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Hi,
I'm trying to find help on how to replace the transmission drive belt on my CC LT1045, 2008.
Have less than 200hrs on this machine and really am about fed up. Finally got the thing mowing again and after a few passes, the mower stopped moving. Had the cruise control on, but the mower just stopped. After assessing the problem, it seems as though the drive belt has jumped off of the motor pulley. Also, the belt seems to be chewed up in various areas, so will need replaced. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you,
WRH

Welcome to LMF...

That is not going to be much fun, so be sure you are reasonably happy to start this job...
You will need to remove the deck to get to things better...
The trans drive belt is above the deck drive and not that easy to get to...
Note the idler pulley path, and check the guides and pulleys for alignment.... keep smiling you will get through this... it will be a pain. :smile:KennyV

Thanks, I know it's going to be a finger pincher and knuckle buster, but I'm willing. All the instructions I've read indicate that I have to take the PTO pulley off, is this a for sure thing, or can I work the belt around that pulley and up through the opening?
Thank you,
WRH

LT1045wrh said:

... All the instructions I've read indicate that I have to take the PTO pulley off, is this a for sure thing, or can I work the belt around that pulley and up through the opening?
...
WRH

Click to expand...

I'm not sure... but I have a feeling you will soon be able to tell us if it can be done without removing it...
Good luck and post back... :smile:KennyV

I do not know about the LT1045, but both drive belts are removed via the hole under the battery on my 1000. The electric pto and drive pulley have to removed from the engine shaft. I read somewhere that a person just cut off the belt guide tabs around the drive pulley because he couldn't get the pto off. He stated that there was no problem with the drive belt coming off with the tabs removed. Maybe he had the two pulleys running true.

We normally end up taking an impact gun to get the pto clutch off. This job is less than fun. Be sure to use a premium quality belt when it all goes back in...:biggrin:

Impact gun to remove the PTO for sure, but that's the easy part.

The job is a SOB for sure. Cub Cadet riding mower bodies have belt keeper tabs stamped into them around the engine crankshaft pulley, which are entirely unnecessary for hydro type mowers IMO, but there they are, and they make it so you can't slip the belt over the crankshaft pulley.

You either have to remove the exhaust and then lift the engine an inch or two, or do what I did on my old CC SLT-1554 and grind off the belt keeper tabs. I thought I could do it easily with my angle grinder, but it wouldn't fit in there so I ended up using a drill with an assortment of grinding bits. It was hell, but if you do choose the latter, future drive belt changes will be a walk in the park.

Important note: If you decide to grind off the belt keeper tabs, be very careful not to ding or otherwise molest the very fragile crankshaft pulley. I dented mine and then went through a couple of days of torture getting it off. Apparently they don't use anti-seize compound at the factory, so I had to spray the top with PB Blaster and let it soak overnight, then heat the pulley with a heat gun all the while beating the shaft of a three pronged puller I'd attached. To top it all off, since the pulley is soft metal, I couldn't get a good grip with the puller without bending the pulley, so I had to fabricate a thick backing plate to go over the top of it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, taking it to the dealer will be money well spent.

Hello Everyone and thank you for all the input. Here's how my job went:

1. Day one - Removed mowing deck and took a long look at the project. Decided to tackle the transmission belt removal on day two. Need to get 3/8" rope, spk plug wrench, torque wrench and V-belt. Also had to get a fan and cooler w/drinks, as it is very hot in the garage.

2. Day two - Did not have to use a jack or lift. Everything was done with the tractor sitting on its wheels as is. Disconnected the negative battery cable for safety. Was able to remove the PTO with ease using a socket wrench and stuffing rope down the spark plug hole. I was amazed at how much rope went in the hole. The PTO connection wires were very difficult to disconnect. I kept working at the connection and it finally came apart. Noticed the belt keeper tabs around the crankshaft pulley and decided to bend them back by using a hammer and a long bolt with a nut on the end. I was able to pound them away from the pulley just enough to get the V-belt around the pulley, then I pounded them back into position. This effort was the hardest part for me. I'm sure it was a lot less effort than trying to get the crank shaft pulley off, which I did not do. Another tough part for me was muscling the tensor pulleys enough to get the belts (transmission and deck) back on.

I found a website that sells the V-belts pretty cheap, I was able to buy a better belt for the transmission.
vbeltsforless.com A76K A-SECTION KEVLAR (K-PLUS) $10.37
I think the measurements were 77"L x 1/2"W
Also, while I had the mower in the garage, I went ahead and changed the spark plug and put on new mowing blades.
Once the job was done, I was a little nervous to go out and mow, but I did and it worked fine. I mowed for about 2hrs. Guess it's fixed for now.
Overall the job took about 3-5hrs for me. I work slow and take many breaks.
Happy mowing and thanks again,
Wendy

Hey I do appreciate the 'how it went' description...
I think any problem that you put a bit of thought into will almost always work out...

The only exception I would have made is the bending of the belt guard tabs... You generally only get to bend a few times, then things crack... I would have tried the pulley removal and reapplied antiseize ... but then if it looked doable I may have gone the way you chose...
In any case, you did go with a superior belt ... So it should be a long time before it needs done again... :smile:KennyV

I wish I'd thought of that "bending the tabs" trick. I'd have left them bent out for the next belt change, but I can't really criticize your approach since your first attempt was several magnitudes more successful than mine. Nice work. :thumbsup:

I have read this entire thread and I was rolling in the floor laughing my butt off :laughing: at all you males, so much so I went to the trouble to set up a user account just to tell WENDY, YOU GO GIRL. You guys beating and cutting and banging and using pullers and bending pulleys and cussing at your mowers and this woman figured out a better way to fix her lawn trackor than you did. I just did it Wendys way and it took me 3 hours with blade replacement and no cussing. Except I used an adjustable 6" wrench to bend the tabs out of the way and I removed the tie rods for ease of access.

So everyone out there, don't remove the pulley, use a small adjustable wrench to bend the tabs away from the pulley to squeeze the belt on and I suggest removing the tie rods to make room for the adj. wrench movement. It is much easier that way. Good luck.

cutter1429 said:

I have read this entire thread and I was rolling in the floor laughing my butt off :laughing: at all you males, so much so I went to the trouble to set up a user account just to tell WENDY, YOU GO GIRL. ...

So everyone out there, don't remove the pulley, use a small adjustable wrench to bend the tabs away from the pulley to squeeze the belt on and I suggest removing the tie rods to make room for the adj. wrench movement. It is much easier that way. Good luck.

Click to expand...

WELCOME to LMF...

Glad you joined, regardless of the reason :thumbsup:...

Bending the belt guard, Tabs, Will work... but you know about bending things... That will weaken them, eventually they will break, but in the great scheme of things, I suppose it will be some time in the future, so you can get the job done now....

I'm all for removing things to get better access... but I will also try to work 'around' something that I might Not have to remove...
Thanks for joining & post back often... :smile:KennyV

Hi guys. This this thread was so dang helpful. Trust me guys like me who don't really know a whole lot about this stuff really appreciate all your help.

Now that me and my father in law have successfully replaced the drive belt the PTO won't engage the blades. I did have 1 successful mowing after replacement but during my 2nd mowing I had to get off the mower to pick up a stick so the safety switch killed the blades. When I went to engage the blades again they would not work. After inspection I can see loose wires near the bottom that connect to the PTO we pulled down last week. My question is the wires coming from the PTO are in a "sleeve" and when I squeeze it it feels empty. I havent had time to take the deck off again, I will this evening when I get home. I'm wondering if the wires got cut? Or just came loose? And if it should be a big problem finding the wires that were in that sleeve and reconnecting them. Thanks a ton guys

Sdot said:

...
...My question is the wires coming from the PTO are in a "sleeve" and when I squeeze it it feels empty. ...
I'm wondering if the wires got cut? Or just came loose? And if it should be a big problem finding the wires that were in that sleeve and reconnecting them. Thanks a ton guys

Click to expand...

WELCOME to LMF...
Those wires go to the field coil in the magnetic Clutch... There could be 2 (one is ground the other 12volts, hot)... or 1 wire (12 volts hot, ground in that case will be supplied by the mount)... Most have 2 wire...
There should be a 'plug' of some sorts where the wires connect to the mower wiring harness...
When you reconnect things insure that these wires are going to clear any moving parts & belts.... :smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

WELCOME to LMF...
Those wires go to the field coil in the magnetic Clutch... There could be 2 (one is ground the other 12volts, hot)... or 1 wire (12 volts hot, ground in that case will be supplied by the mount)... Most have 2 wire...
There should be a 'plug' of some sorts where the wires connect to the mower wiring harness...
When you reconnect things insure that these wires are going to clear any moving parts & belts.... :smile:KennyV

Click to expand...

Thanks Kenny. Yes this afternoon I had time to crawl under there and check it out. There is 2 wires. I couldnt tell which one was hot they both looked exactly the same. I hooked them back together because I wanted to see if the pulley would spin and it did. I had the deck off, but I wanted to see what could have cut the wires. Well when I shut the PTO off it rotates real fast half a turn backwards and when it does this it seperated the wires again.

Is the PTO supposed to rotate like that when you disengage the blades?
We obviously did something wrong installing the clutch after we had it off to put on a new drive belt, hopefully you can tell me what we did wrong. It is nice to know that with the wires connected the pulley spins. Just have to figure out how to stop it from pulling the wires apart when it shuts off

The wires have no particular polarity ... just need one hot and one ground.
The clutch housing should have an attachment point, usually a spring loaded clip or the like... It captures the outer case to prevent rotation... it should not be rigidly mounted, but rather captured to allow some self alignment but No rotation... look around it's perimeter, you will find the attachment point.
If you don't, click a couple pictures and post them... :smile:KennyV

KennyV said:

The wires have no particular polarity ... just need one hot and one ground.
The clutch housing should have an attachment point, usually a spring loaded clip or the like... It captures the outer case to prevent rotation... it should not be rigidly mounted, but rather captured to allow some self alignment but No rotation... look around it's perimeter, you will find the attachment point.
If you don't, click a couple pictures and post them... :smile:KennyV

Click to expand...

Can't thank you enough. Sorry for the noob questions. No dad around when I was young and I didnt learn crap!!! Lol.

Just to be clear the clutch housing should not rotate at all freely with my hands correct? I have the deck and belt off (obviously) so when I reach up to the housing to get to the seperated wires I should not be able to rotate it if it was installed properly?

Sounds like I'm gonna have to get that sucker loose again and look for the attachment point, then tighten the bolt again. Am I on the right track with this assumption? You the man!

It will not be firmly bolted but will Not rotate....
Here is a parts breakdown for your clutch: Parts and Diagrams for Cub Cadet LT1045 Tractor (2008 & after)
You will not have something connected to the outer shell of part number 20 or 21, depending what deck you have...
See the group of holes the line from #20 is lined up with... One or more of those holes should be the caging point on the clutch... When you find it, click & post a picture if you can.. :smile:KennyV

finally! got it working. here are some pics.. my model is older than 08 04/05 range.. in order to keep the housing from rotating/spinning when the blades disengage thus pulling apart the wires the housing needed to be resting up against a what i describe as a "brake" it's the yellow piece in the pic. once resting against the brake i reconncected the wires tested it out and everything is fine now..thanks a ton.

pic kinda sucks but hopefully you get the gist. hope this helps somebody else out down the road.

I just finished the same job on my 2006 LT1050 last night. It has about 850 hours on it, and this was the 2nd drive belt I've replaced in 6 years. First time, we just ground off all the tabs except for two. This time around, I was able to get the belt off and back on without even messing with the tabs. Used the rope down the cylinder trick since I don't own an impact wrench... worked like a champ - used quite a bit of rope. Just lowered the PTO enough to slide the new belt off the pulley -- I remember last time it took me at least an hour to get the PTO back on even though it's keyed and the shaft is grooved -- never did figure out why I had so much trouble with that, so I didn't remove it this time. I think it took me longer to disconnect the PTO electrical connection than to do anything else... that was a bear trying to separate the plastic plugs without breaking one side or the other. Replacing the drive belt is a nasty ugly job, but the 2nd time around I got it done in about 2 hours rather than 2 days like the first time!!!!

I break about 1 or 2 deck belts per season, and I can practically change those with my eyes closed... piece of cake! I always keep a spare deck belt on hand. I buy all my belts and parts online for about half of what the dealers and big box stores charge, too.

i have in the last month replace my drive belt on my LT1045 2008 worked fine but what i noticed after the 2nd time mowing i have a very bad viberation while mower is running with out the blades ingaged. I did not drop the pulley/clutch assm. i did it the tab bending way Now when i start the mower and look under neith the pully clutch assmebly viberates terriable my dad says run it my gut say no what happened what can i check for and yes the clutch is anorchored in to the belt guide bracket it is the whole thing feels and sounds like it is going to fly apart dont want to shap crank shaft, Please Help

got said:

i have in the last month replace my drive belt on my LT1045 2008 worked fine but what i noticed after the 2nd time mowing i have a very bad viberation while mower is running with out the blades ingaged. I did not drop the pulley/clutch assm. i did it the tab bending way Now when i start the mower and look under neith the pully clutch assmebly viberates terriable my dad says run it my gut say no what happened what can i check for and yes the clutch is anorchored in to the belt guide bracket it is the whole thing feels and sounds like it is going to fly apart dont want to shap crank shaft, Please Help

Click to expand...

That is why you dont bend stuff to make a job easier Ive worked on everything from lawn mowers to airplanes and you should never bend a guard out of the way just to make your job easier do it the right way or you will just tear stuff up. looking at it before I came here I was considering raising the engine or pulling the pulley due to those tabs. When you bent the tabs back you more than likely bend the pulley so now your going to have to go back in there and take the pulley off to change it anyway and you did twice the work now because of a shortcut.

LT1045wrh said:

The PTO connection wires were very difficult to disconnect. I kept working at the connection and it finally came apart.

Click to expand...

A U-shaped o-ring or seal pick works well for electrical connectors that are hard to reach.
Here is some examples.
McMaster-Carr

You can get a cheap set maybe from Harbor Freight or other places.
Made mostly to remove and install o-rings but the crooked ends often work well to pry up the locking tabs on electrical connectors.