Mower Belt jumping off?

[flyawa]

Need the advice of a cub mower expert.

I've got a woods 59 ( I think) It has been mowing very well up till the last 20 minutes of the last time I used it. It began throwing off the belt in about 10 feet of mowing. Put it back on and it just throws it off again. I can't see that anything has changed as to pulley alignment etc. Tensions seem about right. It is just the long drive belt. The two short belts function as normal.

Gurus - what gives?

Thanks in advance.

Dave

[awander]

My Woods 59 has only one, very long, belt. SO I'm not usre if you have another variation of the Woods 59, or if you have another beast entirely.

Sometimes when a bearing fails it will allow a pulley to move sideways, and still hold it all together and let it look as if nothing changed.

Also, the right angle pulleys on my 59 can slide in their slots a little if they are notreally tight.

[Mike in Louisiana]

Dave,

If every thing is lined up correctly, the CORD in the blet is
probably broken and it will not syay on.

Mike

[Farley]

I had the same problem, flyawa, with the belt jumping off with nothing else being changed. I spoke with Ken at C&G and he suggested that a new belt would probably fix the problem. He was correct! I ordered a new belt and sure enough it fixed the belt jumping off problem. I think the cords internal to the belt either break or stretch and allow the belt to jump off. The belt and pulleys all looked fine even though it started jumping off.

Thanks.
Farley

[Bigdog]

The guys have steered you right. The belt has internal cords for strength just like a tire. When a belt gets thrown off a pulley the cords stretch, often to the point of breaking as the belt rides over the lip of the pulley. Once that happens the belt will no longer track true. Just like a tire with broken cords. It is not always visible to the eye but the belt is ruined. That is why when a belt comes off, you should loosen the idlers, place the belt on the pulleys and then tighten the idlers. Never run the belt up over the lip of the pulley when installing a new belt.

[Merlin]

All of this is the very best advice there is. Just buy a new belt and I think your problem will be solved. In a pinch with just a very small amount to cut, I have raised the mower as high as it will go and put the belt on and when you let it down it will tighten the belt. But this is not to be construed as the all time fix, because it isn't.

[flyawa]

Thanks guys,

As usual you come through for us all.

After reading the replies I went and examined the belt more carefully after taking it off. It is indeed twisted in a way that would indicate an internal failure of some sort.

I'll get a new one and will let you know if it did the trick.

Thanks again.


Dave

[flyawa]

Got the new belt on.

no more jumping off the pulleys.

Yipee!!




Thanks, guys.

Dave

[SundaySailor]

I've always heard that when a mower belt - (drive belt for the tranny, actual mower belt no matter what brand of mower it is), once it jumps there is very little chance it can be reused. This certainly isn't etched into stone by any means. I purchased a mower drive belt for my Simplicity garden tractor, and it was defective right out of the box! It almost drove me crazy until I purchased yet another belt, and the problems went away. My thinking is that either the other belt was defective from the factory, or it had been put on another mower and caused problems there too and was resold as "new" to me. Pfffffffttttttt! I certainly learned a lesson though. If it looks old off the shelf, question it right up front.

[Bigdog]

Also, sometimes, on a rare occasion, I have been able to turn a belt over and run it the opposite direction and it would run for a significant while longer.

[SundaySailor]

Bigdog: That is good to know. Appreciate you pointing that out.