1211 pto belt adjustment
 

I have a 1985 1211. I was wondering how to correctly adjust my pto belt going to the deck. The illustration on the front of the mule drive makes no sense to me. I think I might have mine to tight.

Look it up in manual. If you don't have I am sure there is a copy of it on this site. It's a pretty easy adjustment though.

Pto adj
 

Thanks Coop. The manual refers going back to the illustration on the mule drive cover. There's 3 cut out notches, I believe. Not sure which the head of the adjustment bolt needs to be inline with. Or if the end of the bolt needs to be inline with the end of the lever.

This pic is from a 1210 I used to own. Same setup as your 1211. I normally try to get the belt running straight up and down on the PTO pulley with the idler pulley's even with each other.

Yup, same on my 1211. When belt is tight both pulleys are equal distance back from the front plate

Reply pto adjustment
 

Thanks a bunch gentleman. A picture is worth a thousand words. My 1211 has about 10 hours on a recent rebuild on the Kohler M12, and is quitting after 45 minutes of cutting grass. Starts back up, after a couple minutes, but I don't want to use it after it quits, so I just park it. Hoping against hope that the belt adjustment might be causing it to overwork. I've searched the engine shut down situation, but sounds like it can be a bunch of different problems. Thanks again.

It's not a belt adjustment problem. My guess is that it's running out of gas. Pull the fuel tank, flush out the tank, remove the fuel shutoff, clean or replace the fuel shutoff, replace the tank bushing, replace ALL of the fuel lines and install a new fuel filter. All easy to do on a 1210/1211. You could also have a bad fuel pump but on a 1211 it should run OK as long as the tank is close to full.

I know 10 hours does not sound like much but it seems like most of this 10 hours would have been done last fall unless you plow snow with it. So many things can go wrong over a winter storage. Fuel can gum up tank, lines, filters, pump and carb as Sam was eluding to. Is it getting overly hot just before it shuts down? A rodent could have easily made a nice little home in your tins over the winter that wold cause overheating and all kinds of problems. I agree it most likely is a fuel problem but just wanted to make you aware that a 10 hour old rebuild does not keep problems like this from happening. Belts would not make this happen. If a pulley was stuck or a belt was causing that much friction the belt would burn up before it would stop the engine in most cases.

Pto
 

When I performed the rebuild, last fall, I replaced the fuel lines and cleaned out the tank. Installed New piston, rings, connecting rod, cylinder cut 10 over, New valves(Kohler), trued up head, lapped valves, all New gaskets, couldn't get my crankshaft endplay with supplied spacers so added my own thicker gasket. Cleaned and rebuilt carb with new throttle shaft and bushings. Adjusted valves. Sure don't want to pull the motor. Super vigilant about rodents on my property. I only purchase ethanol free fuel also. Just hoping some tolerances aren't to tight and that I can solve the problem without pulling engine. I know the faster the ground speed with deck engaged, the engine drags down a solid 300 rpm's. New hydro filter and Hyguard oil this spring. Starts right up when cold. 1800 hours on machine. Thanks for looking at my posts. Much appreciated.

What size deck are you running? How tall is the grass your trying to cut? Does it only bog down while mowing?