old RZT50 deck belt too short?

[RustyBucket]

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY !!! I recently rebuilt the deck on my old RZT50. New spindles, blades, idlers, reinforcement doublers on the spindle openings. Bought a new CubCadet brand deck belt & had a terrible time stretching it on. I had to loosen the nuts on the bar in the front to wrestle the belt on. I can't lower the deck, it seems like the deck is suspended between the bar in the front and the PTO clutch in the back. Mowed 2 acres with it and vibrated pretty bad. Yesterday it flipped the belt off & ate it as soon as I engaged the blades. I Think my mower was made in 2004. I wondered if my early model used a little longer belt. I posted pics of the I.D on the mower and the part# on the belt I bought. Been pretty good machinery for 10+ years, Kawasaki runs good. I've always had a hard time installing deck belt, fighting with the tensioner. Info/suggestions will be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance. I know there's an infinite variety of belt lengths, how much bigger should I go? They ain't cheap... THANKS AGAIN

 

[RustyBucket]

 

[Scrubcadet10]

Wrong belt.... The IPL shows it as 754-04044A (Superseded to 954-04044A

 

[Scrubcadet10]

www.partstree.com/cub-cadet-rzt50-belt-754-04044A

 

[Mower King]

Wrong belt.... The IPL shows it as 754-04044A (Superseded to 954-04044A

Yep...wrong belt, if the pic of the belt is the one you used.....it says fits Lawn Tractors and they are very different from a RZT

 

[StarTech]

According to belt measurer here that belt should an 1/2 x 134 belt PN 954-04044A . Check the belt length that you received. Belts are know to wrong one even labelled correctly.

Now note the Cub Cadet website has it listed as A(1/2) x 133 and that 954-4077 is a B(5/8) x 134. They don't interchange as if you going with a 5/8 belt it will need to be about 2" longer

 

[RustyBucket]

Thanks Y'all, greatly appreciated info. Only excuse I can offer is that I was distracted by the young redheaded cowgirl working at Tractor Supply. ... or Maybe just old age. I will check the belt width & length carefully this time. A WAY tight belt probably wasn't much good for new deck parts or the clutch.

THANKS again

 

[StarTech]

The belt will overheat rather quickly and fail.

My current personal mower had to be upgraded to a 5/8 belt after a recent engine change that was simply destroying the 1/2 belt. Mainly because of the HP difference when installed a 21 hp in place of a 16.5 and the extra tall grass that I cut. It took a couple tries to get the right side belt as I had nothing to go on about resizing at the time.

Just couldn't keep replacing the 1/2 OEM belts especially when i went through three of them in less than a month.The first was a little too short and the mower would throw the belt everytime; unless, I engaged the deck fully up. Now with a slightly longer belt I had no problems engaging the belt until last mowing but I think the problem is a mechanical problem. Probably rust.

 

[RustyBucket]

Yep...wrong belt, if the pic of the belt is the one you used.....it says fits Lawn Tractors and they are very different from a RZT

so.... a 5/8' X 136" maybe? The 954-04077 I used was 5/8" X 134" ... The IPL specified 954-04044A measures 1/2" X 133"...AN INCH SHORTER than the one I used that was too short. KINDA CORNFUSING

 

[StarTech]

Actually if you think about it, it is not. The 5/8" belt is a wider therefore rides higher in the v-pulleys effectively making it to seem too short.

And yes the ipl says 1/2" x 133". the problem is that they left off the fractional amount and as I said the OEM belt here measures 1/2" x 134" on my v-belt measuring tool.