Transmission has little power

[skipper124]

I'm thinking that's it too. I should have got the factory right from the start. Lesson learned!

 

[TobyU]

Well I tightened the pulley nut with the impact and reinstalled with a new upper belt. The old one was pretty worn out looking. The lower belt was in good shape so I didn't replace it. The variator moves freely up and down. I noticed the new belt looks just a tad bit bigger in diameter. I also noticed the variator assembly spring was easier to move into place than it was with the old belt. I didn't notice until after I had it installed the belt numbers were upside down. I don't know if that would make a difference. It won't move until it's in 5th gear then it takes off. While in the lower gears it will lerch a little but not move until it hits 5th gear. I used the part number for the upper belt given in an earlier post but I didn't get an MTD OEM belt. Any ideas?

You are simply wasting your time if you don't put two brand new MTD brand belts on the machine!
I have seen too many instances where an old belt looked great but when a new belt was put with it and they were mismatched like that it had a bad chattering or roughness when you tried to smoothly engage the speed and it also had a very low top speed or they wouldn't pull hills.
I learned a long time ago not to try to cheat even if a belt looks good and NEVER use any other brand belts even when they say they will fit.
No one seems to be able to get the actual cut and the thickness just right because you'll notice they are not a traditional shaped v belt.

 

[skipper124]

I can't remember if the bottom belt is factory or not. I got them from Lowes many years ago so they should have been. I ordered an exact fit MTD OEM top belt and will put it on and see what happens. If that don't work I'll go with the OEM bottom belt. Then if that still don't fix it I'm out of ideas.

 

[StarTech]

I can't remember if the bottom belt is factory or not. I got them from Lowes many years ago so they should have been. I ordered an exact fit MTD OEM top belt and will put it on and see what happens. If that don't work I'll go with the OEM bottom belt. Then if that still don't fix it I'm out of ideas.

If it has been that long then the belt is probably worn out too.

But as said before use only OEM belts on MTD CVT systems. Most aftermarket belts are "B" or 5/8 belts that simply don't work correctly. I even had companies trying sub a 1/2 belt or 7/16 belt on Cub Cadet riders. Again don't work.

 

[skipper124]

I will do that. I learned a lot from this. Thanks for all the help.

 

[MowerNick]

Try resetting the vari pulley like i explained earlier it usually fixes that issue

 

[skipper124]

Great news folks, hallelujah I think I got it fixed! I put the MTD OEM exact fit on the top and it will pull any hill in any gear now. So now that I got that fixed i noticed another problem crop up. The deck is making a funny noise and smoking. I noticed the stabilizer bar is not fully down in the slot on the deck. Once I get that fixed I hope it takes care of that problem.

 

[TobyU]

Great news folks, hallelujah I think I got it fixed! I put the MTD OEM exact fit on the top and it will pull any hill in any gear now. So now that I got that fixed i noticed another problem crop up. The deck is making a funny noise and smoking. I noticed the stabilizer bar is not fully down in the slot on the deck. Once I get that fixed I hope it takes care of that problem.

See, this is why I was so adamant and repeated myself many times and I tell everyone in this situation too ONLY USE GENUINE MTD BELTS AND ALWAYS REPLACE THEM BOTH AT THE SAME TIME!
My exact words are always that if you do not do this you are likely to have a chattery jerky pedal and or speed application and you won't get nearly the top speed you should and it probably won't pull hills.
You probably just lucked out by only having to replace the top belt because I think you just did the other belt more recently but even if a belt has been on for a week or two or anything over one or two Mo's I don't recommend leaving them on because when things aren't working properly it tends to wear that belt at a weird angle and stuff.

 

[TobyU]

Great news folks, hallelujah I think I got it fixed! I put the MTD OEM exact fit on the top and it will pull any hill in any gear now. So now that I got that fixed i noticed another problem crop up. The deck is making a funny noise and smoking. I noticed the stabilizer bar is not fully down in the slot on the deck. Once I get that fixed I hope it takes care of that problem.

On the deck problem, I'm not sure what you mean by the stabilizer bar being all the way down unless you're talking about the front one that it hangs from but it seems to me if it's smoking something is either missed routed on the belt or something has too much friction and doesn't want to turn.
The first thing I do is take the belt off or at least off of one pulley and then engage The blade cutting lever if it's lever activated and then make sure you can turn both blades spindles and all the other pulleys freely.
Sometimes a blade picks up a rock or a clump of dirt or something and wedges it between the deck and the blade and locks up and sometimes your bearings go on the pulleys etc.
Then make absolutely sure that the belt is routed properly otherwise it's going to smoke and wear out the belt even if things move freely enough.

 

[skipper124]

I also noticed the belt guard was in the wrong hole. There are two holes close together on the frame and last time I took off the deck I must have put it back in the wrong hole (I had to chuckle after writing that) I looked at the parts diagram and stuck it in the hole it showed on the chart. That seemed to fix it.