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When mowing I can smell slight burning rubber and the brake pedal bounces. This drive belt was replaced about two years ago and is now mostly shredded. Mower is the 917.271022. Any ideas? Maybe an idler pulley? Thanks for help/suggestions.

I would look at the idler pulleys to make sure they turn freely, don't have something stuck in the groove, and also replace the belt at the same time.

Belts shred because they are rubbing against some thing that is not moving

bertsmobile1 said:

... rubbing against some thing that is not moving....

Click to expand...

Pulled deck to see...it is obvious my mistake and both idlers are fine.

WE have all put a belt on the wrong side of a belt guard , you are not alone

OK, I found out what happened when I put the new belt on 3 times. lol The bolt that goes through the clutching idle pulley and the frame came loose resulting in pulley sag. Due to the sag the belt was riding too low on the stationary idler causing the belt to jump off. I did fail to to put the belt inside one of the keepers for the transaxle pulley-no way that could have jumped over ( I think this was the source of the faint burning rubber smell).

I did mess up on one of the transaxle keepers, but there was more to it than that.

Thanks again for suggestions/help. It's mowing like 1999 again.

Thanks for coming back to close the thread
Glad it was a simple fix
Do not feel embarrassed we have all made silly mistakes
Under high loads, belts can squeeze through a lot tighter space than most would believe which is why most keepers are 1/16" to 1/8" off the belt