Cub Cadet Z-Force

[SONNY]

Ended up with this thing from an auction a while back. Problem is that it eats belts like candy! anybody have one or ideas of what might be wrong? Checked pulley alignments and all seam o.k.
Also I had to get rid of the racing slicks off the back and put some meat eaters on there to get around. It goes most places now but still NOT like my Sunstar 20 does! -- it takes me 8 hours to mow what the Sunstar takes 20 hours to mow! --- UNREAL! lol! 22 hp B & S twin motor,--48" deck and it modocks IF you can hang on!
Also got a cub cadet sp bagger mower with it!

[Eugene]

Check spindle bearings.

[outdoors4evr]

Better start checking the idler pulley's. Maybe one has lost its bearings and is now mis-aligned.

[CharlieK]

Better start checking the idler pulley's. Maybe one has lost its bearings and is now mis-aligned.

took my cub cadet zero turn to the shop this am---6 to 7 weeks wait time to even look at it for broken idler pulley belt...

[SONNY]

Pulleys and bearings all tight, -- had the whole deck apart and cleaned it. --- somebody had just put new idler pulleys on it, so it has had this problem probably since new! --- Had 460 hours on it when I drove it off the truck. First belt ran 28 hours then exploaded. --- didnt have a belt on it when I bought it either and they stated it would need one!---- hmmmm,--shoulda walked away! LOL!

[SONNY]

Put the new belt on and re-adjusted mounts, ran for half hour,---- belt gets HOT again! --- cant loosen it any because the tightner is automatic spring loaded. Deck looks fairly level at a higher cutting height. I cant figure why it gets hot so fast. My weed mower dont,--- Sunstar belts stay cold for hours before they get a little warm. cant figure this out! Time to advertise it?????????????????????

[Dale Finch]

Just curious (and maybe you already confirmed this), have you made sure all your pullies and spindles are turning freely with no drag? Seems that if one is frozen, the friction could be causing this.

[Rick Spivey]

Just a thought, seems too new, but wonder if anyone changed the tensioner spring for one with too much tension? Other than that, I'm left thinking it is either alignment or drag, as mentioned in other posts.

[birddog]

Another thought. If the idler pulley's were changed are they the right size. Is the belt the correct length? Some times parts books aren't 100% accurate and if it's an after market belt, sometimes close to the same length is good enough for them.

[SONNY]

tension spring looks to be same yellow as the deck, tried runnin with it unhooked and belt still heats up. The design of this mower sucks for sure!
If you run a line down both pulleys they are parallel BUT on a different level. Deck pulley is a couple inches or more lower than motor pulley. ( kinda hard to x'plain) but the idler pulleys dont compensate for that angle change that I can see.
I think the belt is being forced to run too hard on the top side of the deck pulley and on the bottom side of the motor pulley.
Had a couple mower guys look at it and their words were,---- IT'S JUNK! dump it! they were no help so back to square one to figure it out.
It has a VERY poor way to adjust the deck to motor angle and I think that is where most of the problem is. When deck is down, the front needs to be pointed more towards the ground and the back higher. Cant angle the back of the motor cause then the hydro belts wont work!

[SONNY]

tag #'s off the mower. NOW they tell me it's NOT IH or Cub Cadet but MTD!! That being the case no wonder its a junk mower!! Anyway I got too much in it so still gotta fix it somehow!

Factory # 53AA5A7M710
Serial # 0D284Z00005
Item # 01009448
UPC code 043033528745
From more research, these were a BIG problem right from the factory!! --- gotta be a fix for them somehow,--well other than the crusher!

[outdoors4evr]

Maybe it would be worth while to "fix" the design. If the motor pulley is too high, perhaps bolting or welding a new pulley below the old pulley would drop it down by an inch or two. (or remove the pulley, cut the shaft, and extend it down an inch or two)

Also, make certain the belt routing is exactly per the design. Sometimes they can be mis-routed around the tensioner and idler pulleys that cause it to work, but be too tight or rub on a nearby component.

There may be a brake that stops the mower deck belt when the mower is not engaged. Is the brake functional or is it not moving away (and just worn in) when the deck is engaged?

[SONNY]

No blade brake on this model. Electric clutch right on the motor crankshaft so cant weld on that.dont think you can drill on them, never tried! not much room under there for a jackshaft.Belt only goes on 1 way, so got that covered, nothing even remotely close to the belt to rub.
Yesterday I ran for several hours after I took part of the tightner off and it helped a bit. next step is to get rid of the tightner all together,---dont need it as belt is plenty tight without it. Another thing I found is the motor heat is going down the crankshaft into the clutch making it hot ----- no cure for that as they are all made that way. need a manual clutch on it and get rid of that electric crap, never did approve of them on anything! Dont think the clutch is slipping cause I tested it in some tall thick stuff and was able to kill the 22 hp motor dead in its tracks. IF clutch was slipping, motor would have kept running I would think.
Another thing I just found out is that parts list belt is 82.5" -- Aint no way in H is that gonna work! I tried an 82" and you cant adjust it after a 1 or 2 hour run when it rubs together on the inside. I have an 80" green belt (mower duty and I hate them) on it and it stays tight, got a little warm but that came from the electric clutch I would say since the clutch was hotter than the belt.
The blade spindles on this thing are nothing more than a long bolt going thru 2 bearings in a luni casting and pulley on top with blade on the bottom! Talk about a design boo-boo!!!! lol! guess it works but in all the mowers I been around I never saw that set-up before. Gotta take the deck out to take the blades off to sharpen them cause ya cant hold all the parts together with it under the mower! -- no biggie as it gives a chance to really clean the deck underside. Blades look new, razor sharp, and barely toss the cut stuff out! Thats another thing I gotta fix somehow.
Still trying different ideas and open to more suggestions!

[Jim Becker]

The only blade I see in the parts catalog is listed as "hi-lift". I don't know if they had a conventional blade, or if you may currently have some after-market blades. But you might check to see if there is a blade available with more lift. It could help your air flow to clear the cut grass.

[radioguy41]

tag #'s off the mower. NOW they tell me it's NOT IH or Cub Cadet but MTD!! That being the case no wonder its a junk mower!! Anyway I got too much in it so still gotta fix it somehow!

Factory # 53AA5A7M710
Serial # 0D284Z00005
Item # 01009448
UPC code 043033528745
From more research, these were a BIG problem right from the factory!! --- gotta be a fix for them somehow,--well other than the crusher!

MTD has owned Cub Cadet since 1981 so yes, it is an MTD Cub Cadet. Their wholly owned sub Cub Cadet Corp (CCC) bought CC directly from IH. MTD, in turn, is now owned by Black & Decker.