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Guys would like to ask what is wrong with the mower speed seemed as is the belt was slipping. Finally I ordered a new belt and installed it today. Installed it, put mower deck back on and started it up. Initially I would mash reverse pedal and it would start moving in reverse, but push the pedal further and it did not move any faster. I let off the reverse pedal pushed the forward pedal and it started forward, pushed pedal further down and the forward speed did not increase. I repeated this 3-4 times then it stopped responding in either direction. no movement what so ever in any direction. Alll this was done at 1/2 to 3/4 throttle. I thought the belt had came off, shut engine down and removed the deck again to go underneath and see better. Everything was in order, all belt routing seemed to be in order. Now I am at a standstill pondering what might be amiss. Looked my belt # up on the John Deere site and the old belt has the same # on it. So it seems I have proper length. I jacked back of mower up and started it up and looked underneath the belt is not turning where it goes around engine pulley. Reached up and pushed forward pedal and the belt was still a little too loose to turn on the engine pulley. According to the belt routing someone posted here I have the belt around the pulleys correctly. Any ideas or can nI adjust the slack?

Somewhere your belt is not seating in the pulley right. Did you check the tension spring? Is it in the right place to give the tension you need to pull the idler pulleys against the belt? Is the pulley bracket moving freely?

Gfp55 thank-you for the reply. I called myself looking closely at the belt seating at each pulley, thought it was okay. The idler pulleys seem to be free wheeling enough when the belt was off. The tension spring is in the correct place. That spring is very dangerous. When I removed the 1st time it shot backwards. Very dangerous, John Deere mechanics must have a special tool to stretch it that far and not let it slip off. I hooked it at the front 1st and then used a brake spring installer to stretch it as far as I did. Even then it was 2'' short. I devised another way to grab ahold of the end of the rear of the spring to be able to take it the other 1 1/2- 2'' and hook it where it was originally. According to diagrams I saw on the John Deere site the left side of the belt ( drivers left arm side) goes around motor pulley and is routed rearward about 12'' and goes around that pulley between edge of frame. That pulley has a convex washer about 1/4 - 5/16th thick that the tension spring is attached to. This edge of the belt the runs Straight to the transaxle pulley, circling it, then is routed around outside edge of 1st pulley then immediately makes a turn around the outside edge of the second pulley making a "S" shape then it runs straight to engine pulley. Hard to define routing but I believe you got the idea. The front of the transaxle has 2 mounts hanging down from the frame, around 1" wide 1/8th" thick and 3-4" long. The passenger side 1 is broken at the bottom bend. BUT it seems tobe ridged still.

Gfp55 if the belt was not seated down in the pulleys it seems it would make the belt a shade tighter. I have something not quite right. I can jack it up, crank engine, lay down and observe and push reverse pedal and belt is not turning on engine pulley. I can use a slight pressure against belt with fingernail and it will try and turn some. Do not understand why it kinda acted correctly when I 1st installed and pushed pedals those 3&4 times and then Nothing. 1 thing I HAVE NOT mentioned is, on passenger side looking between the rear wheel and body is a shock looking thing that is attached to the body. The attachment stud is perhaps 2" long. The nut holding it to the frame had been lost previously my ownership. It was a M8X1.75. I had tried the new belt and experienced that bad goings on before I remembered the nut was missing on the shock. Went to Home Depot bought the nut and installed, didn't make any difference.

Can you snap a picture of the nut you are talking about? Is there a spring under the nut?

Gfp55 there is no spring located around this nut I referred to as being missing. I will try and take a picture of what I referred to earlier about the shock and attachment spindle or bolt whichever it is called and will take a picture of the routing of the belt. Will have to figure out how to post the picture though. can you or someone tell me how to post pictures here? I think I can do it e-mail but have never done so on a forum. I know that would be the best way to show what I have done.

One more thing why is the time when I post so far off? Just looked back at my previous post time and it is 5 hrs. Off from my time in Louisiana.

Rls8836 said:

Gfp55 there is no spring located around this nut I referred to as being missing. I will try and take a picture of what I referred to earlier about the shock and attachment spindle or bolt whichever it is called and will take a picture of the routing of the belt. Will have to figure out how to post the picture though. can you or someone tell me how to post pictures here? I think I can do it e-mail but have never done so on a forum. I know that would be the best way to show what I have done.

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When you want to post a picture, click on reply to thread, in the upper part of reply box there is a small picture of a paper clip, click on the paper clip and follow the prompts to load pictures.

Gfp55 found my problem with the belt. Stupid me did not see that the 2 idler pulleys on passenger side that 1 of them is mounted in a sliding slot for tightening the drive belt. I adjusted that and the mower will pull very good now. No one had pointed this out to me and even in John Deere diagrams it shows it but I did not SEE it. So gfp55 I appreciate your help made me think about it a little more. I went outside this morning laying under the mower double checking it again. Loosened the nut on that pulley and noticed it was sliding Boom it hit me. I was browsing this forum and see several people have posted about this same problem. I hope they read this and learn from me.

Now I would like to know gfp55 if you know of a glue I can use for the gas tank? Mine is seeping at the top rt. Rearward side. I saw this back in May and removed the tank and cleaned it out, and used JB Weld on the seam and thought it held, it did not. Today I went to Oreillys and bought some epoxy two-part glue for plastic getting ready to apply it. Read on the back of the box and it says not for polyurethane plastics. Any recommendation Thanks for yourhelp

Rls8836 said:

Gfp55 found my problem with the belt. Stupid me did not see that the 2 idler pulleys on passenger side that 1 of them is mounted in a sliding slot for tightening the drive belt. I adjusted that and the mower will pull very good now. No one had pointed this out to me and even in John Deere diagrams it shows it but I did not SEE it. So gfp55 I appreciate your help made me think about it a little more. I went outside this morning laying under the mower double checking it again. Loosened the nut on that pulley and noticed it was sliding Boom it hit me. I was browsing this forum and see several people have posted about this same problem. I hope they read this and learn from me.

Now I would like to know gfp55 if you know of a glue I can use for the gas tank? Mine is seeping at the top rt. Rearward side. I saw this back in May and removed the tank and cleaned it out, and used JB Weld on the seam and thought it held, it did not. Today I went to Oreillys and bought some epoxy two-part glue for plastic getting ready to apply it. Read on the back of the box and it says not for polyurethane plastics. Any recommendation Thanks for yourhelp

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Good for you, I'm glad you found the problem with your belt. That's good to hear.
I have only done patch work with JB weld. Did you rough up the area around the spot you are trying to patch. I always use like 80 grit sandpaper or emery cloth to rough up the surface about one and a half inches around the leaking area so the JB weld can grab the plastic. JB weld will work better if it can stick to a rough surface as opposed to a shiny or smooth slick surface, if you get my meaning. Let me know how things work out with your tank fix whatever way you do it. Good luck Rls8836 . Best Regards

Wow, 2 different threads!