I don’t know that I have a great answer for that. We used gator blades for years on my Dad’s Grasshopper 223, but are now venturing back into regular style blades.
I have this exact mower, also given to me with almost 300 hours on it, with exactly the same drive belt routing as yours had at first. Mine was working great, then instantly quit moving in the middle of a turn, both sides. I cannot move the idler pulley by hand, I have to tap on it with a hammer to tighten it. Then it moves. ? I also have the leaking left valve cover gasket, which I ordered 2 gaskets for both sides, just haven't installed them yet.
Sounds like the pivot is frozen up on the tensioner arm! I ran across that being a fairly common issue when I was dealing with the belt being routed wrong.
@@garagestory I've got to replace the deck belt today. I'll try to figure out the pivot on the tensioner arm at the same time. I looked around for a belt diagram for this model and haven't found one.
That deck needs leveling big time and those levers wear out from constant usage. I bought a new one for a customer and it cured that issue. So does the other Husqvarna go into park and lock and start with no issues????
The Z246 I’m working on now has very loose handles that I’m probably going to have to fix. That’s a definite difference between most residential mowers and commercial mowers, how quickly the control levers get sloppy.
Just had the drive belt come off on mine. Put it back on but loose, like really loose. I can’t seem to find an accurate pic anywhere so this video may have shown me where I went wrong. Couple days I’ll let ya know.
question, i changed the idler pulley and bushing plus arm assembly , everything seemed ok but the belt is smoking, i think the idler pulley is too tight and should turn freely with belt correct
I've got a Husqvarna 48" zero turn and it jumps forward and front wheels come off the ground unless I baby it everytime going from a stop to moving forward....I see all kinds of stuff about them losing power or running sluggish but not a whole lot about the issue I'm having....any ideas?
I have a CZ 4824 which goes through drive belts like crazy ... 2 or 3 a season. I think the problem is in the hold back tension from the belt tensioner spring. It is impossible to re-attach the spring after replacing the belt without using a pry bar. I'm wondering if the hold back tension is way more than needed and is causing the belt to stretch out to the point where it slips on the pulleys. I noticed that you were able to re-attach yours without using a lot of force or tools. ?????
I wonder if you have some pulleys that are not aligned properly? I doubt the tension spring is too strong unless it’s not the original, or the belt isn’t being routed the right way. Have you checked to make sure there is nothing touching the belt except pulleys?
@@garagestory Good call! The idler arm had loosened off, even with a nylock nut, and the pulley had dropped just under a 1/4 inch. This caused a wobble that had the pulley tracking up down ... wearing off the rim and throwing the belt. Fixed that problem. Still thinking that the idler arm back tension is way too much and your suggestion that the spring may not be the original rings true. Will try replacing with OEM and see if that makes a difference with belt tension and durability. Thanks for the diagnostics! (Btw ... belt routed as per Husqy shop manual).
I’m not sure what exactly it is. The guy I got it from used it to repair large TV’s back in the day. It’s kind of like an electric over hydraulic pallet jack, but it has a platform instead. I’d prefer that mine had longer reaching legs and platform so it would be more stable to handle larger objects
I was cutting my 2 acres today and got as far away from the house as I could and lost all drive power, slung the drive belt. Pulled it back to my shop and started the new belt install. I found the drive belt idler very hard to move. Pulley looked new and spun good but with the spring off could barley move the arm. I loosened the large nut a little and the arm moves freely. My question should the nut be tightened as much as possible or tighten until the arm does not move then back off till it moves freely?
I think the pivot point in those can seize up. I’m not sure exactly what is going on with yours, but I’m pretty sure when everything is functioning properly that you should be able to tighten down the bolts and everything still move freely.
@@garagestory Solved. The idler spindle that goes into the idler arm was seized and the large washer that goes between it and the engine plate was missing. I bought the mower used 4 years ago and it's been like that since I've had it. Got everything apart, cleaned and polished, installed a large washer and I can tighten the nut snugly and arm moves freely. Thanks for your help.
Two easy things to check: 1) make sure the transmissions are not in bypass mode for being rolled around. 2) check your drive belt to see if it has enough tension and is routed correctly. The tensioner arm can freeze up on these sometimes and then there may not be enough tension on the belt for it to turn the transmissions.
i have a cobra zero turn and the belt jumps violently on the deck when the pto is engaged. then the engines dies. not sure where to look. runs fine normally could drive it around all day. any advice??
@@garagestory one of the pulleys was replaced and the others spin ok. Not nearly as good as the newer pulley. Free spinning they stop quicker than the fresh pulley. I was thinking possibly the tensioner spring needed replacing.
Spring tensioner might affect the belt jumping around, but I don’t think it would make the engine die. If everything turns loosely, then you might have an engine issue. If it’s a twin cylinder it could be running on one cylinder.
