I was mowing one day recently when I had to stop repeatedly to put the belt back on, it kept popping off the PTO and leaving pieces of itself all over the mower, as seen in:
I managed to get both the back and the front yard cut in my wife's absence (she usually mows the front with a self-propelled mulching mower, while I use the 149 on the back yard). I thought to myself, "You know I ought to get a belt coming from Cub Cadet Specialties because it won't be long before the grass needs mowing again." Did I do this, of course not, that would be too easy! Instead, I wait until I'm driving up the eastern seaboard before I call Charlie on a Friday afternoon . . ..
I ask Charlie why the belt might suddenly be coming apart after serving me faithfully for at least three years (probably five or six the way my memory runs these days). Anyway, Charlie immediately opined that the pulleys weren't allowing the belt to run true, and that they likely needed adjustment. I mentioned that I had recently installed a new carriage and mule drive in an attempt to get the deck to cut more like my wife's self-propelled mower. He added that I might want to check the alignment front-to-back as well as the angle of the pulleys up front. I asked him if he thought the belt tension might be a factor, since I had noticed that the spring didn't seem as stiff on the "new" mule drive as on my New Old Stock unit. He didn't seem to think it would be much of a factor.
The following shots were snapped before the old belt was removed:
Finally, a shot of the New Old Stock mule drive that I removed in order to install the "new" carriage which would lower the cutting height of the deck.
(Note that the sticker is on upside-down, it took me a while to figure out that it wouldn't fit on the 782 for which I originally purchased it, but it fit the 149 perfectly, and I did not have any belt issues with it --a first for me!)
I will now pause my tale to include a bit of prehistory. The 782, like many 82 series tractors I'm told, did not allow the user to raise the deck very high. The remedy to this condition, suggested by this forum was to bend the rear arm of the carriage slightly in order to raise the front lifting arms. Many long-time forum users are familiar with the following photograph:
I had erred, by taking the "bending of the pickle fork" to be a "de rigueur" modification which "those in the know" performed to all their carriages. I just wasn't thinking. I was fixing a problem I didn't have. (I will state, however, that I managed to bend the arm with only the aid of a blue-bottle propane torch!)
The result was a deck which was able to cut pretty high, alright, but was not able to get "down low" no matter how hard I tried. The situation led to marital strife (doesn't every situation?). My wife likes to cut the grass 1-1/2" high, I prefer 2-1/2" or even 3." No matter how many expert write-ups I show her, she remains unconvinced that the shorter the grass is cut the less often it will need to be cut. I maintain, with the experts behind me, that no more than 1/3 of the blade length should be cut at a time, and that 2" to 2-1/2" is the recommended height for lawns with centipede, zozia, and bermuda, while fescue can be even higher.
Leaving that all aside, I just wanted to be able to use the riding mower on the front so my wife wouldn't HAVE to push it. I can no longer push a mower around the yard (feet, back, knees --take your pick), I thought that changing out the carriage to one that I had NOT modified would bring the deck back down to where it could be set at the "required" 1-1/2" if need be.
Consequently, I was faced with a dilemma: should I drag out a stock carriage and swap it into my New Old Stock mule drive, or just change out the whole thing --mule drive, carriage and all? The "total swap" seemed easier at the time, and after briefly examining the pulleys to see if they turned freely and were "straight" I bolted it up and mowed the back yard (1/2 acre) about three times before the belt distintigrated (see above).
I put the new belt on and tried to see if Charlie was right. Looking at the angle of the pulleys, I decided that the one on the right, as I was looking in from the front of the tractor, the one with the adjustment rod attached, was decidedly off. It was angled too far "in" such that it would scrub the belt on exit. The one of the left, nearest the spring, with the ratchet handle, seemed to be OK for now. I devoted my initial energy to the "adjusted" side.
Note too, how slack the belt seems in the second photo immediately above. Something really wasn't right with the belt tension. I know I've always been told to "make sure they're even," but the sticker on the front also clearly shows the "initial adjustment" to be at the first, or larger, "notch" on the ratchet handle. Mine was back so far that neither notch was showing. The first thing I did was add a 1/4" pipe nipple 3" long so that the belt was properly tensioned, see below:
