Farmall Cub

I have a standard 4ft belly mower on my cub. In one of the discussions from the last week someone mentioned that the belt should be kept tight. Took a look at mine and tightened it up. I now get less vibration from the belt, but seems to have put a lot more load on the tractor. Is there a good way to know if I have overtightened it??? How do you measure it.

Also - started hearing some clicking from the backend. Remembered someone saying check all of the tire and rim bolts. I did and sure enough a couple of the rim bolts were hand tight. Tightened them all up and no more clicking. I was afraid it was coming from the tranny and was getting up the nerve to tear into it. Thanks again for all of the help and experience from this board

Malcolm, the rule of thumb I have always gone by is that you should be able to deflect the belt 1" laterally for every 12" of distance between 2 pulleys. That is, if 2 pulleys were 3 feet apart center to center, you should be able to deflect the belt 3" from a straight line at the mid point between them. This is something my dad taught me years ago and it has always worked for me.