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Cub Cadet Rider
M# 13WX91AT056

New belt (Stens 265-216 for 954-04219), when I engage the manual PTO, takes sometimes 3 seconds to start turning the blades. The idlers and blades move freely. And the belt is tight when engaged. The engine doesn't bog down when engaging the PTO.
But every time, it take a couple or 3 seconds to start turning. Once it starts turning, it's another second before the blades are at full speed.

This doesn't seem normal. Could it just be worn pulleys? Or the wrong V shape in the belt? Or something I'm missing?

Does the belt tension arm move freely or is it acting sticky. I don't think that even if the blade was the wrong cut angle, or was bottoming out in the pulley would take that long to get up to speed without a load on the blades. Slowing down while mowing possibly but not so much on start up.

Check your belt length. The last two 265-216 that I got back in the 9/2018 both were 104" instead 103" so they got returned. Since then I got into a MTD distributor and the belt are the same cost so I haven't bother to try another Stens 265-216.

StarTech said:

Check your belt length. The last two 265-216 that I got back in the 9/2018 both were 104" instead 103" so they got returned. Since then I got into a MTD distributor and the belt are the same cost so I haven't bother to try another Stens 265-216.

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It's loose when not engaged. And tight when it is. I remember your belt problem with Stens, you posted about before, and have always doubled checked most of them since. Although I didn't measure it, I did check the tension. And it seems to be right on.

ILENGINE said:

Does the belt tension arm move freely or is it acting sticky. I don't think that even if the blade was the wrong cut angle, or was bottoming out in the pulley would take that long to get up to speed without a load on the blades. Slowing down while mowing possibly but not so much on start up.

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Come to think of it. The tension arm was hanging pretty low. So I pried it up some. Something gave way and it sort of snapped when I did. Not a broken kind of a snap. More of a moved back into place kind of a sound.
I have a deck idler pulley coming in today, so I'll remove the deck and see if something got out of sorts. Probably that shouldered washer that allows the arm to move back & forth.
That part doesn't look crooked.

What's your thoughts on greasing it? I never liked the idea of greasing things like that? Simply because of the dust & dirt build up.

PT I think you will be fine with some grease on the shouldered washer pivot point. Gets a lot of grass buildup which in turn holds water and causes rust. So you choices are between dust collecting on the grease causing sanding grit or having the pivot arm rust and not move properly.

I would check that pivot arm for wear as I have been replacing a lot of them in the last couple years. It, the shoulder washer, and the thin washer under it all wear quite heavily, allowing the idler arm to flop around a lot causing belt issues. Most times all I find of the thin washer is the area that shoulder washer sits on. The idler arm and shoulder wears one side allowing the idler arm assembly to tilt under tension. Plus the pivot hole becomes egg shaped. The shoulder washer will also wear a groove at the pivot point.

I just repaired a 50" deck where I had weld buildup the mounting area of the deck for the idler arm and the shouldered washer and the idler arm. When I first started I have over one inch of flop and near a half inch of tilt. Now it is back to normal under spring tension.

One of note of the Cub that I just repaired is that original idler was heavily painted and the replacement is just yellow zinc coated so the shoulder washer had to ground down some so the idler arm slop is less. Got to condensate for the lack of paint.