Hi everyone!
This is my first riding mower, as my yards have never been large enough to justify upgrading from a push mower. My parents had decided to upgrade to a zero turn, so this John Deere LT133 made its way to my household. Its been taken care of relatively well, and hasn't given much of a problem the 12 years its served my family... until now.
The repair place that did the maintenance recently changed the drive belt, and ever since, it would kick off the pulleys and make the tractor immobile. So i decided to tear into it and do some investigating.
1) I noticed the idler pulley near the main engine pulley was separated. I swung by a JD dealer and picked that pricey guy up for about $32 and got that installed. Upon installing it, I noticed that the tensioner spring was attached to the guide nearest the engine pulley (orange arrow). I moved it to the idler pulley where it belonged (yellow arrow), and had to remove the guide and bend it back into shape since the spring was pulling so hard on it. *grumble* My question is, what angle is the guide supposed to be locked down at? There are no markings indicating the correct position, and I don't want excess stress or wear on the belt. I also need to make sure it doesn't allow the belt to contact the edge of the frame (red arrow).
![]()
2) The belt on the mower was shredded, so i had to cut it off and get a new one. I'm attempting to reroute it back onto all the pulleys, but had a question regarding what to remove. I obviously removed the tensioner spring and loosed the pulleys. I'm having trouble routing the belt above this "other" spring (red arrows). The belt needs to be on the other side of it. Do i need to remove this spring? And how? Or is there another way around this?
![]()
![]()
![]()
3) Last question: The mower recently started surging at idle. My dad gave it to me indicating it may have some old fuel in it. Could this be causing surging? Or am I looking at rebuilding the carb? Would anyone recommend siphoning out the tank, put some fresh gas in with maybe some seafoam or the like?
I hope someone has some helpful advise for me, i'm looking forward to bringing this thing back and putting it to work in the yard where it belongs
![]()
Here's a few photos after I started polishing out the plastic on the hood the other night. Trying to make it glow once again!
![]()
![]()
![]()
This is my first riding mower, as my yards have never been large enough to justify upgrading from a push mower. My parents had decided to upgrade to a zero turn, so this John Deere LT133 made its way to my household. Its been taken care of relatively well, and hasn't given much of a problem the 12 years its served my family... until now.
The repair place that did the maintenance recently changed the drive belt, and ever since, it would kick off the pulleys and make the tractor immobile. So i decided to tear into it and do some investigating.
1) I noticed the idler pulley near the main engine pulley was separated. I swung by a JD dealer and picked that pricey guy up for about $32 and got that installed. Upon installing it, I noticed that the tensioner spring was attached to the guide nearest the engine pulley (orange arrow). I moved it to the idler pulley where it belonged (yellow arrow), and had to remove the guide and bend it back into shape since the spring was pulling so hard on it. *grumble* My question is, what angle is the guide supposed to be locked down at? There are no markings indicating the correct position, and I don't want excess stress or wear on the belt. I also need to make sure it doesn't allow the belt to contact the edge of the frame (red arrow).
2) The belt on the mower was shredded, so i had to cut it off and get a new one. I'm attempting to reroute it back onto all the pulleys, but had a question regarding what to remove. I obviously removed the tensioner spring and loosed the pulleys. I'm having trouble routing the belt above this "other" spring (red arrows). The belt needs to be on the other side of it. Do i need to remove this spring? And how? Or is there another way around this?
3) Last question: The mower recently started surging at idle. My dad gave it to me indicating it may have some old fuel in it. Could this be causing surging? Or am I looking at rebuilding the carb? Would anyone recommend siphoning out the tank, put some fresh gas in with maybe some seafoam or the like?
I hope someone has some helpful advise for me, i'm looking forward to bringing this thing back and putting it to work in the yard where it belongs
