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I recently bought a 2004 Yard machines mower with 46” deck. Upon first using the mower with a new belt, the belt shredded after about an hour or so. I put another new belt on and after cutting for a bit I decided to stop and check in the new belt, and it appears to be cutting on the bottom of a pulley attached to the bottom of the tractor and the belt was pretty warm also. The problem is I don’t know how to fix this. Is there a way to bring the pulley down or is there another adjustment I should make? I’d rather not let this belt break and be able to finish cutting my lawn

We need model & serial numbers to assist you, Tag or sticker should be under seat, on frame, under hood, etc. Remove deck, I believe your idler pulleys bearings may be shot, remove them & check by hand.

A couple of pictures would also help

Belts get hot that is normal
Which belt are yu talking about the deck belt or the drive belt ?
Check every pulley for free rotation and wear marks.
The deck belt should not touch anything on the mower other than the PTO pulley

Plus the belt must be the correct length. If after market don't trust what printed on the belt sleeve. I have seen belt be as much as 2" shorter than the indicated spec. You actually got to measure the belt to know for sure.

The belt you see here is coming off the engine pto. This belt pretty much starts riding right at the bottom of the pulley when the pro is engaged. I’ll post another pic that shows the damage to the belt

It sure how easy it is to see but this was the best I could get to show the damage on the inside of the belt

Ld454 said:

It sure how easy it is to see but this was the best I could get to show the damage on the inside of the belt

Click to expand...

A non-OEM belt will do this quicker than an OEM belt....even when everything else is right!
There are posts, after posts, after posts about non-OEM belts and parts being subpar yet.....people ignore it and buy them anyway!

You’ve been asked to post the model and serial numbers, please do so. That idler pulley doesn’t look right to me.

That should be a 604H series MTD. It should have a 1/2 x 90 engine to pto belt. The idler pulleys are fairly square shouldered with only a slight bend outwards on the lips.

What I see isn't a flat idler cutting the belt but looks more like the belt bottoming out in either the spindle pulley or the engine pulley Vs and the belt slipping because of that. Also can be caused by rusty v-pulley v-groove. Another possible is a bent engine pulley where the bottom of the V is bent inwards or have sharp edges.

Just thoughts

This is the mower I have

Well that is a 608H which has a 5/8 x 68.25 PTO belt according to the IPL. Another thing to check is to make you don't have the belt on the outside of the retaining pins on the spindle pulley cover on the left side, easy enough to do.

On a used 2004 machine, most likely the pulleys, bearings and belts are used up. Probably some belt guides and covers are missing, bolts stripped off. Someone might of done you a favor by politely keeping that info quiet.

slomo

Yeah I never liked that double flat idler deal, never looked right. Take off the belt, and spin all of the pulleys and check for roughness..

I spun both of those pulleys and they both spin freely. No bad noise from either of them, pretty solid. I did notice one thing though. The belt I had on was a 754-0350 and it was not factory. A factory belt is a 754-0349.

That would cause a problem. Here are the length and width of those belts.

Looks to me like the pulleys are out of alignment.

cpurvis said:

Looks to me like the pulleys are out of alignment.

Click to expand...

I kinda thought so myself. How do you realign them?

Ld454 said:

I kinda thought so myself. How do you realign them?

Click to expand...

I don't know. I'd have to have the thing in front of me and even then may not be able to tell. I'm guessing some things got bent.

After putting a new belt on and engaging the pto, this is what things are looking like. That pulley is looking pretty crooked. Not to mention the belt is riding on the bottom. I tried taking off the pulley, but the bolt will just turn and turn without coming out. I can’t figure out how to remove this thing

I think that the bolt is a through bolt, need a wrench on the top side.

This is why we keep on telling people to download their parts diagram.
Now you have loosened it you will have to at least tighten it again.
You can add a washer or two to space the pulley further down.
Remember that as the deck raises & lowers the belt run will change.
You can also get a flat idler with a rolled edge ( usually a JD part ) that does not tend to eat belts, I use a lot of them
If the offending pulley is slightly sloped then the bent will run right on the edge as well