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JD L120 Drive belt problem!!

15 years ago

2002, John Deere L120 with 48" deck. Nicknamed "PC" (problem child) Maybe some of you unfortunate enough to own one these can help me. The other day the little lady informed me that ÂPCÂ had quit again. I pushed it in the shop and found the drive belt had came off the transmission pulley and chewed up the cooling fan! I installed a new fan, drive belt, and the two idler pulleys ( they were a little stiff ). Course it took JD dealer 3 days to get all the parts! I turned everything a few revs by hand, to be sure it all moved freely. Started it up, and backed it off my ramps to replace the deck. It made a racket and tiny bits of belt were all over the floor. (So much for the new belt) The belt is all frayed along the inside of the belt, worse than the old one.. I canÂt see anything wrong. The belt is installed just like it should be. I even down loaded the image and took it under the mower with me. I ran it while up on the ramps, it appears the problem it at the idler pulleys. One of the keepers seem to be digging into the belt. But it has the same clearance as the other keepers on the mower. None of the keepers looked bent or damaged? Double checked that I had the correct pulleys, since they are different sizes, they canÂt be mixed up. Checked the size of the new pulleys and the bearing, all is good!

Has anyone else had this problem?

Comments (3)

fix_it
15 years ago
I have an L118. I think the only difference is the deck size. Anyway, I did the same thing. I removed the transmission to change the oil (another story altogether). When I put it back, it chewed the belt as you describe. Look at the transmission pulley really well. There is a sheet metal gaurd with three or four wings that goes around it. I had the belt on the wrong side of one of the wings. It appeared OK at first glance. BTW, I have about 15 hrs on the frayed belt and all it OK so far.
old_chipper08
Original Author
15 years ago
Thank you, thank you! Can't believe I did that. And it turned freely by hand? We work this mower kind of hard, so I put a new one on, rather than take the chance!
I didn't think we could change the trans oil? I thought about putting a drain plug on mine, but don't know the wall thickness, would hate to have to weld on that pot metal.
How did you handle yours?
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fix_it
15 years ago
Sorry for the delay. I am going to start a new thread concerning the trans oil. That way, someone might be able to search for it.

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