Hi all,
I am trying to chang a deck belt on my mastercraft riding lawn mower. I'm not sure what year it is but the model is 287707-0220 (b&s engine). Is there a trick to get the belt back on or do I have to take one of the drive wheels off?

Most decks will have a decal showing how to route the belt. In most cases you must remove the belt from the engine to the deck to get at the deck belt. There will be a spring tensioner pulley that needs to be pulled back to create some slack. Keeper pins stick up aropund the pulleys for the blades and you need to roll the belt over and slide between the keeper pin and the pulley, the spring tensioner pulley is last to be mounted.

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Originally Posted by ballengerb1

Most decks will have a decal showing how to route the belt. In most cases you must remove the belt from the engine to the deck to get at the deck belt. There will be a spring tensioner pulley that needs to be pulled back to create some slack. Keeper pins stick up aropund the pulleys for the blades and you need to roll the belt over and slide between the keeper pin and the pulley, the spring tensioner pulley is last to be mounted.

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This deck finds its tension from the height of the deck. Kind of a retarded design, if you ask me. Raise the deck as high as you can, and the belt becomes slack. Remove the belt from the pulleys with the deck set at its highest position. Then drop the deck, pull all the pins and fully disconnect the deck from the underbelly of the tractor. Belt can then be removed/replaced.

As bellenger01 notes, the keeper pins are located on the front engine pulley. They can be a bit of a pain to work around if you leave them as they are. You'll either want to remove them (the pins unthread like a bolt), or just bend them out of the way, then bend them back.



Changing the belt gives you a good opportunity to fully remove the deck, flip it over, and run your grinder over the blades to sharpen them up. Just a bit of a silver lining to your cloud of broken belts.

Can show me a diagram for the deck belt for a sabre 16 hp 38" cut made by john deere