Please help! 54" Mower deck problems.

[98ramtough]

If I drive the mower on a side hill it makes the noise and I can smell it, it smells like burnt rubber from the belt rubbing on the deck. I will look closer tonight and maybe prop it up with someone on the mower and the deck running and get a video. I guess I could just take the deck into a dealer and have them look but everything is easy to fix if I can find the problem...

 

[98ramtough]

Does someone have a 54" deck they could take a pic of that part to see if it looks the same?

 

[brin]

You could have a " warped deck " that can happen if you run into a stump or other obstacle and it may not show up visually but the mower deck actually gets warped and will never be right again..I had that happen to me one time and an old mechanic is the one that told me that..Sure enough no matter what i did the mower deck itself was just off..and I had to buy another one and all was fine.. Just a thought..

 

[beenthere]

Does someone have a 54" deck they could take a pic of that part to see if it looks the same?

I just took a pic of my 54" deck, and looked it over carefully, and verify that you have it hooked up correct (in your pics, which are not of the belt as it is on now (we'll assume the same ).

If the belt were too loose, that spring would have that idler pulley pulled back against the deck housing.

Here is a pic (if yesterday, I had the deck pulled out just yesterday, but don't have plans to do that again right away.

 

[beenthere]

I assume that you didn't get the 60" belt by mistake. I really think your problem is in that idler assembly. It should be free to move and make the belt very tight. What I see doesn't look quite right.

It is belted right, but you are correct that the idler arm you've circled should move freely and sometimes they rust up or tighten up and need some penetrating oil to free them up.

Belt burning on the sidehill doesn't make sense if all the adjustments and linkages are hooked up correctly.

These are good decks and IMO are rock solid. With the rust and debris shown in the pics, there may be some parts not moving free. I leave the deck shields off and blow the deck off after every use with the air hose. Keeps them dry and clean.

 

[98ramtough]

That debris in that pic if DIRT not rust. There is no rust on the deck at all. Like I said, that was before I got the deck cleaned out. I will take another pic this weekend of the deck after I got a chance to clean it and replace the belt and spring. I keep my decks in good shape and always use a leaf blower to blow everything out of them top and bottom when done mowing.

 

[beenthere]

Great. Good to hear that...and sorry, didn't mean to imply what I crudely said.

When you can, check that the idler arm moves freely and also the two idler pulleys spin free with no noise. Let us know how the 30 minute run test comes out (checking for heat and flop in the idler).

 

[98ramtough]

I didn't mean that rudely sorry...

I checked all the spindles and pulleys for heat when I had the belt and everything off. I will try the 30 minute heat test. everything is the same temp when running. When I was spinning them I had no resistance and everything was clean. I checked for burrs. I need to take better pics now that it is cleaned up. Everyone sees that pic and expects its something locked up etc. Thats not the case. I have that deck very clean with no dirt, or anything on it now. The idler does move freely and if the spring was a lot heavier duty could pull the belt tight.

 

[IH3444]

Is there a sliding slot that the idler can be adjusted by loosening with a wrench, moved a bit, tightened, then reapply the belt tension with the spring? The slot maybe filled with previous cut grass, and be obscured.

 

[98ramtough]

Not sure, I will definitely check this though. If this is the case it will fix my problem.

Is there a sliding slot that the idler can be adjusted by loosening with a wrench, moved a bit, tightened, then reapply the belt tension with the spring? The slot maybe filled with previous cut grass, and be obscured.