Morning Folks,
moweasy, in the photos you mentioned above do you think there is evidence of wear on the cutter pulley? It looks like it has been radiused off (?) - suggesting there may have been rubbing in the past?
Something else to consider is play in the cutter height adjust mechanism. If it is all loose and floppy it will allow the whole deck to move around and move forward under belt tension. This includes looking at the deck mounting for play. Also, has your machine got the lateral stay bar at the back? It's a bar that mounts on the deck and goes into a slot in the chassis at the rear of the machine? Pretty sure your model is supposed to have it?
Of course none of this accounts for why the blades were physically able to contact the deck.
Cheers,
