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Troy Bilt Deck Replacement Issue

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1.8K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  TooManyTractors!  
#1 · (Edited)
A few weeks ago, the deck on my my Troy Bilt riding mower (Model: 13AK78BS011) became irreparably damaged. I had an older Troy Bilt (Model: 13WX78KS011) that I kept for parts.

I swapped the damaged deck for the older one.

Everything is pretty much the same except for the holding clip for the PTO belt being on the left rear side of the deck instead of the center. I also installed a new belt & blades for that deck.

Here's the issue: when I engage the blades, they work and it will mow but there's some kind of friction that is causing the belt to heat up. I also could not disengage the blades. I had to turn off the machine.

I'm no mechanic so I've probably screwed something up. Any help will be appreciated.
 
#2 ·
From looking at the parts diagrams for your tractor here (Troy-Bilt Riding Lawn Mower - Model 13AK78BS011 | Troy-Bilt US) [thank you for including the model number], your tractor uses a manual pto setup, where you pull a lever/knob/whatever, and it operates a mechicanism that makes the deck belt tight when you enable the pto, and releases it when you turn the pto off (by operating said lever/knob/whatever).

Generally, there are two things that happen when you turn on the pto:
-the mechanism moves a idler or two, to tighten the belt
-some (one or more) brake pads move, so they don't press against the spindles, so they are free to rotate

And when you turn the pto off, the reverse happens:
-the idlers move so the belt becomes loose
-the brakes are applied to the spindles

I would suggest first going over the belt diagram in the operators manual pg 20, to make sure the belt is in the correct path AND that it is on the right side of all the belt keepers. You may need to loosen the keeps to be the belt on the correct side.

If that's all good, then (all of this is with the engine off), turn on/engage the pto, and then examine the belt along it's entire path, to see if it's touching anything other than a pulley, and look at the brake pads on both spindles on the deck, that they aren't touching the spindles (I think they press against the spindle pulleys).

Then do the reverse, with the pto disengaged, check that the brake pads are pressing against both spindles.
 
#3 ·
I wonder if you don't have too small of a belt on the deck which doesn't allow the PTO to fully disengage. I had a similar problem with my JD 400 PTO belts, they were 1 inch too short and made disengaging the mowing deck...iffy. It looks from the manual dave_r was so kind to link to that you likely have an idler pulley PTO arrangement, if the mower belt doesn't slid easily around the engine PTO pulley when the PTO is supposed to be off then you need a longer belt.