Thanks for all the advice. The tiller was working fine before the belt broke. Started easily. Now new belt and it doesn't. A sheared pin sounds serious. Possible it could of sheared at the moment the belt broke? I suppose that might of happened. But as I recall after the belt broke I believe we started it a time or two to try different things to see what was wrong. How annoying. I'm even thinking about buying one of those hand tillers or just string trimming the tall weeds in the corners of the vegetable garden. Or even hoeing. Might end up being less work and less frustration!

I think something is awry if you had a failure in such a short time. If the blades were loose enough to strike - off goes your timing right there. The tensioning part really isn't difficult in itself. After I set tension, I roll the spindles around a few times and loosen the tensioner pulley a turn and make sure the tension is correct - then resecure the nut. The barrel like guide should be in place and facing the correct way. If you watch the rotation of the deck- are the blades on the proper sides? Is there reason to suspect wear on the slide area or the cone? It sounds like you are saying that someone else did the work prior. Loosen the idler as far as you have to to roll a spindle inside the belt to get it back in time and then follow your bulletin and all should be fine if the rest looks as it should. Use the JD parts look up as a guide.

Well, if you have the booklets that came with the tractor, they usually have drawings in them that show the correct belt routings! BUT!! If you don't have the booklets, here's what to do. Run the front of the tractor up on a hill side, or onto some of those car ramps, or planks, to get the front up to where you can see under it. Now, with pencil and paper, try to sketch out the pattern for the belts, and how they go back on. Some careful sketching will be very informative at this point. After you have the drawings made, release tension on the belts, and remove them. Clamping the clutch/brake pedal down will help immensely to get the main drive belt off and back on. But, you must remove the deck belt first, and reinstall it last. Now, if this chore is more than you want to tackle, you'd probably be further ahead to have a mower shop do it! But---be prepared for a seemingly high bill for the work! (But, i know, if you aren't experienced in this work, you will probably rue the day that you tried to do it yourself! Ask me how i know this!)

That's what I like to hear- do it yourself and save money. I wish my son had asked about prices before he stopped at the Infiniti dealer to get a new windshield wiper for his rear window- the wiper was $14 and they charged $28 in put it in. The front wipers he could buy at any auto parts store, but the rear wiper is proprietary- and he never thought they'd charge that much for a wiper insert. Oh it probably needed a proprietary screw and screwdriver too.