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Hi Guys! I'm new, and I'm glad to be here

I'm in a BIG jam right now: I'm 59, mostly blind, my house is up for sale (Yucaipa, Ca.) and my 2+ acres needs mowing... a job that I always do with my 2013 Husqvarna YTH-24K48 that 'til now has been dead reliable.

A week ago the drive belt came off of the rear (trans) pulley. The drive pulley/belts has been making a LOT of racket during my last mow. SO... deck off, belt back on now and I think I've carefully checked all the belt routing and keeper-brackets, it all looks good but when I let the clutch all the way out, she's rattling and squawking and making a lot of bad noises, this without even moving forward (which it does).
What could it be? The idler pulleys are'nt bound up, and the tension spring is in place. It makes a heck of a racket!
I push-mowed my yard yesterday, that sucked and I have a million other things I need to attend to right now with my home sale... Help!

Here in NY we have what is called Retired & Senior Volunteer program. What I do is give free labor but charge only for parts for the needy or handicap through this program. I also deliver meals on wheels and have helped with repairs when asked. You might go to your county and ask for help.

If it is belt noise then there are two things that come to mind.
1) you have run the belt on the wrong side of a belt keeper
2) if the clutch pedal is bouncing around, a damaged pulley, flat spot, something stuck etc etc.

Grab the engine & try to wiggle it around.
A loose engine can make quite a racket.

bertsmobile1 said:

If it is belt noise then there are two things that come to mind.
1) you have run the belt on the wrong side of a belt keeper
2) if the clutch pedal is bouncing around, a damaged pulley, flat spot, something stuck etc etc.

Grab the engine & try to wiggle it around.
A loose engine can make quite a racket.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies! I was just about to crawl under it at last light this evening when someone showed up to look at my house. I'll check it in the morning, with the hope being that I routed the belt wrong...

I checked today and the engine is not loose and I believe that the belt routing is correct and that the idler pulley tension spring is still there. It really seem like there is not enough tension on the belt overall though, it's "whipping" when running engaged. Your thoughts?

If the belt is whipping , brake pedal will usually pulsate a little , then there is a flat spot in one of the pulleys or a small rock, twig, seed pod stuck in one of them.
Flat spots are generally found on flat pulleys
Stuck debris is generally found in a V pulley.
And the hardest one to get at, the tranny pulley in your case, is generally the culprit.

To check the belt length, pull the spark plug leads off, let the brake off get under the mower & turn the nut on the end of the engine pully with a ratchet.
The belt should run through the pulleys brake off and not run through the pulleys brake on.

I will check that Bert! With an intact 3 year old belt and 120 hours on my unit, is there any chance that the belt itself is causing my problem? YES, the feedback from the clutch/brake pedal is ferocious...

Put a mark on the belt , lock the brake on so the belt goes slack then run it all the way round till you see the mark again.
A small chunk broken out of the belt will also cause this I misread that you had just replaced the belt, not refitted the old one.
And of course a chunk out of the belt will have it jump off at the slightest provocation.
Check the rear pulley because some times the belt can drop between the fan & the pulley.
Been caught out with that one a few times, go and get a shorter belt only t find it does not fit either then realize the original was not properly on the pulley.

Belt looks like it is riding way too deep in the V pulleys / v idler pulleys. The inside of the belt is showing ware. Also the spring should be straight not bent. See if you can find another mounting point for it so it is straight.

While you are down under the unit take your trusty can of spray lithium grease with you and spray your steering pinion and cam.

The noise you are hearing is possibly coming from idler bearings & the best way to check bearings is to remove idlers, bearings do wear out. If worn out, i would purchase new idlers & a new belt & be done with it. Purchase OEM Husqvarna parts.

Well, BlazeNT and Bert... you guys pointed me in the right direction and I found the culprit! After marking the belt and rotating it around for inspection, I noticed that the V-groove idler pulley was severely flat-spotted. What happened I think was that the belt had come off/under the rear drive pulley and this stressed the idler. Either that, or it's the other way around, with the deformed idler causing the belt to come off.

I could'nt have found this without ALL of you guys help, the pulley is ordered and this is a fix I can do myself. Now I can get back to the only "driving" I do: on my tractor! :thumbsup: