Well, its been a month since I brought my mower in to have the belts replaced. The mechanic has been able to replace two out of the three. His problem is with the lower ground drive belt. He says he ordered the belt and has found it to be too think. Thus, since it's too thick its affected the the brakes. When trying to come to a stop the brake hardly stops the mower or doesn't stop at all. He says he needs narrower belt in order to make the brakes work. He had talked with TroyBilt and the contend that the belt is the correct one. That said, is the mechanic missing something here? In the past I've had the upper belts replaced without incident by a former company. Now all of a sudden the mechanic has run into a problem with this middle drive belt. Any help or answers would be greatly appreciated.
TroyBilt TB30R Ground Drive Belt
- Thread starter jimshoe52
- Start date
It's 13B226JD066
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2020
- Threads
- 93
- Messages
- 11,589
Is the tech using OEM belt or after market? MTD use unique belts in their drive systems.
That's correct but my mechanic is saying the lower drive belt is to wide or thick and it causes the brakes not to work. The mechanic talked to TroyBilt and they told him that that was the correct belt. That said, could the mechanic be missing something here? I haven't heard or ran into this problem when I was taking my mower to another mechanic. I simply thought I'd try this new out but I'm now more apprehensive thinking I've made a mistake.
Your mechanic needs to learn that when you replace the belts on these units you must loosen the variable speed assembly which will allow enough space to get the belt on. He has no idea of how to do this simple change.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2020
- Threads
- 93
- Messages
- 11,589
The 954-04331 is a 5L x 35.25" v-belt.
5L belt top width is 21/32" with a thickness of 3/8". The mechanic is probably trying to install an after market "B" which is 21/32 top width with a thickness of 7/16". The machine will pull through using a "B" belt. BTW they consider 21/32" as a 5/8" belt but 5/8" is actually 20/32".
I believe the mechanic is referring to .that the mower is pulling through brakes when they are applied and I had other MTD to come in the shop doing the same thing where the owner had install a "B" belt. They get pissed when I change and charge for the correct belt. Of they get the "B" back to whatever they want to do with it.
Another problem with so called OEM after market replacement belts is that they may be shorter than the belt sleeve indicates
It is hard to get it through to new mechanics that MTD CVT system is very very picky about which belts that will work.
5L belt top width is 21/32" with a thickness of 3/8". The mechanic is probably trying to install an after market "B" which is 21/32 top width with a thickness of 7/16". The machine will pull through using a "B" belt. BTW they consider 21/32" as a 5/8" belt but 5/8" is actually 20/32".
I believe the mechanic is referring to .that the mower is pulling through brakes when they are applied and I had other MTD to come in the shop doing the same thing where the owner had install a "B" belt. They get pissed when I change and charge for the correct belt. Of they get the "B" back to whatever they want to do with it.
Another problem with so called OEM after market replacement belts is that they may be shorter than the belt sleeve indicates
It is hard to get it through to new mechanics that MTD CVT system is very very picky about which belts that will work.
Well, this sounds encouraging. I passed it along to the company that's doing the work. I think also, that this company sells a primary brand of equipment and I'm not their Prime Customer who bought from (my ignorance) so I keep getting pushed to the back of the line. Maybe I'm wrong but I'm on my 5th week now. Oh the humanity, why didn't I stick with the people that used to work on my machine. Tough lesson, never again. Thanks again for your help everybody.
Well folks, I appreciate your input. I ended up going to my previous mechanic. Should've done that to begin with. He said it was the right belt but the other mechanic didn't how to adjust it for the right outcome. Case closed, lesson learned.