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I have a 61 inch turf tiger. How do I change the deck belt? What releases the belt tension?

Thanks,

-bobby

My guess would be the idler pulley. Its the one that has a spring attached to its assembly.

Request Rejected click anyway Locate your manual by model & serial numbers & proceed to replacing deck belt.

My manual doesn't show how to replace the belt. I would like to hear from someone that has actually replaced the belt on a turf tiger (61 inch cut).



-bobby

Hi Bobby,
Look in the parts manual for your deck, you will see a tensioner arm with a pulley mounted on it and the arm has a large spring pulling on it. There is a square hole stamped into the tensioner arm. Using a 1/2" drive breaker bar with a long enough extension, you can turn the arm enough to release the belt and remove it from the deck. When I do this, I have a 2nd person turning the breaker bar so I can grab the belt and pull it away from the tensioner pulley and remove it. If you have any doubts about belt alignment, take some pics before you remove the belt. You can install the new belt around most of the pulleys and have the 2nd person turn the tensioner, lineup the belt over the tensioner pulley and then release the tensioner.
If you have a collection system on your machine, the blower drive belt must be removed first.
Mad Mackie in CT:laughing::biggrin::smile:
We are having a heat wave!!! It's up to 12 degrees!!!:laughing:

Mad Mackie said:

Hi Bobby,
Look in the parts manual for your deck, you will see a tensioner arm with a pulley mounted on it and the arm has a large spring pulling on it. There is a square hole stamped into the tensioner arm. Using a 1/2" drive breaker bar with a long enough extension, you can turn the arm enough to release the belt and remove it from the deck. When I do this, I have a 2nd person turning the breaker bar so I can grab the belt and pull it away from the tensioner pulley and remove it. If you have any doubts about belt alignment, take some pics before you remove the belt. You can install the new belt around most of the pulleys and have the 2nd person turn the tensioner, lineup the belt over the tensioner pulley and then release the tensioner.
If you have a collection system on your machine, the blower drive belt must be removed first.
Mad Mackie in CT:laughing::biggrin::smile:
We are having a heat wave!!! It's up to 12 degrees!!!:laughing:

Click to expand...

This is what I needed to know. Mad Mackie your're the best. This forum has helped me so much in learning and keeping my turf tiger in tip top shape.

Be glad when warmer weather arrives. Not this week for sure but vernal equinox not far off.

Thanks again,

-bobby

Hi Bobby and group,
So far I've plowed 50" of snow this winter!!! My Tiger Cub, (Nellie) is calling me telling me that she is lonesome and wants to get back to work!!! HaHa!!!
Gonna be a while, too much white stuff hanging around!!!!
Mad Mackie in CT:laughing::biggrin::smile:

It's good that we can help someone learn how to change a belt.
It's bad that we have to explain something as simple as changing a belt.

I'm not picking on the OP. I apologize if this comes off as rude; that's not my intent. I'm using his experience to actually address a larger, broader topic here. I just have to wonder what ever happend to the pioneering spirit that caused young boys to tinker in the garage, learning how to tear down, break and fix stuff. I was doing this before I was 10. Is it really that hard to look at a belt system, ID the tension device and figure out how to change it? There are still kids that can do this; mine can. But I think it's just a dwindling resource; self-reliant people are no longer the norm. I'm glad that the OP is willing to learn; Kudos to him! But why should we be needed to step-by-step such a menial task in the first place? Ever look at a modern serpintine belt on a car? I actually find it fun and challenging to route the belt without looking at the diagram!

Again - I am sorry if I offend; not what I wanted to point out. Was more of a societal comment and not a direct complaint about the OP.

Not many of us had the opportunity as kids to gain the experiences wrenching and building things. Before I turned 12, I had built a hydroplane from plans out of one of the Science magazines that my dad got in the mail every month. I borrowed a Mercury outboard motor from my uncle to power the boat with and had some fun a few times.
A Scag Turf Tiger is a different machine from the usual ZTR as the engine is horizontal in orientation. The deck drive system is initially V belt from a clutch to a 90 degree gearbox, then thru a shaft to another 90 degree gearbox and then the deck drive V belt, more than the average ZTR generally has for power transmission and understandably more complex and intimidating to some folk. I recall the first Turf Tiger that I worked and it was my first exposure to a ZTR with a horizontal engine and thinking that it was unnecessarily complex.
Be aware that the Scag Turf Tiger operators does not explain how to replace the deck drive V belt.
Forums like LMF are an online resource for folk to find help and information relative to specific products, gain knowledge, skills and information otherwise not readily available.
Just some thoughts from
Mad Mackie in CT:laughing::biggrin::smile:

FWIW
On bid ZTR's I have always found it a lot easier to run the belt around all of the deck pulleys then pull the belt tight towards the engine pulley from behind the mower.
Most times I can pull back hard enough to slip the belt on without rollong it over the pulley which can damage the belt cover and these are not cheap belts.
If I need to use breaker bar it can generally be pushed with my foot.
When you work one up you get good at doing things like this.
I don't actually use breaker bars as such because when the going gets really tough they usually live up to their name & break.
I have found the next size up sliding T bar and some pipe usually works a lot better so for your mower it would be a 3/4 drive sliding T handle with an impact grade 3/4 to 1/2 adaptor.
If you look around under the mower there is always some thing you can use to hold the pressure on the bar.
The imortant thing is to keep some tension on the belt when you are pulling the tension off the pulley so that the belt does not fall off one of the pulleys which is why I get behind & under belt in one hand before I move the tensioning pulley.

I do the T bar thing myself.
Different deal between those that do this sort of thing daily and those that don't. Forums like this get posts from folk from one extreme to the other extreme. I attempt to tailor my response to where I feel the OPs skill level is based on his or her question and provide an answer from which they will understand and learn.
We all have seen the "motor stopped on my green mower, can anyone help me?"

I even read on a forum someone was being corrected because they used the term "motor" instead of engine describing their problem....
Motor sounds better in my view. I think it was Richard Petty who said once it sounds cool to use that term.

Whatever the questions I enjoy the replies. On forums like this, not everyone is an expert. Heck, I remember not too long ago I couldn't sign on to AOL. We all crawl before we walk:smile:

55 degrees today, break out the sun block:thumbsup: