#70132 BELT B-79

Unrated (1 minute)
The smaller of the two deck belts failed and I ordered both belts as a precaution. I discovered that the previous owner of machine had replaced the belt idler arms, which are at different elevations off the deck for each belt, and placed them on the wrong sides. Then they swapped belt elevations (changed belts to the wrong drive groove) to match the idler arms further exacerbating the problem, because the driven pulleys on the spindles were (of course) still at the original elevations. At first I thought they reversed the spindles, but then saw the idlers were newer and they had reversed these instead. This resulted in excessive belt wear/noise/power waste. I swapped the idler arms and pulleys back into the correct locations (per the Woods Shop Repair Manual) and installed the new belts. Without this issue the belts themselves can be changed in a few minutes - do not forget to revisit belt tension as old belts may have stretched and recheck after several hours of operation. Now the deck runs much smoother, makes less mechanical noise, cuts better, and hourly fuel consumption of the diesel 6215 drive unit has improved slightly.

9/25/2022
Sunbury, PA
FRED