has been doing the yard since we moved here and I don't know when the problem started. Does explain why it took her so long to do the yard. Someone suggested synchronizing the blades, but there is no such procedure in the owners manual. Anyone have any suggestions or ideas or know what is causing this problem. thanks

Have you taken the blades off to compare for straightness. Blades sharp? You may need to remove the deck to make sure all the metal is still as it should to create a round swirl cut. My zero turn must have bumped a root or a rock and actually bent a curved piece of metal under the deck and caused a similar problem. I have heard of one actually puting a blade on upside down by accident.

 

[ray66v]

My 48" deck was doing this, it turned out to be the belt slipping.

If the sides of the belt are shinny, it is a dead giveaway.

I put a much stronger spring on the tensioner pulley, and some belt dressing on the belt.

Low end decks can have lots of cut issues. On my 42" Craftsman, over time, the top of the deck, got slightly distorted, so the blades were not in the same plane. I had to shim the spindles to get it cutting good again.