Cub Cadet 1525 Issue

[Cloud IT]

I was looking for a lawn care forum but didn't see it. Hope I could find the answer here. If this type of question isn't allowed, please delete my post.

As the title says I have a cub cadet 1525 lawn mower and I'm having a weird pulley issue that even stumped the local lawn mower guy. (Doesn't every town have at least one of those?) The diagram for the belt can be seen here. OEM Parts

The belt coming from the engine pulley hits the pulley number 45 at a angle that causes the top edge of the pulley to rub/cut the belt and eventually throw the belt. It looks as if the pulley is angled upwards towards the rear of the deck making the issue worse. It's clearly not level.

First assumption was that the frame holding the pulley was bent but it is solid and braced well. Then I thought maybe the deck where the frame was mounted was pushed in causing the angle. I removed the deck and pounded it with a hammer to see if I could move it out any. It was solid and didn't budge.

Then I went to the local lawnmower guy and he took the pulley off, looked at it, and put it back on. He advised me to replace that pulley but I simply fail to see how that will affect anything. The pulley(45) is level with bracket 50 and parallel with pulley 46.

I'm stumped and hope that someone has seen something like this before and can point me into the right direction.

 

[hanniedog]

Has the pulley on the engine moved up some? Might be as simple as loosening a set screw and lowering the pulley.

 

[Cloud IT]

Has the pulley on the engine moved up some? Might be as simple as loosening a set screw and lowering the pulley.

You know, I never thought about that! I didn't even know it was adjustable. What would make it move?

 

[Cloud IT]

Just ran out and checked it. It doesn't appear to have any type of adjustment. If it were a few inches lower it may solve the issue but it's obvious the pulley is tilted the wrong way somehow.

 

[rarefish383]

If you go back to the main menu and scroll down till you find the equipment forum those guys may be able to help you better, Joe.

 

[Cloud IT]

I don't see any equipment forums for anything close to a lawn mower.

 

[echochimp]

it looks to me like theres potential for bracket 51 to be bent or somehow wrong. i used to sell cub cadets at a box store and had to do a warrantly exchange one time because a guy bought a brand new one and it had this same exact issue. it would throw the belt every 4-5th time it was engaged and eventually just cut itself in half. it makes sense in my head that the forward edge of the pulley have a 10~15 % upward tile to allow the belt to run well at min/max height without rubbing. it sounds like yours is exactly backwards from your post. can you take pics of the actual pulley setups?

also its possible theres some runout between the shaft and its mountings causing the pulley to cant toward the pressure of the belt.

 

[brokenbudget]

they shouldn't be that close. are you sure you have the right belt on it? might be an inch or so too long.

 

[Cloud IT]

Bracket 51 is very solid. We tried to bend it and it wasn't moving. If it was lighter material then we could have just bent it to the proper angle.

100% on the right belt. It's OEM.

Runout in the pulley would make sense. I swapped the two pulleys with the same part number and there was no change. The pulley has no play in it either. Could there be runout without being able to wiggle the pulley?

We tried to adjust the front of the deck up to compensate but ran out of adjustment. A grinder and welder later, we moved the front bracket down 1/4 inch and angled it down slightly to help raise the front of the deck.

I put on a new belt and it seems to be working although you can clearly see the same bad pulley angle.

I took some pics with my phone but my camera is cracked and they look like crap.