hey guys I got my John Deere riding lawnmower up on the hoist today I'm going to
show you today how to adjust the blade belt the mowing deck belt on this thing today
I know for a fact there's a lot of you guys out there that don't even
know that this exists on these mowers because I've worked with several small
engine mechanics in my life that didn't even know you could do this either so here we go
hey guys welcome back to Steve's Small Engine Saloon again thanks for tuning in yeah adjusting
a belt on a riding lawnmower the mower belt the blade belt whatever you want to call it on one of
these things simple easy to do all you need is a ten millimeter wrench on this particular model a
John Deere LA 125 a ten millimeter wrench works way better than your ten millimeter socket with a
ratchet don't worry about that you also need a beer good luck even getting through half a can
of beer before you get this job done it's that simple this applies to your riding lawn mowers
it includes Husqvarnas Craftmans John Deeres that have that lever up by the steering wheel or as
some people pronounce it lever so to do this job you do not take the mowing deck off of the unit
you just lower it down all the way to the ground as low as that setting can let you go and at no
point are you going to start this lawn mower you don't start it at all safety first guys why are we
even doing this how do you even know if your belt needs adjusted or not there's a long cable that
goes from your blade engagement by your steering wheel all the way down to your mowing deck that
cable stretches over time and also your belt is going to wear it'll wear in further into those
V pulleys down there and it will get slacker for those two different reasons right there so how to
test this straight from the owner's manual okay to see if you even need to adjust your belt on
this the owner's manuals on these things say this is how you start your blades you rev your engine
up to wide open throttle push that throttle all the way up to as high as it can go and then you
take that engagement lever and you push it up fast as fast as you can just hammer that
thing forward and the blades should start almost instantaneously like we're talking a half a second
you're gonna hear those blades going at full speed sometimes after a while your cable stretches
your belt wears in everything under there is slack and when you push that lever forward you kind of
hear this you hear the blades kind of start and then they start whirring up and engaging and
after two or three seconds then you hear your blades start to go at full RPM that's because
your belt is slipping it's not working properly anymore then you know that you have to adjust the
belt on this thing so you have your deck dropped all the way down to the ground you don't have your
engine running of course you put your lever your engagement by the steering wheel there you pull
it all the way back towards you so that as if your blades are disengaged you're not using the
blades now we look down there underneath the deck there's a couple things that we need to inspect
down here before we get started on the adjustment first of all look at your belt just look at that
thing and make sure that there's no cracks in it make sure there's no big chunks missing out of it
that kind of thing if you do see some cracks and some chunks out of your belt down there well maybe
you do need to replace your belt at this time I'm gonna have a video up really shortly here
on how to replace the belt on this thing you're gonna see a little notification up here in your
information button when that comes up when I get that video done it's coming soon the other
thing that you need to inspect under there is the swing arm you got to make sure that's free right
we've got spring attaches there's this this arm right here grab that thing make sure that moves
back and forth freely if it doesn't move back and forth freely like that you can see where it pivots
right here spray that with some spray lube work it back and forth with your hand until
that's free once you know that your belt is in good shape and that swing arm is nice and free
in there then what we want to do is engage that lever grab that lever and push it all the way
forward as if your blades are engaged now look back underneath the deck right here and look at
that spring right there feel that spring does that feel like it's stretched very far to you
then feel the belt and the belt is it's probably everything's still gonna probably feel quite slack
under there for you that's why we're going to need to adjust this now right where the cable
comes down and attaches to your to your mower deck there's a little bracket right there that
is your cable adjustment right there take your engagement lever and disengage the blades now
pull that back towards you so everything under there is as slack as possible now you take your
ten millimeter wrench you loosen those bolts off and you pull that bracket away from the spring
pretty much towards you pull it back all the way and tighten those bolts back up now you go and
engage those that lever again so everything's tight under there again go back under the deck
and check it again that spring is going to be stretched further now and your belt is going to
be a lot tighter now I guarantee it is now you got to go try it again fire it up and try that
and see if your blades engage almost instantly when you engage them properly if it doesn't
that means that the belt has worn so much that that adjustment can't compensate for the slack
in there anymore now it's going to be time for you to replace the belt like I say I'm gonna
have that video up soon for you and that's all there is to that I think that probably helped
a lot of you guys out there I hope I saved you guys some money so you didn't have to go
replace your belt when you can just adjust it again and get many many more months out of it
I hope you liked it guys give me that thumbs up button if you liked it share it with your friends
subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and what guys see I told you I didn't even get
through one sip of beer doing that job that's how fast that is cheers guys work safe Steve out