Well, time and blood pressure guarantees I lost this battle. Good thing I'm not actually being idled here. Reading Bert's comments, how does one know OEM from OEM copy? Not all 134" belts are 134" on my tape measure. I'm not as smart as I look.
Exactly that not all belts matches what they are advertise to be. I ended for my shop buying a v-belt measuring tool to verify belt lengths but I even try to install a new belt especially a first time install from any of my vendors.
Several years ago I was having multiple problems caused by an after market vendor [A&I (Sunbelt Outdoors)]. It got to every I tried to install were apparently short. With the tool I from the 1/2 belts were nearly an inch short and the 5/8 belts were nearly two inches short. I tried working with A&I as was one of their dealers all I heard was that I was measuring them wrong. I finally got the my sales rep to personally come out with their tool and measure the belts. Guess what they used the same tool I was using.
Now this in mind Stens belts are spec'd to +- 1/4" of their labeled size or supposedly so as I have gotten them in both too short and too long which got returned for credit.`
Now of course there are other differences too like the angle of the "V" and actually belt width which can change how a belt sits the vee pulleys. Also you make sure use the same style belt. Use raw edge when raw edge are spec'd and covered when covered are spec'd. Raw edge are non clutching belts and covered are clutching belts.
This is where Tiger said sometimes you have to use OEM belts. Here the worst offender here is MTD mowers. Aftermarket belts very seldom work on the MTD CVT belt motion drive system.
