broke another belt yesterday

[simple_john]

i broke another belt yesterday.. this was the one id replaced 2 weeks ago..
the grass was fairly high.. but im wondering if something else is going on?
maybe somethnig is out of of alignment?


not sure.. my 1st belt lasted 3 years.. this one broke after 3 cuttings...
the grass was high so it was bogging down - mulching deck - from time to time and id of course slow down.. but it just bogged smoked and broke after about 1 hour of cutting...

not sure if it was a bad belt or what?

any thoughts?


the only thing different this season.. i have not been as faithful about blowing the clippings off the deck so i was thinking (see attached for belt design) maybe grass is getting hung up in the belt path and causing it bog/smoke stretch and break?

[chrpmaster]

SJ

That is weird that it died so quickly. I'm guessing that the clippings were cleared out when you put the belt on and that the deck is properly lubed so the only other thing that comes to mind is if a spindle is bent or has bad bearings to cause it to burn up like that. Did the belt look burnt? If it still looked good it could have been a faulty belt. Did you get it from the dealer if so take it back to him and get his opinion too. Sorry if none of this helps. On my old Simplicity 12.5 LTH I never had any problems with the deck (except when I did something stupid like run over something I shouldn't) In fact I still think that it did the best job of mowing of any tractor I have had.

Andy

[LEOLAV]

I would check the spindles. I had the same thing happen with my Craftsman a few years ago and it turned out I had bent the spindle hitting a rock.

That was enough to blow through three belts in a week!

[SAMSRAM]

:fing20: I guess you are talking about the main belt on the mower?. I know on the TILLER Ibroke three belt's all in one week. I know another way to fix it JOHN , and who other then SAM could know this F~I~X :bannana: " IF IT DON'T RUN JUST CHROME IT.HUM / LOL. MAYBE IT WAS JUST A BELT PROBLEM . AND THERE IS ANOTHER QUICK FIX BUT WHATEVER YOU MAKE SURE YOU DON'T SAY ANYTHING TO 'JEANNIE'' Tell your GF to take the good old P~U~S~H MOWER and get started and you set back and watch , to make sure
A. she does it the way you want it done.
B. make sure everything is S~A~F~E
C. This way you won't get tired and you can add that CHROME. LOL
John today we are on the way up to ( 90 degree )ROF

[SAMSRAM]

I would check the spindles. I had the same thing happen with my Craftsman a few years ago and it turned out I had bent the spindle hitting a rock.

That was enough to blow through three belts in a week!
If you can tell me something. What did the the rock have to do with the belp problem? Did it knock something out of line or what and what size mower deck do you have? I am not trying to be a smart fart I would really like to know. I use a GT5000 with the 48" deck and sometime get into grass that does have ( unseen rocks ) Thanks SAM

[dirtybernie]

SJ take a real close look at the spindles. it sounds like a bearing has run out of grease and is heating up and seizing. bernie.

[Mickey]

i broke another belt yesterday.. this was the one id replaced 2 weeks ago..
the grass was fairly high.. but im wondering if something else is going on?
maybe somethnig is out of of alignment?


not sure.. my 1st belt lasted 3 years.. this one broke after 3 cuttings...
the grass was high so it was bogging down - mulching deck - from time to time and id of course slow down.. but it just bogged smoked and broke after about 1 hour of cutting...


My first guess from your discription is, what you were cutting was too heavy a load and the power demand exceeded the belts capacity. After a while it gave up the ghost. Replace the belt and sin no more my son.

[LEOLAV]

If you can tell me something. What did the the rock have to do with the belp problem? Did it knock something out of line or what and what size mower deck do you have? I am not trying to be a smart fart I would really like to know. I use a GT5000 with the 48" deck and sometime get into grass that does have ( unseen rocks ) Thanks SAM


I bent the spindle shaft enough to wear out the bearings, but barely enough to notice. Once the bearings went, the belt was slipping as their was more friction on the pulley. After an hour or so of this type of use, the belts were just toasted. I figured it out after the first two belts, but had to trudge on as the spindle was backordered for it. I had the 42" deck.

After putting the new spindle on, everything went fine.

[Michael]

Everyone is saying to check the spindles and I agree, but over the years I had to learn to do this properly and I suggest that you remove the blades and really clean and check the underside and then check the spindles without the blades. They should turn freely and smoothly and both of them should feel exactly the same. If one doesn't feel the same as the other its time to replace BOTH SPINDLES, The reason to replace both spindles and not one is the fact that the first one is going the other one is soon to follow (at least that was the experience I had on my old Murray, and the Craftsman.) Well good luck in finding the problem.

[LEOLAV]

... If one doesn't feel the same as the other its time to replace BOTH SPINDLES, The reason to replace both spindles and not one is the fact that the first one is going the other one is soon to follow (at least that was the experience I had on my old Murray, and the Craftsman.)

Actually, I only replaced one of mine as my LH spindle had some obvious "trauma" done to it.

[dirtybernie]

i'm with michael on this one. on customer mowers i always at least try to replace both. "pay me now or pay me later" :fing32:

[Michael]

I just replaced the spindles on my John Deere L120 last month. The center spindle was the bad one (obvious trauma as LEOLAV stated) But I am a lazy mechanic. Once in and once out. I also forgot to state to check all the pulleys that the belt rides on. I forgot to do it once on my dad's lawn tractor and the idler pulley was bad. I had replaced the the spindles but it never came to mind to check pulleys that the belts rides against.

[Michael]

I had to run to town to run errands and get some batteries for my camera, I wanted to take some pictures of what got my center spindle on my 48" deck. I hit something (or a lot of something to take out my spindle) Heres some pictures and the reason I said to take the blades off and look really Close in Picture 1 I am showing the bad spindle notice the exposed bearing You should not see the bearings. The 2nd picture is the a good spindle and the 3rd is the two sie by side. Now my Deere has 3 spindles but the new are not "factory sealed". John Deere has done a upgrade on the L-series spindles and they now have a wonderful thing "a grease zerk". Now when I service the tractor I can grease the spindles which to me will add lots of life to the spindles.

[jodyand]

John what are you doing? Maybe you shouldn't mulch just side discharge and see what happens. Maybe they gave you the wrong belt and it was a little to long. Also check your belt tensioner it may be wore out and not putting enough tension on the belt.

[Archdean]

I think SJ said it "broke" not thrown if that is true he undoubtedly has a nick or rough edge on one or more pulleys possibly a fracture that is causing it!!

Yes it could be spindles bent or bearings gone south and be heat caused deteriation!!

To this I bet we all will agree when SJ says something mechanical has happened to his whatever, the first thing needed is not advice but the assistance of a Clairvoyant ie. a Psychic !!:fing20:

[CatDaddy]

I know this is the Simplicity forum, but since you guys are on the topic, I've got a bearing/spindle question. (A couple of questions actually.)

I pulled my deck the other day to clean the bottom & check the blades. I saw that my AYP/Husqy spindles don't have grease zerks. (But my father-in-law's Husqy does - Go Figure!)

Can I just drill the spindles & install some? I've got plenty of spare zerks from when I used to do automotive work. Would I need to replace the bearings with some of the previously discussed 'non-sealed' type? Could I get away with just picking the inner seal out of the old ones?

TIA!
-=A=-

[Michael]

Technically, Yes you can drill the spindles with the factory sealed bearing and picking out the inner seal, I have to think that any additional grease will benefit it. But you have to remember that you do not want so much grease that you blow out the seals. I do think it will stop the erosion of the pot metal, becasuse of the envirnment that the spindles are placed in, spinning at a high speed thru a nutrient rich grass and tossing the stuff out and hitting unknown and unseen objects in the yard. On mine it was very clear that I hit something and I knew it immediately as that spindle just HOWLED, It did not chew up the belt as I heard a different noise coming from the tractor and stopped using it before the belt was fryed. I also agree that ArchDeans statement to check everything is also good advise but from MY EXPERIENCE ONLY generally speaking it is 9 out of 10 times a bad spindle (either bent, bad bearings or damaged as mine was). But the one out ten items was a bad idler pulley bearing on fathers Craftsman.

[Archdean]

I know this is the Simplicity forum, but since you guys are on the topic, I've got a bearing/spindle question. (A couple of questions actually.)

I pulled my deck the other day to clean the bottom & check the blades. I saw that my AYP/Husqy spindles don't have grease zerks. (But my father-in-law's Husqy does - Go Figure!)

Can I just drill the spindles & install some? I've got plenty of spare zerks from when I used to do automotive work. Would I need to replace the bearings with some of the previously discussed 'non-sealed' type? Could I get away with just picking the inner seal out of the old ones?

TIA!
-=A=-

I don't think so , normally the zerked spindle will be fluted in the middle to allow grease to flow from top to bottom!! But i'm certain you can get them if yours need to be replaced!

Yes you can just inject the bearings but it's a relatively short term fix and am running one now on an inner front wheel bearing on my Little T&G Kubota tractor/mower! I have the bearings in the shop just haven't done it yet because it hasn't squawked enough yet!!

[Bruceman]

Hey Catdaddy, AYP greasable spindles utilize sealed bearings with the inner dust cap removed just like what you're describing. I'm not 100% sure how crucial the fluting is, but a good bench or angle grinder would flute those bad boys nicely. I say go for it.

Bruce L~

[Archdean]

Hey Catdaddy, AYP greasable spindles utilize sealed bearings with the inner dust cap removed just like what you're describing. I'm not 100% sure how crucial the fluting is, but a good bench or angle grinder would flute those bad boys nicely. I say go for it.

Bruce L~

The fluting is there to give the grease a place to exit just like on any wrist pin or loader pin that is zerked (nothing special ) but if you try and grease one without it no matter how hard you try it JUST WONT ACCEPT ANY GREASE!!

Hope that clears that up!! Thanks Bruceman for making that simple and understandable!

[Michael]

I know this is the Simplicity forum, but since you guys are on the topic, I've got a bearing/spindle question. (A couple of questions actually.)

I pulled my deck the other day to clean the bottom & check the blades. I saw that my AYP/Husqy spindles don't have grease zerks. (But my father-in-law's Husqy does - Go Figure!)

Can I just drill the spindles & install some? I've got plenty of spare zerks from when I used to do automotive work. Would I need to replace the bearings with some of the previously discussed 'non-sealed' type? Could I get away with just picking the inner seal out of the old ones?

TIA!
-=A=-


2nd option is to price the new spindle assemblys and just replace them with HusQy dealer parts as the dealer should be able to do the interchange easily and likely cheaper then Sea-Mart

[smith009]

The same thing happened to me last year - I broke two belts in two weeks (two cuttings). The next time I replaced the belt, I realized that the previous time replacing the belt, I had routed it around the pulleys and guides slightly wrong - and thus the replacement belt had been rubbing on something it was not designed to rub on. The second replacement belt I replaced (... correctly ...) has been on now for over a year, and I mow some really thick stuff.

The routing of the belt on this mower is tricky. Make sure its on right, and (assuming your bearings and pulley alignments are O.K.) I suspect it will last an acceptably long time. Mine has.

smith009