MTD (Lawnflite 380 GT-X) no cutting torque

Lole

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May 25, 2014
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Hi All

Having a few problems that are driving me a bit nuts. I'll be grateful for a few thoughts if possible please.

I have one of these. I've noticed that there are a few branded variant of this MDT machine. Mine is a Lawnflite so not uncommon I think.


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Started it up at the start of the season and when I tried to engage the cutter by moving the lever forward nothing happened - the blades would not engage. Thought it must be a stretched belt and chatted to the man in the parts department at the company I bought it from. He said that was unlikely, the Kevlar in them does not stretch, so I suggested perhaps it was the sleeved cable attached to the lever that pulls jockey wheel to tension the belt. Perhaps that had stretched? Both of which I thought were possibilities. I ended up buying both (for £120!) Both were OEM.

When I took off the cable and the belt and held them against the new ones I could not detect any difference in size or any damage to the old ones.

Fitted them and now the blades engage but take ages to get up to speed and cannot maintain speed on anything but the highest setting. The grass did get quite long over this time, so I've cut on the highest setting and waited a few days for the lawn to dry, and tried on the second highest setting, but still lose power when you drop the deck to the next setting down.

I had a good look at the pullies and guides and can't see anything wrong. Has anyone any thought? Feels like I've messed something up somewhere.

Also, just a stupid one, but do I really need the pulley covers on? I've seen videos of variants of this machine (when I was working out how to drop the deck) and almost all did not have the covers on the top of the deck. They made working on the pullies 10X more difficult!

Thanks for listening!


Lole
 

bertsmobile1

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Either the belt is routed wrong or the belt is too long.
Sometimes the pulley size is changed for different markets to alter the blade tip speed which means that the belt then becomes loose as the USA has the slowest speeds on the planet.
Running without the covers on mowers with a manual PTO can cause the belt to jump off when you dissengage the blades as on some decks the covers double as belt retainers.
On most decks the engine pulleys and deck pulleys align near the middle cut height so that is where the belt run will be loosest
 

Lole

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May 25, 2014
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Either the belt is routed wrong or the belt is too long.
Sometimes the pulley size is changed for different markets to alter the blade tip speed which means that the belt then becomes loose as the USA has the slowest speeds on the planet.
Running without the covers on mowers with a manual PTO can cause the belt to jump off when you dissengage the blades as on some decks the covers double as belt retainers.
On most decks the engine pulleys and deck pulleys align near the middle cut height so that is where the belt run will be loosest

Thank you. I think I really need to look more closely at the routing...I recorded the route closely when I took the old belt of, but if the initial problem was that the belt had jumped, could be I've put it on incorrectly. I think I need to look to see if I have missed anything near to the tensioner. The rest looks straight forward enough. Thanks again, I'll have a look this weekend
 

Lole

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Hi All
Just finished rerouting the belt for the third time and still the same problem, which is driving me nuts. Cut some long grass on top setting this weekend ant it went through it like butter. Drop it one notch and the blades stop dead, no-matter what length the grass so I am not sure at all about my belt routing.... really not sure if I am catching the guides that are on the cover. Belt does seem slack though but can't find a diagram anywhere.
 

Scrubcadet10

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should be model number under the seat on a white sticker, use it to find diagrams as to see if the belt is routed correctly.
 

gainestruk

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Oct 12, 2013
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Check the idler pulley that tightens the belt when you try to engage blades, they are bad about bending up which doesn't let belt to get tight enough, when you look at pulleys they should all be at same height, if one is bent up a 12" crescent wrench works good to put on the the flat piece of metal the idler pulley is bolted to and bend it back in alignment.
 
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