Tractor Tales At Least III

As many of you know who have been with me a while, I have struggled with lawn tractors and their operation. I got a “new to me,” 54 inch mower earlier this summer and hoped that the problems were over. Well....they kind of are. It stopped mowing but the engine was still running. A quick check indicated that the PTO clutch was operational, so it must be something else. The spring that keeps tension on the deck belt had become disengaged.

Again, those who have been here a while have probably read that my Dad occasionally, well, maybe often, commented that I worked harder at avoiding work than actually doing it. Yep, I did it again. After reattaching the tension spring, I thought that I could “simply” attach a ratcheting strap and stretch the spring enough to enable me to slip the belt over the drive pulley and get back to work. The spring pulls a tensioning pulley that merely puts pressure on the belt to keep it tight on the drive pulleys.  Sounds simple. I did not want to have to “fight” with removing and reattaching the big, heavy 54" deck.

So, after about 90 minutes or struggling with getting the strap aligned, and having the ratchet mechanism malfunction a time or two, I decided to try the other way. Two pins drop the deck and I can maneuver it closer to the pulley, slip the belt over it, and then reattach the deck.  The final step is what deterred me from doing it first.

That big old, heavy deck, did I mention that before? That big old heavy deck is tricky to align exactly right to get the pins to slip back. It took me all of two minutes to connect the belt, and about 15 to attach BOTH sides to their respective niches. I actually spent more time disentangling the strap from the deck than it took to reconnect it. Total time involved: about two hours. One and a half hours struggling with my “genius” idea to avoid disconnecting the deck and a quarter of an hour to disengage and reconnect. Add in the quarter hour to get the strap  loose from all of the hooks I had rigged to “help” and we are ready to mow.

One good thing did come from this episode. If you tape the belt to each blade pulley after disengaging the deck, you will not accidentally reconnect the deck with the belt down around the shaft, like someone with his pants around his ankles. I hooked the deck up twice the first time I reattached it when I first got it. I had to unhook it to get the blade pulley on the other side of the deck engaged. It is so far across that big deck, did I mention that it was heavy? That big deck that you cannot see if the belt is on the pulley or not. So instead of going around the machine to look, just tape the belt in place until you reattach everything. Good trick.

I am not sure that people in heaven can see us down here, but if Jesus has a little “peep hole” that He lets Dad peer through, I am sure that they both had a good laugh at my “ingenuity.” In the final analysis, the mower is running and I got my workout for the day.

Until next time, try doing it the right way. It is probably easier.