Hi, I have a John Deere 145, and yesterday I had to change the drive belt on the 48" mower deck. No problem dismounting or remounting the deck, no problem to fit a new belt on the dismounted deck (after removing the two belt shields).

But getting the belt round the drive pulley after remounting the deck proved impossible. The only way I could do it was to remove the two centre deck mount R-clips and slip the center-support lever arms off their pins; then the deck had enough fore and aft travel that I could heave the belt over the drive pulley. That was struggle enough (both my partner and I are in our 70s).

But then of course I had to get the two center supports on again. For each side I just had to spring the arms out then keep struggling to move the deck back and forth until the arm slipped over its pin. This took many attempts, because I had to get the arm precisely aligned and shift the deck back precisely right. Just by trial and error.

It was exhausting to a seventy year old, and I felt sure I was doing this wrong, there must be a better way. So is there please? Who can help?

(I first posted the above under another thread, not knowing how to start a new one - I guess Garden Web makes thread starting obscure for good reasons!)