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Self introduction
My name mitchell, my wife and I bought our first home and for the first time in a long time I am responsible for maintaining my own lawn. I bought a used craftsman dlt 3000, because I’m new to owning a mower I figured I would join so I can learn and gain new knowledge so I can self assess and maintain my mower.
1 - 3 of 3 Posts
Mower bogging when cutting grass
I have a used craftsman DLT 3000 that I bought back in the spring. When I cut the first time everything ran fine and cut well. After the first time and few times after I noticed that when I would engage the blades and actually hit grass even on the highest setting I noticed the mower seemed to bog out. Me not being very knowledgeable about mowers assumed maybe it was the carburetor thinking the mower wasn’t producing enough power. I had someone replace the carburetor and still saw no difference when cutting. Did some research and figured i would check the belt and blades.
Took the deck off and checked the belt and noticed there was a slit in the deck belt. I also noticed the blades even after having them sharpened looked in need of replacing. I ordered a new belt , (same part number as listed on the mower list) and ordered new blades.
Put the new blades on and new belt and noticed that the idler pully on the deck was loose, so I tightened that but when tighted it would not spin. So I loosed and noticed it appears the bearing maybe going bad, some wd40 was put on and the pully seemed to loosen a bit and spin better even when tightened but still would not spin much freely with the other pully.
With the new belt on and blades I started it up and tried cutting immediately noticed a difference in the power when the pto was engage and felt the issue was fixed but then noticed while cutting the belt was burning and the blade were stuck engaged even when pto lever was off.
Realized that the belt was so tight, it would not allow the brake pads on the pullys to disengage to stop the blades. When I would engage the pto it almost took two hands because the lever was so tight. Also noticed that the idler pully was not slipping back into place so I put anti seize lube on the fixtures and that helped with that. I came to the conclusion that the belt was to tight. The belt that’s associated with the part number is 95.5 long, that’s the size I ordered, but it was to tight. I then went and bought a 97 inch belt. The 97 worker as in allowing the pto to disengage but is to loose to where it almost comes off when the pto is not engaged and I still get the bogging when cutting.
Apparently after researching and looking on the deck craftsman no longer puts a way to adjust belts or tension.
Any ideas to what the main issue maybe ? Do I need a 96 inch belt ? since the 95.5 is to tight and 97 to big or do I need to keep the 97 inch belt and get a new idler pully ? To see if he pully not spinning correctly is causing the loss of power when cutting?
Thank you !
I have a used craftsman DLT 3000 that I bought back in the spring. When I cut the first time everything ran fine and cut well. After the first time and few times after I noticed that when I would engage the blades and actually hit grass even on the highest setting I noticed the mower seemed to bog out. Me not being very knowledgeable about mowers assumed maybe it was the carburetor thinking the mower wasn’t producing enough power. I had someone replace the carburetor and still saw no difference when cutting. Did some research and figured i would check the belt and blades.
Took the deck off and checked the belt and noticed there was a slit in the deck belt. I also noticed the blades even after having them sharpened looked in need of replacing. I ordered a new belt , (same part number as listed on the mower list) and ordered new blades.
Put the new blades on and new belt and noticed that the idler pully on the deck was loose, so I tightened that but when tighted it would not spin. So I loosed and noticed it appears the bearing maybe going bad, some wd40 was put on and the pully seemed to loosen a bit and spin better even when tightened but still would not spin much freely with the other pully.
With the new belt on and blades I started it up and tried cutting immediately noticed a difference in the power when the pto was engage and felt the issue was fixed but then noticed while cutting the belt was burning and the blade were stuck engaged even when pto lever was off.
Realized that the belt was so tight, it would not allow the brake pads on the pullys to disengage to stop the blades. When I would engage the pto it almost took two hands because the lever was so tight. Also noticed that the idler pully was not slipping back into place so I put anti seize lube on the fixtures and that helped with that. I came to the conclusion that the belt was to tight. The belt that’s associated with the part number is 95.5 long, that’s the size I ordered, but it was to tight. I then went and bought a 97 inch belt. The 97 worker as in allowing the pto to disengage but is to loose to where it almost comes off when the pto is not engaged and I still get the bogging when cutting.
Apparently after researching and looking on the deck craftsman no longer puts a way to adjust belts or tension.
Any ideas to what the main issue maybe ? Do I need a 96 inch belt ? since the 95.5 is to tight and 97 to big or do I need to keep the 97 inch belt and get a new idler pully ? To see if he pully not spinning correctly is causing the loss of power when cutting?
Thank you !
1 - 3 of 3 Posts
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