My Tractor Forum banner

LA 145 Mower Deck Belt Broke after 38 hours

8K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Jim_WV 
#1 · (Edited)
I purchased a John Deere LA145 on April 10, 2010 from a Lowes in OK. The Mower Deck drive belt broke after 38 hours of operation in April of 2011. I have never had a mower where the mower drive belt failed so quickly. I suspect there is a defect in the mower deck.
The warranty states the mower is warranted for 2 years from John Deere. When I called JD I was told I would have to bring my mower to them (30 miles) or pay them $85/hr including travel time for them to come to my home. I gave up on the warranty and tried to replace the mower drive belt ($36) myself since I do not have a way to bring the mower to JD. I tried to replace the belt in accordance with the instruction manual but could not. I noted the following.
• I could not loosen the sheaves to install the new belt. I removed the nut but the pulley would not budge.
• After removing the Belt Shields, I noticed the belt had worn grooves into the shield. I suspect this is what caused the belt to fail so quickly. This appears to be a defect in the design or assembly of the mower.
May 3, 2011
I took the Mower deck to JD. I explained the trouble I was having and they looked at the deck. JD told me that one of the blades is slightly bent (off by 1/8 of an inch) and that was the cause of my problems. They said I must have hit something to bend the blade and damage the drive belt. I told them that I did not hit anything and the blades did not have any nicks. I also told them that the slightly bent blade would not cause damage to the mower deck drive belt. They did not appear to care about my opinion and told me none of the problems were covered under the warranty. They told me the worn grooves on the shield were normal and would not damage the belts.
I explained the trouble I was having with replacing the mower drive belt and they told me to move the sheaves I would need to use a crow bar and a ball peen hammer to get the pulley to slide up the shaft. He demonstrated on one of the sheaves. I purchased a set of new blades ($45) and returned to my home and replaced the blades and drive belt.
May 7, 2011
I started mowing my lawn and after a couple of hours the mower drive belt fell off. I inspected the belt and it had a bunch of nicks and cuts. I returned to Lowes and explained the problems I was having to the sales rep. He said I should bring the mower back and talk to the store manager. They might be able to refund my money or exchange the mower.
 
See less See more
#3 ·
LOL - JD builds tens of thousands of these a year and a thread from 2009 equates a pattern. :banghead3

Warranty does not cover belts, which is one of the few things not included. Normally if a belt is bad, or the routing, etc it will fail quickly. I suspect a stick or something else happened to make the original belt fail after 38 hours and one full season of use.

On the replacement failing so quickly, the OP didn't seem to have a really firm grasp of the procedure so who knows what happened.

Taking just the deck the dealer won't tell anyone much - you need the whole tractor.

:sorry1:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top