Wildcat Drive Belt Transmission Belt Install

[ottoslanding]

In a while I'm going to get my machine out of the trailer to do a small part of my lawn that has a bunch of leaves. I'll take a pic of the drive belt area under the seat and post it here. You Wildcat is the same basic machine as my Tiger Cub but with several upgrades, seat, levers, fuel tanks, different engine.
Mad Mackie in CT

Pics of mine. Note spring attached to rear of bracket.

 

[Mad Mackie]

Hi ottoslanding,
Here are the pics on mine.
Looks the same as yours. There is the next hole to move the bolt into which will tighten the spring more. Notice the spacer on the spring tension bolt. Yours has it also, but this spaced doesn't show up in the parts manual.
In pic 003, notice the flat washer under the nut for the large pulley. I put a slightly longer bolt and a flat washer under the nut as it was moving causing some wobble.
I installed a ground cable on the spring mount aft hole.
Mad Mackie in CT

 

[Mad Mackie]

Aftermarket belt too long???
Mad Mackie in CT

 

[ottoslanding]

Aftermarket belt too long???
Mad Mackie in CT

I don't know. Should know by the end of this next week. The dimensions on the sales site matched the length of my old belt.

Maybe my drive belt will only last 250 hours?

Where does the 400 hour number come from?

:confused2:


:licking:


:cool2:

 

[ottoslanding]

Hi ottoslanding,

I installed a ground cable on the spring mount aft hole.
Mad Mackie in CT

What is the ground cable for?

:confused3:

 

[Mad Mackie]

Hi ottoslanding,
The battery ground cable is connected to one of the engine mount bolts and sometimes that is not a great grounding point, so I add another cable to ground the battery to the machine frame at some point. I've done this on lots of machines over the years.
I have read in Scag literature somewhere that the pump drive belt has a recommended replacement interval of 400 hours, but I don't remember where I read this.
I was under the impression that you had the new drive belt as you were discussing the tensioner spring and positions.
Mad Mackie in CT

 

[ottoslanding]

Hi ottoslanding,
The battery ground cable is connected to one of the engine mount bolts and sometimes that is not a great grounding point, so I add another cable to ground the battery to the machine frame at some point. I've done this on lots of machines over the years.
I have read in Scag literature somewhere that the pump drive belt has a recommended replacement interval of 400 hours, but I don't remember where I read this.
I was under the impression that you had the new drive belt as you were discussing the tensioner spring and positions.
Mad Mackie in CT

:thumbsup:


Belt is in the usps system somewhere between here and NY. I've just been trying to find anything that would make that belt wear twisted like it did.

Maybe I'll know more when I get the belt on and can run the machine to see how the belt tracks. May have to adjust the tensioner by changing that spring hook up location and moving the bolt forward.

:confused3:

 

[ottoslanding]

:thumbsup:


Belt is in the usps system somewhere between here and NY. I've just been trying to find anything that would make that belt wear twisted like it did.

Maybe I'll know more when I get the belt on and can run the machine to see how the belt tracks. May have to adjust the tensioner by changing that spring hook up location and moving the bolt forward.

:confused3:

:dance1:

:banana:

:thumbsup:


Belt arrived and I put it on by myself. Had to detension the belt for the cutters and remove it from the engine pulley so I could get the drive belt above it. With only one set of hands I used a few strips blue painters tape on each to hold the belts on the main pulleys. When I needed to make the final belt routing around the tensioner pulley, I used the 1/2" breaker bar to move the tensioner arm and then wedged the end of a wood 2 x 4 in the tensioner arm. Routed the belt, secured it with a strip of tape, and removed the 2 x 4 and released the tensioner and the belt was secured. Removed all the tape. Started things up and the belt seemed to be tracking fine.

Mowed the yard today and everything seemed to work fine. Will be interesting to see if the belt wears prematurely but right now it seems fine.

Thanks for all the help!!

:cool2:

 

[Mad Mackie]

Hi ottoslanding,
That is good!!
Inspect it periodically. As for the tension, if the new drive belt is the correct dimension, there should be no problem.
Mad Mackie in CT:laughing::biggrin::smile: