Good morning all,
I'm beating my head against a wall on this one. Last fall I managed to get a piece of chain sucked into the tensioner while mowing out in front of my property. After getting it undone, my original tensioner arm was all messed up - the pulley itself was mangled, and the tab that the spring attached to was bent badly. Being limited on funds, I pounded that arm back into shape, put a new pulley on it, and reinstalled it. Didn't make it 30 feet into a test-cut with it before the U-joint to the gear box began striking the new pulley's edge, and before I could get the PTO shut off, it destroyed my new pulley.
I got a replacement assembly for the whole mess, new arm, new pulley, everything is new but the tensioner spring itself. I had put a brand new Kubota branded belt on it, which was supposed to be the OEM part (I got it from a Kubota dealer) for that mower deck as the old belt needed replacing anyway. After mangling that second pulley I thought perhaps the belt was the wrong size. I picked up a different belt from Amazon that lists the RCK-60 21Z as one of the decks its a direct replacement part for. When I installed the new tension arm assembly, both belts position the pulley so that the U-joint would strike the pulley edge on the new pulley.
I'm pulling what's left of my hair out over this. When I checked the gear box to ensure that it wasn't damaged by the initial chain issue - everyting is solid and true, the shaft is in proper alignment, the gear box has not shifted.
My google research on the mess lead me here to another poster's earlier threads who had the same deck, and the pictures posted do appear that the tensioner pulley is supposed to rest under the gear box shaft / U-joint, but I cannot seem to get the sweet spot where the it doesn't strike the pulley edge. Besides "take it to the shop" - does anyone have any advice or have had similar experiences with it? I don't have the funds at the moment to take it into a shop and all the rain we've had here in SE Texas has my grass over a foot tall. I've been borrowing a friend's mower off and on, but there's only so much one can impose on their friends as well.
If anyone has a good picture of a properly-aligned tensioner arm on this particular deck that might give me a clue, that may be helpful. My mower is a ZD21. Appreciate any information y'all have.
I'm beating my head against a wall on this one. Last fall I managed to get a piece of chain sucked into the tensioner while mowing out in front of my property. After getting it undone, my original tensioner arm was all messed up - the pulley itself was mangled, and the tab that the spring attached to was bent badly. Being limited on funds, I pounded that arm back into shape, put a new pulley on it, and reinstalled it. Didn't make it 30 feet into a test-cut with it before the U-joint to the gear box began striking the new pulley's edge, and before I could get the PTO shut off, it destroyed my new pulley.
I got a replacement assembly for the whole mess, new arm, new pulley, everything is new but the tensioner spring itself. I had put a brand new Kubota branded belt on it, which was supposed to be the OEM part (I got it from a Kubota dealer) for that mower deck as the old belt needed replacing anyway. After mangling that second pulley I thought perhaps the belt was the wrong size. I picked up a different belt from Amazon that lists the RCK-60 21Z as one of the decks its a direct replacement part for. When I installed the new tension arm assembly, both belts position the pulley so that the U-joint would strike the pulley edge on the new pulley.
I'm pulling what's left of my hair out over this. When I checked the gear box to ensure that it wasn't damaged by the initial chain issue - everyting is solid and true, the shaft is in proper alignment, the gear box has not shifted.
My google research on the mess lead me here to another poster's earlier threads who had the same deck, and the pictures posted do appear that the tensioner pulley is supposed to rest under the gear box shaft / U-joint, but I cannot seem to get the sweet spot where the it doesn't strike the pulley edge. Besides "take it to the shop" - does anyone have any advice or have had similar experiences with it? I don't have the funds at the moment to take it into a shop and all the rain we've had here in SE Texas has my grass over a foot tall. I've been borrowing a friend's mower off and on, but there's only so much one can impose on their friends as well.
If anyone has a good picture of a properly-aligned tensioner arm on this particular deck that might give me a clue, that may be helpful. My mower is a ZD21. Appreciate any information y'all have.
