OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Rover Ride On Mower MTD Rover Raider 1438 cutter deck belt tension

I have a customer's MTD Rover Raider 1438 ride on mower that keeps chewing the deck belts every week.

The customer has gone over to using the standard black dairy vacuum pump A section belts to save costs, but has found they shred in about 15-30 minutes when mowing 3" tall cape weed.

I ordered in a Kevlar belt from GA Spares that replaces the MTD/Kioti Daedong part number for this mower, but the tensioner doesn't apply enough pressure and causes the belt to squeal when engaged without even cutting anything.

The tensioner is basically a cable from the lever to a spring attached to the engagement arm with the idler pulley to apply the tension to the belt. When the lever is moved to the engaged position, it applies some tension but not enough to prevent it slipping.

Does anyone know if there is provision to adjust the cable at the lever and if so, do I have to take out the transmission to get to it? The easiest way would be to take the angle grinder to the battery box, but I don't want to go on that route!

I'll take some photos tomorrow and upload them to help clarify the situation.

Here's the link to the owners manual: http://www.rover.com.au/files/edito...1438%20&%201842%20Lawn%20Tractor.pdf

Hi LRT,

Have you checked the pulley bearings (idler and spindles)as they could have a flat spot and jamming causing the squealing. I have found this to be an issue in the past and some times hard to find.

Let us know what you find?

Thanks Bruce, I'll have a look.

I bypassed the seat safety switch and ran the mower with the cutter drive engaged so I could watch and LH cutter drive pulley wobbles, so I'll have to strip it down to investigate. No doubt the shaft has bent as it is a very flimsy design.

However, with the cutter drive engaged (and the engine off of course!), I can turn the pulley using a pocket balance, which indicates 3kg of force to turn it.

This seems way to loose and the mower shouldn't have lost adjustment as it's hardly had any use.

Here are the pictures:



See how loose the belt is when engaged


I love the design!
The lift rod rubs on the transmission belt and the pulley is crooked�


The hole for the brake spring is too close�


The tab on the idler pulley needed bending out to stop the belt dragging�

Yep, that is about the way they are, flimsy design and everything is so tight in there and the belts will always seem to rub on something. As for the spindles, I find it hard to believe that some numnutter designed something that is known to be going to suffer impacts over the years and yet they design the things to fail, but people still go out and buy this rubbish because it looks good in the showroom

I think this would be the best solution to modifying it!



However, it's not my mower and I'm meant to be able to fix it even if the dealer doesn't want to.

Dealers don't want to fix that stuff because they know just how difficult and frustrating the are to repair, we are just the mugs people come to to see if they can con you into repairing this stuff, knowing full well you are not able to charge them anywhere the hours you end up spending working on them. They would have a heart attack if you did that

You're spot on! I've already spent 2 days on this thing without any result. That is 16 + hours of time I could have used elsewhere.

Sadly outdoor power equipment is no longer a worth the time and effort. If we still had import restrictions and a local content requirement I'm sure things would be different.

I'm thinking of swinging over to the smaller mobile plant such as the bigger zero turn mowers and mini skid steers as they are worth repairing.

Not being smart .....check the routing of the belt ie: how it goes around the pulleys. It will only work properly if belt is correctly fitted.
Also check how the belt travels around the pulleys when the deck is in its lowest position with the blades engaged (engine off), often the movable pulley is skew allowing the belt to run up the rim of the pulley.
last thing, throw the mulch plug, if fitted, in the bin.
I hate the bloody things
Good luck, let us know how you go.

Ps check the operator engages the belt engagement slowly as quick engagement can cause problems as the belt battles to get the blades up to speed quickly. This is the biggest cause of standard belts dying quickly. They are not designed to slip to allow bade engagement under load.

Thanks Dieselboy. I have routed the belt as per the illustration in the owners manual.

I have noticed the belt tensions more the higher the deck is raised. I tried putting a wider B section belt on to see what would happen and the belt slipped when the deck was down low but when raised fully the belt was so tight it didn't disengage and overloaded the starter motor.

Yes the mulch plug is long gone

Thanks for the tip about loading the belt slowly. I'll have to check to see what he does.

There is rubber sprayed around the pulleys and the steel pulleys had a layer of rubber on them. I gather this means the belt has been slipping.

The old belt looks glazed and has been sliced through on an angle as though someone cut it. On the John Deere mowers, I find the black belts usually break up in chunks.

The B section belt definitely won't work.

The belt been sliced at an angle indicates the belt is running on the rim of a pulley , the glazed look can be normal on a correctly installed belt.
Check belt pulley alignment - should be as straight as posible
Belts tend to lose chunks if they fail, slipping creates polished belts and pulleys - think smooth pulleys rubbing at high speed on the belt.
Rubber shavings indicate a shredding cutting action OR a normal vee-belt been used where a wrapped belt is indicated.
Imagine the engine doing 3300 rpm trying to get heavy stationary blades up to speed in a fraction of a second. The wrapped belt will allow the slip necessary to accelerate the blades without damage to the belt.

Lastly check there is nothing (stick,stone,seed, nut etc) lodged in a pulley vee - don't ask me how I know

Cheers. Have a great weekend

The LH cutter drive pulley has a wobble so I'll have to see what's going on there, the idler pulley was facing down on the engine side so is probably the cause of the belt cutting.

The mower should have a wrapped belt but the owner changed to the black ones as he was sick of spending $40 just to cut the lawn each week.

Looking at the belt with the tensioner engaged, it doesn't look as tight as say a an older cars fan belt but bulges out behind the pulleys when you turn the engine by hand.

Whereas on my 2002 Viking mower that I have had new, the belt is twice as tight when engaged and has only gone through one wrapped belt before the engine wore out. However, the idler pulley is double the width, which no doubt allows it to move without getting sliced.

Anyone know how to upload a video clip other than a YouTube link?

Here are a couple of pictures of the sliced belt that was on the mower when it came to me:



Notice it has been tapered on both sides.

Here is the belt routing taken from the owners manual:

Hi
Looks like that belt has been the victim of a seized pulley or or obstructed blade, it is worn away not sliced. The wear is on the inside indicating a vee pulley issue and not an idler pulley or guide issue.
I've found the easiest way to get belt tension improved is to order a belt one or two inches shorter than specified eg A 81 or A 82 instead of an A84 as an example.
Ensure the guides around the crank pulley are close, almost touching the pulley to prevent the belt dropping down and been worn on the shoulder of the pulley.
They can be millimetres away because the slack occurs on the front of the pulley furthest from the deck to cease drive transmission to the blades.
Hope my waffle all makes sense!

Thanks. It looks like the bent LH pulley is the cause. I'll take the deck off again and see what's happened.

One last thing to check is that no pulley has a shiny valley bottom ie. The belt is not engaging the taper on the pulley sides but ineffectively bottoming out.

The drive pulley looks ok but the cutter pulley looks very close to bottoming out.

Circumstances have changed this week so I won't be able to get to it until later this week or early next week and the computer's hard drive failed today so I'm trying to clone the drive and hopefully recover most of my files. I wish I backed it up!