BX 2230 60 inch belly mower belt slap

[Thirsty]

I have a BX 2230 with a 60 inch belly mower. I purchased it new in 2005. The mower has about 250 hours on it. The mower belt was vibrating and contacting metal pars on the mower deck and rubbing against itself. The result was a black dust on the mower and the tractor. I didn't notice any unusual noise or vibration.

I replaced the belt, thinking it had stretched. The new belt is doing the same thing. When I had the belt off, I checked each pulley to ensure it turned smooth and felt solid. i.e. the bearings all felt like they were in good shape. When I turn the shafts, none appear to be bent.

The mower bearings received regular greasing and he gear box has had the fluid changed out.

Any suggestions?

 

[Profnohair]

Sounds to me like one of the pulleys is not lined up with the rest of them. They have to all be on the same horizontal plane or this will happen.

Profnohair

 

[Thirsty]

Sounds to me like one of the pulleys is not lined up with the rest of them. They have to all be on the same horizontal plane or this will happen.

Profnohair

Thanks. I'll check that out. Don't know how they would have gotten out of alignment. If I find something, I'll let you know.

 

[birddogger]

I'd give the tensioner a turn or two. The bearings are tight but for sure have broken in a bit, a little motion at any one pulley is doubled in the loop of the belt. times 3. The belt gets pretty loose from a little break-in of the bearings.

 

[Eric McCarthy]

Yeah Im with Birddogger, snug up your belt tensioner and see what that does.

 

[Thirsty]

Mower deck model: RCK60B-22BX

OK, I did a little more troubleshooting today. I thought maybe a blade imbalance might be part of the problem. I ran the mower without the blades. Same problem. The tensioner pulley and arm do move slightly back and forth when running. I think this is just the belt slap stretching the spring.

So I went back to the idler pulley. There is no bearing adjustment on the idler pulley. The bearing is held in the pulley with a snap ring.

Where the idler arm attaches to the deck does move up and down a 1/16" or so. Again, no adjustment here. There is just a through bolt that tightens against a shoulder. This bolt is tight. Is this a likely source of the problem?

No belt tension adjustment either. The spring pulls over to a post. Not easy to get on and off, the spring is pretty tight.

 

[Thirsty]

Ok, I stopped by the dealer tonight on my way home from work. I talked to them about the small vertical movement in the tensioning arm (<1/8"). They believe replacing the bushings and tighting up this movement will fix the problem. Parts come in next week. I'll let you know what happens.

They also asked about the condition of the pullies, they are all in good shape.

More to follow.

 

[Thirsty]

I think I finally got the problem fixed. After replacing the bushings, I had less belt slap but I still had belt dust on the mower deck.

While watching the belt run, I noticed the belt was riding very low on the idler. The shinny parts on the idler indicate the original belt ran low on the idler since it was new. I inspected the old belt and noticed that one side was worn down. The bottom side of the belt was being shaved into dust by the lower edge of the idler pulley.

I took off the idler arm and bent it such that the belt now runs in the middle of the idler. After a short run, no belt dust. The belt slap only occurs at slow engine speeds (Around idle). I never noticed when the tractor was new if the belt slapped at idle.

It appears that the idler arm was not aligned well during manufacturing. The wearing idler bushings made the misalignment worse and allowed the belt to be shaved by the lower edge of the idler pulley.

I'll give it a longer test tomorrow.

 

[Thirsty]

This seems to have fixed the problem. A longer run and no belt slap or belt dust.

 

[mcneffs]

OUrs is a ZD221 54 inch deck but same kind of problem. After only a year the first belt ripped apart. Put the brand new belt on and it touches near the idler arm. Will try some of this stuff suggested. Might work. anyone else have this problem??
thanks

 

[jav1948]

Just bought a new bx2680 with a 60” mower. I get a lot of belt slapping & an oscillating noise in sync with the belt. I mowed about 5 times so far & the noise has not changed. I called the dealer & he said there is no belts tensioning adjusting on the mower. I cant believe that when a belt breaks in you cant take some of the slack out from best stretch. Anyway is this noise & belt slapping normal on a kubota mower?