Our club use an MTD sit-on mower. It has just been repaired for the 4th time
this season - broken belt. Cutting the grass today for the first time since the
repair and the (brand new) cutter belt was thrown off as I disengaged the drive.
I dismantled the necesary bits and re-fitted it but it came off again after a
few more yards. Refitted once more and managed to finish the cut. The mower has
two sets of blades and the long belt has two twists in it to route round the
"engaging" pully. When dis-engaged the belt is /very/ slack. Does anyone else
have this problem - or a solution? A new belt is £30 and fitting £50 each time
we cut the grass!.
Geo

Geo wrote:
Our club use an MTD sit-on mower. It has just been repaired for the 4th time
this season - broken belt. Cutting the grass today for the first time since the
repair and the (brand new) cutter belt was thrown off as I disengaged the drive.
I dismantled the necesary bits and re-fitted it but it came off again after a
few more yards. Refitted once more and managed to finish the cut. The mower has
two sets of blades and the long belt has two twists in it to route round the
"engaging" pully. When dis-engaged the belt is /very/ slack. Does anyone else
have this problem - or a solution? A new belt is £30 and fitting £50 each time
we cut the grass!.
Geo

I had this problem last year with a second hand MTD I bought from a
dealer. The belt would delaminate. Fortunately, the dealer has excellent
customer service and came out to me every time it happened (a 50 mile
journey for them). We found that this happened with a non-MTD belt and
went through 3 before the dealer ordered a genuine MTD belt. This has
worked perfectly since. I do not know what the difference between the
belts was as they looked much the same. I can only think that the MTD
one was more flexible and hence able to take the twists better.

--
Howard Neil

On Sun, 03 Jul 2005 16:56:23 +0100, Howard Neil
wrote:

I had this problem last year with a second hand MTD I bought from a
dealer. The belt would delaminate. Fortunately, the dealer has excellent
customer service and came out to me every time it happened (a 50 mile
journey for them). We found that this happened with a non-MTD belt and
went through 3 before the dealer ordered a genuine MTD belt. This has
worked perfectly since. I do not know what the difference between the
belts was as they looked much the same. I can only think that the MTD
one was more flexible and hence able to take the twists better.

Thanks for the information - had another try today and the belt eventually
reversed itself on one or more pulleys so that the flat back of the belt was in
the "V"! This could tie in with your theory - but the repairers *are* the MTD
dealer for our area. May be time to look for a better quality machine...

Geo

Geo wrote:

Thanks for the information - had another try today and the belt eventually
reversed itself on one or more pulleys so that the flat back of the belt was in
the "V"! This could tie in with your theory - but the repairers *are* the MTD
dealer for our area. May be time to look for a better quality machine...

yep, else redesign the belt path a bit, by adding guards to prevent
belts coming off. Have to do it in such a way that the belt dosent tend
to get pulled off when it hits the guard, think what happens when
moving belt meets static guard. Done it successfully on other
equipment.

Also helps to watch the belt coming off so you see just where it goes
off course.


NT

Geo wrote:
On Sun, 03 Jul 2005 16:56:23 +0100, Howard Neil
wrote:


I had this problem last year with a second hand MTD I bought from a
dealer. The belt would delaminate. Fortunately, the dealer has excellent
customer service and came out to me every time it happened (a 50 mile
journey for them). We found that this happened with a non-MTD belt and
went through 3 before the dealer ordered a genuine MTD belt. This has
worked perfectly since. I do not know what the difference between the
belts was as they looked much the same. I can only think that the MTD
one was more flexible and hence able to take the twists better.


Thanks for the information - had another try today and the belt eventually
reversed itself on one or more pulleys so that the flat back of the belt was in
the "V"! This could tie in with your theory - but the repairers *are* the MTD
dealer for our area. May be time to look for a better quality machine...

My dealer was also an MTD dealer but still tried to use other belts.
Barrus are the importers and should be able to help you source the
correct belt.

http://www.barrus.co.uk/

--
Howard Neil