Long time lurker but just registered to get some advice. I have an older Cub Cadet i1046 zero turn mower. This thing has served me very well and I would like to try to troubleshoot it. It is long in the tooth so spending a ton on repairs is counterproductive, but wanted to get your thoughts.
I replaced the oil, fuel filter, air filter, and battery fall 2019. Ran fine until last week. I was picking up a ton of leaves and it got bogged down a couple of times. On the last pass, the deck belt slipped off the pulley. No problem I thought. I parked it (it still drives fine, blades just don't engage). Last night I pulled the deck off, replaced some of the older hardware on the deck and put the belt back on. I installed the deck and started it up thinking it was going to be an easy fix. Pressed the PTO button and heard the click but blades still didn't engage.
Here is what I have found:
1. All attachments seem to be intact. I was thinking maybe the belt slipping off may have disconnected / torn a wore but that all looks fine to me.
2. The PTO switch works. When I try to start the mower with PTO switch on, it will not start. Turn it off and it fires right up so I know the switch itself is good.
3. PTO fuse is good. I pulled it an inspected it - no issues there.
I have come to the conclusion that I may have burned the PTO clutch up by bogging the mower down. Is that a likely possibility? I ordered a new one from amazon for $175 and will try to replace and test - if that doesn't work I can always return it.
Anyway, am I on the right track? Overlooking something simple? Any advice is appreciated. I am a weekend wrencher but like to get advice of people much smarter than me. Thanks in advance.
Have someone watch the PTO clutch when you turn the PTO switch on. If the clutch starts spinning, it is good and you probably have a belt or belt routing issue. If you post back include the model and serial numbers of the unit so we can see what you are talking about. Do you have the owners manual?
Yes I do have the owners manual. I am not home right now, but will post the model and serial number when I get home this weekend. I will also take some pictures. The clutch definitely does not spin though
Ok so I got my wife to sit on the mower and engage the clutch - it spins like a champ. The belt is not tight enough and the clutch spins freely because the belt is loose. I am unsure how to tighten the belt assembly.......I can’t find the manual at the moment so wondering if any of you have an idea how to tighten it. I assume it would be the tensioner pulley......
Here is a picture of the deck:
The top left tensioner pulley has a ton of play in it and moves freely toward the middle pulley, so the spring just pulls those pulleys toward each other. It seems there should be a stop on the deck that doesn’t allow that play and should keep constant tension on the spring that just isn’t there......
#6
Scrubcadet10
i believe this is the right one, like Rivets said include the mowers model number.
Thanks guys; so if you look at the diagram in the manual the spring attachment for the tensioner pulley is supposed to be more pointed “north”. It seems that it is pointed closer to “east” on the deck. I will inspect the entire tensioner assembly tomorrow and hopefully find a way to reinstall the pulley bracket correctly
Looks like one of the spring was cracked at the insertion and the idler bracket hole wear the spring sat had a wear line that spanned almost the entire piece of metal. I had a new spring that I used and that fixed it to a point where I can use it but ordered a new bracket anticipating that wear line would come all the way through sooner rather than later. Thanks everyone for the help
Not uncommon to have a spring just about cutting a part in 1/2
Regularly weld up these grooves with a thick heavy bead or in really bad cases a length of swing back blade for reinforcement .
Anchoring a spring by shoving one end through a hole is really cheap & nasty engineering but all of the consumer level mowers do it ,
