riding lawn mowers

[MyManao]

Make sure that the pulleys are all in line with each other and spinning freely..

My riding lawn mower saga started about the same time HD opened in Hilo, and I was seduced into thinking there was something to be gained by buying one of their Cub Cadet riders at a much reduced rate compared to what was otherwise available in town back then.

That mower was broke, back to HD, and swapped out for another new one, within weeks. But hey I bought the ticket so I was in for the ride.. and the second one broke.. and the third. Seems the welders, robotic things, were set too high and they were spot welding the brackets that the pulleys mount to (under side of the deck) and you could see the weld popping through the top of the deck. So the mounts would bend, just a little, but enough for the pulleys to fall out of alignment with the plane the belts were suppose to be running on.

I talked with Cub (it was MTD back then), and they said their big box models were built in factories set up specifically to serve those outlets and not subject to the same quality control as the rest of their equipment. I talked with Jay (J&J Lucas) who had the repair contract with HD at the time, and he basically said they're expensive paperweights. 

Eventually I gave up and bought a commercial grade zero-turn Husqvarna and stopped having those kinds of problems.