z125s zero turn, 54” belt rubbing against itself

[Eldo]

Good Day! I am pulling my hair out over this. The belt on my k125s (54” deck) is rubbing against itself where the tension pulley meets the other side of the loop, where it travels to the engine pulley. Its as if the tension spring is too strong for the belt and levering it to pinch together. I’ve indicated the problem area below. I’ve quadruple checked my belt installation and tightened the tension pulley bolt within the designated torque specs (77.6-90.2).

What am I missing?

Many thanks!
Jason

 

[JasonW]

Is it a new belt? Or did it start rubbing all of a sudden?

 

[Eldo]

Hi Jason. I got the belt in Nov 2022 and it started rubbing late last Summer. I haven’t messed with it since last Fall when I parked it for the season. So, newish belt. It is a third party belt from Amazon. I was thinking perhaps it was too long or stretched?

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Hi Jason. I got the belt in Nov 2022 and it started rubbing late last Summer. I haven’t messed with it since last Fall when I parked it for the season. So, newish belt. It is a third party belt from Amazon. I was thinking perhaps it was too long or stretched?

Yep wrong length of belt!

 

[biketopia]

The off brand belt might of been ok at first, but has stretched to the point it will fail you. Get you a quality name brand belt either from Kubota or a quality cross from Gates. Also...buy it from a reputable location, A LOT of fakes and cheap copies on amazon and ebay. Similar instances come up all the time on the Scag groups I'm in for my ZT. The service life of a quality belt will far out weight the cost savings of having to do the job multiple times or leaving you waiting on parts.

 

[Eldo]

Thanks very much, all. I will just head to my deal and pick up a genuine OEM. I'll follow-up here with the results for anyone else interested.

 

[Mowbizz]

Relative to my interests as well. I have a Z422-54

 

[lugbolt]

wrong belt or perhaps one or more idlers or spindle bearings are worn/loose.

I like to remove the deck from the mower once a year anyway for maintenance. I often find little issues before they swarm, kinda like this past season I found the idler arm bolt was loose and wallered the hole out. Had to build it back up with the tig welder, grind it all flat, and then redrill/paint. Lot of work but it's all tight again.

 

[Eldo]

Thanks all! The aftermarket belt was either the wrong model or had stretched. Double-over, it was about 2.5 inches longer than the OEM I got from my local reseller. After I replaced the belt, everything seems to be humming along.

 

[Eldo]

Relative to my interests as well. I have a Z422-54

Yep, it was the wrong belt. Apparently, the deck SN matters sometimes. This is a good place to look things up: https://apps.kubotausa.com/illustrated-parts/