Had a really strange thing happen while I was mowing with my ZTR. Ran over a dead tree branch hidden in tall grass, clang crunch and the mower started banging like a blade was hitting something. Shut off the PTO and ran it back to the shop knowing I had bent a blade or worse.
Lifted the front end with my engine hoist so I could see under the deck. Rotated the blades and didn't see anything wrong. Let it down and removed the plastic pulley guards. Immediately saw the deck belt was bulged out from one of the blade pulleys.
What had happened was a piece of the dead branch about 3/4" long had wedged itself into the V of the pulley and every time the belt hit that it would rub on the guard plus make the idler jump. That piece of wood had to have had the proper V shape to wedge itself into that pulley tight enough to stay and it had to sneak past the guards and hit just right. Weird...
Lifted the front end with my engine hoist so I could see under the deck. Rotated the blades and didn't see anything wrong. Let it down and removed the plastic pulley guards. Immediately saw the deck belt was bulged out from one of the blade pulleys.
What had happened was a piece of the dead branch about 3/4" long had wedged itself into the V of the pulley and every time the belt hit that it would rub on the guard plus make the idler jump. That piece of wood had to have had the proper V shape to wedge itself into that pulley tight enough to stay and it had to sneak past the guards and hit just right. Weird...
