The deck has all the baffles welded to the deck skin and the bolt didn't hold anything in place. It looks like the previous owner drilled two holes, but only used one by tapping it, and putting the bolt there with the rubber hose cap. I removed the bolt today. In the first photo it is the bolt alone to the right, the other three bolts are to the deck hanger.
Six years ago I replaced the idler pivot bolt with the grease fitting type. I didn't use this mower deck very often since then and I don't recall if I noticed it at the time but the idler arm is slightly bent. Last week I got the deck out, used it for a few minutes and the deck belt snapped. Yesterday I put on a new belt which lasted about two hours before it got so frayed that it was about to break. That is when I took a closer look at that bolt with the rubber hose. I think the belt was being frayed as it whipped around and hit the bolt threads. Also the belt was chaffing the upper lip of the idler pulley and probably causing more belt damage (center photo).
This morning I took the idler apart and leveled out the arm. I noticed that the pivot bolt mounting hole is a bit wallowed out which appears to cause the arm to bend upwards (last photo - left hole). The previous owner probably bent the arm down to compensate. The hole on the right is for the bolt that holds the spring in place.
I'm also concerned that the center of the idler pulley is not the same height as the center of the center and right hand pulleys and that will cause chaffing and belt damage. Trying to fix that while taking into account the angle caused by the pivot bolt mounting hole being worn is my next challenge. Perhaps grinding down one side of the washer under the spring so it is like a wedge will help.
Postscript - I ground away 4mm from the boss of the idler pulley so now all the pulleys are even. That reduced the gap between the pulley and arm to a millimeter but if the pulley should ever touch the arm I can always add a thin washer to the boss to increase the gap. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this works for the long term.
|