[Swartb]

I was putting my 48" brass tag E0590 deck together yesterday and tried to put the "old belt" back on it and it was too long. It was 98" which is correct length but measured the width and it was 3/8 and not 1/2". Figured the deeper sheath distance would account for the difference. Went to John Deere and got the specified 1/2 inch belt. Tried to install it and it is too long as well. It has a new idler and spring, both JD parts. Seems either the idler spring is too long or the belt is wrong. I put a M41668 belt on it per PC1069. Anything I am missing here? Anyone else had this experience?

 

[Swartb]

Here is the blade to blade routing from the PC1069, and the correct belt is shown as the item 9 part number M41668 as you have used...

Here is a picture. This deck was sort of a disaster. The idler was frozen and the idler arm bushing was canted in the arm from all the rust. Had to cut the end from the idler bearing and lathe a new retainer and weld it on the end as the bearing just fell thru the housing. All the pulleys were rusted beyond use. I replaced them all with "used" replacements and they were all the same sizes as I removed. I put in about $100 worth of 14ga around the spindles in sections to preserve the integrity of the mounting areas. Maybe I expect too much but to me it seems that there should be a significant amount of spring pressure on the belt. Maybe not. Here is a pic of the deck. It is a little tighter than this photo as belt was not fully seated in the front pully at the time. Photos in OMM49677 only shows the later 48 but PC1069 has the same routing. A shorter spring or maybe a move of retainer to back spindle nut might help.

 

[Swartb]

Thanks, I have one new pulley. I bought 3 complete spindles to cannibalize that were advertised as 48" spindles. I have one new one that I didn't use as wanted to keep it as correct as possible. I will measure them in the morning. Not hard to take them off at this point. But, it seemed to me at the time I was looking at 6ea of them and they all appeared to be the same size and the spindle bolts appeared to have the same relationship to the end of the pulley. As you can see above, the pulley hides about half of the nut. The ones that came on the deck were so rusted that they would have eaten a belt in short order. But, thanks for the effort and the info. I want them to be right. Will let all know in the morning.

 

[Swartb]

Well, couldn't wait and went out to the barn to measure them. They are in fact, smaller pulleys. So, the 48s I bought were not 48s. Oh well, I needed the spindles and housings anyway so no big loss. Have one new correct one. Will order another tomorrow. Guess I can save these for another JD project! Again, thanks for you knowledge and for taking the time to help me! Much appreciated!