X320 mower belt keeps breaking.

[buickanddeere]

I listened in town one day to someone mowing their lawn and re-engaging the mower 37 times at full throttle after they backed up .
I hope thier mower busts into expensive little bits ASAP.

 

[Richard001]

I don't understand why there isn't a soft start mechanism of some kind to relieve that initial tension.

Well I'm sure that it is possible, however I wouldn't wait for JD to come out with one as they make money selling belts as you are keenly aware of.

It would take some work, but I would think that a electronic device could be made to slowly engage the clutch.

Another possible method would be to have a centrifugal clutch that would be activated by the PTO switch.

What would the market place look like for such a device?

Richard

 

[buickanddeere]

Operate engine with just enough rpm to avoid stalling when the mower clutch is engaged.

 

[jgayman]

I listened in town one day to someone mowing their lawn and re-engaging the mower 37 times at full throttle after they backed up .
I hope thier mower busts into expensive little bits ASAP.

My neighbor mows that way. All you hear every few minutes while mowing is SCREEEEECH.... BWWAAAAAA!!! Over and over again.

 

[radios1]

I've been using belts for 45 years, and NEVER experienced, nor heard of a belt snapping clean.. you must be getting cheap knockoff belts from your dealer, try someone else that sells Gates belts.. I've had the same belt on my mower deck on my LA145 for 5 Years, and always engaged it at full throttle, and it's still good.. I think my tractor has a bigger engine than the X320 also.. I also have the 48" deck.. and electric clutch for the PTO.. no squealing.. there's a good belt here, too.. Stens 26599 OEM REPLACEMENT BELT Replaces John Deere M154958 M11313 - Jacks Small Engines

 

[Deere Dude]

My neighbor mows that way. All you hear every few minutes while mowing is SCREEEEECH.... BWWAAAAAA!!! Over and over again.

Make a friend. Tell him all he has to do is pull a switch and hit the reverse pedal and he wouldn't go through that reengaging nonsense.

I had an elderly friend that bought a JD 300 something and he said he was happy with it. I stopped over to his house one day a couple years later and he showed me his tractor knowing I worked at John Deere. He showed me how it cut and I showed him how to not need to reengage the blades by pulling a switch.

I have a X740 and broke one mower belt last year with the tractor at 750 hours. I engage the mower, or my wife does, at full throttle or whatever she happens to be in at the time. I find it hard to believe there is a belt problem with belts on such nice tractors as the OPs.

 

[4570Man]

Most of the times I have a belt break before it’s time it was caused by a sloppy tensioner mount that’s letting the pulley run at a misaligned angle. I also run after market belts. The 160” long belt on my Grasshopper cost about $50 but the shorter belts are less than $20. I paid $12 for the pump drive belt on my Grasshopper. The belts on my Dixie chopper were about $15. Are you letting the belt guards fill up with trash? That’s another leading cause of bent failure IMO.

 

[4570Man]

Well I'm sure that it is possible, however I wouldn't wait for JD to come out with one as they make money selling belts as you are keenly aware of.

It would take some work, but I would think that a electronic device could be made to slowly engage the clutch.

Another possible method would be to have a centrifugal clutch that would be activated by the PTO switch.

What would the market place look like for such a device?

Richard

They had a soft start system many years ago. It was no clutch at all and applying the tensioner to start the blades. That’s how the old G5200 Kubotas worked. If you have an electric clutch applying it at low rpms is the best you can do.

 

[4570Man]

You are paying a premium price for a M154621 belt. Know your dealer likes to bump the price even more than JD list. OEM Deere belts are physically beefier than the aftermarkets so stick with them. I have had a couple of people that had the same issue. Every time the deck is engaged there is shock load on the belt. If the belt gets caught up into a guide, the torque applied at the clutch will snap the belt. Real excessive forward pitch can get a belt pinched. Think of a belt drive like this as pushing the belt through the maze of pulleys rather than being pulled through by the clutch and you will look at this a different way.
Two things within an operator's control is to engage the deck at 1/2 to 2/3 Throttle and to use the mow in reverse feature rather than keep engaging/ disengaging the deck. AT 500 hours, you do likely need to freshen the bearings and likely at least the vee idler in the back if not all.
One other item on these that can occur is that one adjuster at the rear of the deck runs close to the belt. I've only seen one that actually could hit the belt though.

I find the idler mounts wear and allow it to sit angled. I usually use an open end wrench to bend the bracket so it sits right again. That’s by far the easiest way to fix it.

 

[Diggin It]

Most of the times I have a belt break before it’s time it was caused by a sloppy tensioner mount that’s letting the pulley run at a misaligned angle.

I find the idler mounts wear and allow it to sit angled. I usually use an open end wrench to bend the bracket so it sits right again. That’s by far the easiest way to fix it.

I think that may have been part of my problem. One of the idlers sits on an arm mounted at an odd angle and rotates on a bushing. The hole in the arm had wallowed out quite a bit over time and may have been wobbling while in use. I cleaned that out and added a piece of EMT conduit to make it run more true. Hasn't been long enough to know if it worked or not.

The JD fan boys don't understand that green isn't perfect.