Riding mower deck pulley sparks, and red hot!

12 years ago

I NEED HELP! MY HUSBAND AND I ARE MILITARY AND WE GOT AN OLDER MOWER(WHAT WE COULD AFFORD)REPLACED THE DECK BELT AND NOW A PULLEY IS SPARKING AND GETS RED HOT WHEN WE TURN IT ON. ALSO THE BELT MOVES WHEN NOT ENGAGED! WHAT DID WE DO WRONG?

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Comments (4)

mownie
12 years ago
I hope this does not sound terse, but you are going to have to provide more specific data than "an older mower".
Brand of machine, model number of machine, and the deck cutting width are all variables that can have different belt routing and pulley arrangements if even one of the variables is changed.
Without specific data to possibly allow someone to view an online owner's manual or service manual I can only offer the following advice:
Deck belts are typically configured as "Vee belts". They have a Vee side and a flat side and in use, both sides of the belt make contact with a pulley at some point in the belt path. BUT.......THE FLAT SIDE OF THE BELT MUST ONLY RUN ON A FLAT PULLEY AND THE VEE SIDE MUST ONLY RUN ON A VEE GROOVED PULLEY. IF YOU SEE ANYWHERE THAT A FLAT SIDE IS RIDING ON A VEE GROOVE PULLEY, OR VICE-VERSA, YOU HAVE THE BELT ROUTED INCORRECTLY.
tomplum
12 years ago
It SOUNDS like an old MTD w/ a non oem belt on it. Model # many times below the seat. Give mownie the numbers!
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My guess is that one or more of the pulleys on the mower deck is not moving. The smoke is from the belt rubbing on a pulley that is not moving or rubbing on some other object that is now in the belt's path. since the belt pops off, leave it off, turn off the engine to prevent accidents, then spin each of the pulleys on the mower deck by hand. They should all spin freely. Make sure that the deck is not clogged with grass or other debris. The springs that are hanging off are a problem as well. The belt must be routed properly and tensioned with the springs or it will fail quickly! Find a diagram or go see one at the store to see how the belt is routed and where those springs go.
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?????? Well, we were back to the land of confusion again on the "correct" Ampacity of the fuse, but I did some research that might straighten out this mess. I will hazard a guess that 15 Amp is correct for the application based on 2 things. (1) I have never "seen" a 30 Amp fuse in use in this duty on any make/brand tractor (highest I've seen as OEM was 20 Amp). (2) Calculating the electrical load of this tractor: PTO clutch in good condition draws around 4 Amp, headlights (if 1156 bulbs) draw 2.1 Amp (each for 4.2 Amp total), fuel solenoid on carb might draw .25 Amp, OPS relay might draw .025 Amp. Total approx draw of slightly less than 8.5 Amp. If the fuse actually blew when you were removing the old relay, there is the possibility that a loose piece of metal inside the relay may have shorted between term 85 (hot from seat) to a metal surface that is continuos to terminal 86 or 30 (grounded). The problems in that are that the key switch would have to be in RUN and the seat would have to be occupied (or the seat switch jumpered) for there to be current present at term 85 when the old relay was disturbed. One final note here on the fact of a 30 Amp fuse being shown in the diagram: The diagram shown in the Ranch King OM is identical to a number of diagrams found in many Craftsman owner's manuals, and they all show the fuse as 30 Amp. Of course, the Craftsman IPL does not give the Ampacity of the fuse if you look further, only that it is a fuse. So I have no idea where the draftsman drawing the diagrams came up with 30 Amp. I retract my suggestion to replace the 15 A fuse with a 30 A rated fuse, and I apologize for even suggesting it in the first place. Stick with the 15 A for safety's sake.
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Yes, but it's not very interesting, and I'd hate to ramble on. :P Since everything related to solenoid seemed to be working properly except that it wouldn't engage the starter, I was thinking maybe my ground at the starter was bad, I added a second ground from the body of the starter back to where the battery ground bolted to the tractor. Same result. Just a click. But a very hot ground wire. ?? I actually gave up and just decided to jump the starter with a car booster battery, mowed the lawn, and parked it. When I started it again just from the key switch and the tractor battery, it fired right up. My guess is that the little bit of rain we had maybe froze up the engine just enough that the tiny tractor battery couldn't provide enough CCA to start it. The car battery was able to, and once it had run for a while, was back to normal operating condition. So in short, bad solenoid and perhaps slightly seized engine that I was able to jump with a car battery. Thanks to Bill for all his help, even though I think I gave him a headache.
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I'm with Tom (Hi Tom) on this that it might be ignition. Spark testers are pretty cheap. You could stick it on one plug and compare spark when running good and again when bad. It/s not really good practice to try grounding the lead and seeing if you get spark. The problem is the coil buils up high voltage. IF the spark plug lead ISN'T grounded, this HV tries to go SOMEWHERE. If it can't fire through the SP lead, it'll tend to break down the coil(s) internally. They are just too spendy for self inflicted damage. You might also look at the condition of the pulse line to the fuel pump. Cracks etc. can affect FP performance. Maybe as things heat up, an existing crack opens up a bit more? Just a longshot here.
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wheelhorse_of_course
12 years ago
Another possibility than the belt and routing is that there is something rubing against one of the pulleys.

SOmetimes there is a wire-like guide that holds the belt when the mower is not engages (to keep it from falling off). If thiswere bent it could be rubbing cause heat.

Look over everything carefully and see if anything is rubbing (another possibility is one of the pulleys (and idler perhaps) has a bad bearing and has moved down and is rubbing against the top of the deck).

best of luck
Kodibear333
12 years ago
I recently had a bearing go out on an idler pulley and it flat locked up. I burnt the end of my finger trying to rotate it manually when checking to see if one of them was binding. Lifetime sealed bearings are neither lifetime nor permanently sealed. BTW when the belt is not engaged you should be able to move the belt even if you have a burned out bearing. Idler pulleys should not be hard to replace so a little common sense should see you through.

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Riding mower deck pulley sparks, and red hot!

Comments (4)

mownie

tomplum

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wheelhorse_of_course

Kodibear333

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