Just when you think you’ve seen it all

Rivets

Lawn Royalty
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Mar 11, 2012
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This one is a first for me. Yesterday I figured I’d give my personal unit, Toro tractor 16-38XL, a good check over and fall maintenance. Tune-up, sharpen the blades, change the deck belt, clean everything, reassemble and level the deck. Everything runs good. Today went out to cut the lawn, everything looks good until I got into a section of the lawn that is twice as thick and grows four times faster than the rest of the yard. Made a pass, turned around to come back and noticed that where I’d just cut looks like crap. Recut that section, looked a little bit better, but not good. Made a new pass and it looks like I installed the blades upside down, can happen. Back to the garage, pulled the deck and checked the blades, installed correctly. Checked the pulleys, spindles, brake release, everything looks good. Installed, went out and made another pass, no change, looks bad. Realize this is my unit, bought in 1995 and never given me a problem. What could be wrong? Sat staring at it for an hour with a glass of tea in hand, trying to figure out what went wrong. Don’t ask why, but I decided to measure the new belt and found it was almost 7/8” longer than specs. I only use OEM belts and parts and this is the first time I’ve ever seen a Toro belt that far off. Remember I’m a Toro guy and have worked on them at Toro dealerships since the ‘80’s. Installed the old belt and put the deck back on and checked for levelness again, all good. Went out and made a couple of passes, looks like it should. As I said I’ve been a Toro guy for way too long and have never seen this before, going to talk to my Toro guy Tuesday and get a new belt. I’ve always said use OEM belts, but this is the first time Toro has let me down. Guess I can’t use that line any more, hope this helps someone else in the future.
 

Scrubcadet10

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Need to pull out your Red Cape and fight the Toro...?
I wonder if the belt has changed numbers to fit a wider array of mowers and "will fit" them...
 

OldDiyer

Well-Known Member
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Jun 7, 2021
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Good post for sure and brings up a good point. How often should we be changing out the deck belt under normal use? Seems that there is alot of questions on this site about tractors not cutting right and we all go to the blades or the deck for the problems but this opens the door for just a belt wear or wrong size belt. If the belt isn't correct means the belt may not be turning fast enough is it also possible that one may be turning faster than the other causing bad cut ? Something else that should be looked at before going over board with other adjustments. Sometimes its the easiest that is causing a problem and we jump to the worst. I'm going to look in my manual but I can't remember seeing anything on when to change belts unless they break.
 

Rivets

Lawn Royalty
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Threads
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Messages
14,683
Sorry it has been so long, but since I no longer work at the shop and have been fishing for the last week, I haven’t had a chance to talk to my Toro contact. Got a hold of him this morning and he said he has heard of this problem only a couple of times since he’s been with Toro, which is over 15 years. Looks like I just got an incorrectly labeled belt or gremlin in the manufacturing process. He said he didn’t know who Toro uses as a supplier. I guess I’ll just chalk it up to &3$9#@“ happens and need to check sizes in the future. Personally after talking to him I’m not overly concerned about quality control, just learned something new in my ripe old age.
 
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