Hey gang, sorry for not responding till now but, the wife and I have been "making our monthly rounds" to the doctors ?. The deck on this thing is extremely plain and simple, only having the 2 pulleys, nothing else in between. The deck belt only has 'belt keepers' at the engine end (2 bolts that run along each side of the pulley). My belt is run "inside" of those 2 bolts. There are no bolts or pins around the 2 blade pulleys, they have metal 'guard shields' only ... which I haven't put back on yet, because I wanted to be able to have, a full view of the entire deck and watch what the pulleys were doing ?. As for "pulley brakes" ... I should of called them "stops" or "pads"? ... they attach to the underside of the running boards above each pulley, anyway, whatever they are called, their more than half way gone ?. There is 'NO" up or down motion on either pulley that I can detect, with the belt off. When I had the deck out from under the tractor, I looked it over pretty good, checking the condition of the blades (which have seen better days !.... to many rocks around here)) and cleaning all the old grass and etc. from under there. The underside looks as good as the topside .... no rust and not even bent anywhere, really a pretty solid old deck !. There does however, seem to be a lot of "slop or play" in the side to side motion, which leads me to think that the bearing may be bad ?, because there is a pretty bad vibration when I'm mowing. I checked the blades, themselves, and they don't appear to be bent ?. Blade engagement is indeed 'back and down' , to some degree, but not really a lot of motion ?. The belt that is on there, is the one that came with mower (when I got it) and had been working fine, until I took the deck off, to replaced the 2 drive belts ?. I have a manual, that I got online for my mower model. As for the number on the my deck belt, it is not readable anymore ?. I looked at it's condition and it does seem to be 'burned' some on the sides ?. I did read in the manual, about that travel position adjustment and was going to check it, I just haven't done it yet.

"I don't know hardly anything about these things so I could use some advice"???. Do you have owners manual? Do you know if it's manual or Hydraulic? Do you have any mechanic skills? Can you find the data plate and list the information off it? (usually under the seat, a big long number usually beganing with 917XXXXXXXXXXXX) Advice?? start reading up on the type and function of your LT. To have any chance of making repairs you will have to have a working knowledge and a IPB of parts. also a general knowledge of pre-ventive maintenance to keep the LT in running condition. If you lucky and got the manual dirve tranny it could be the drive belt which is up under the deck. the deck will have to be removed and routing of the belt observed before taking it off. usually there is routing instructions under the foot rests depending on the model. this is why we have to have basic information of the type of LT beings sears makes several models of the LT2000

So today, a man stopped in and said if i'd go to his home, he'd give me a Craftsman lawn tractor for free! He said there was something wrong with the engine! So, off we went, about 15 miles or so. And there in his son's garage, beneath a pile of kids toys of every description, sat a really nice dark gray Craftsman tractor! Now, i didn't ask questions, just helped uncover it, loaded it up, and we left for my place. 'Bout half-way home, the skies opened up, the rain fell horizontally, and said tractor got a good wash job. I finally hid it down back of the house until the rain quits. And, there-in lies the end of this tale---if that engine is bad, there is a perfectly good one existing in a bright red tractor with a very bad transmission! (One that i have $75 invested in) Somebody asked me why i work so hard with all of the things i do! Well, how many 85 year-old guys do you all know who are still able to work an eight-hour day, and not be exhausted!? When i think of the alternative----no, i don't think about that----

Rustyj14 thanks for your input. I got under the tractor and followed the rod back to the pulley in the back and it seems to be operating normally. What I did find is that the brake pedal seems not to be coming back to normal position after depressed. In other words, if I pull back on the brake pedal with the heal of my foot and press the accelerator pedal the tractor moves forward and reverse. As soon as I let go of the brake pedal the belt loses just enough tension so that the unit won't go forward. Is there some mechanism that is supposed to be on the brake pedal to keep the tension on the belt. It almost seems like a tension spring fell off or something but I can't tell if there is supposed to be one.