OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Rover Ride On Mower Help required with Rover Rancher Hydro drive

Hi, as discussed in the intro section I have aquired a Rover Rancher Hydro drive ride on which had a blown motor, the idea being to transplant the B & S motor out of my worse for the wear White LT 12, after lookiing at the parts list that I got a copy of from my local agent I realised that I was at most missing only a few bolts, nuts, etc.
I replaced the missing bits from my stash and when I was happy that everything appeared to be right I set about the transplant, about 1 - 1.5 hours later the motor was in and connected up, a hit of the key and it fired up, now for the fun and games.
I am wondering if anyone can help with the final setup, although it is going it just doesn't seem to be cutting properly, is there a way to ensure the drive belt for the cutter deck is tensioned correctly or is there an adjustment for the belt to be tensioned further? It also appears to be going a little slower than I would have expected, perhaps the links to the hydro drive need adjusting, (if possible) not sure.
Anyhow, any help that anyone might offer will be appreciated, look forward to any replies, cheers Rosco

hi rosco,
only a guess , but i think you may be missing a couple of springs, ive had both rancher & ranger models , & when disconnecting the cutter drive you pulled the deck against the spring tension , & when engaging the drive the springs take over & thus tension the drive belt . you will need a rather strong spring force (trampoline springs perhaps )if you can not come up with the correct replacement part . if you are still in doubt i will be available for further suggestions , cheers,
john.

Thanks for that Ossie J, are you referring to the springs that connect the deck to the rear transaxle? if so they are both there,I didn't get a chance to look at it tonight, worked late, however seens as the weather here is not so flash and the chance to go flying once again eludes me, which is typical of late, I book some time with my instructor, after checking the forcast and no matter what the forcast is, if I book, it rains or blows a gale or both. Anyhow I will have 2 days at home to get the mower sorted I hope, so will get the exploded views out and give it all a good looking over, hopefully something will come to light. I will keep the forum updated with my progress, cheers, Rosco

I also have a Rover Rancher 13HP 30" cut hydro drive.

It is not as fast as the little Cox I had before this. I did have one problem where the drive belt slipped off the front pulley and dropped down so it was going around the pully shaft - that caused it to go slow forward and practically no reverse, so you might want to check that. Another thing may be that when you did your motor transplant your throttle is no longer gettig full range - does it rev as high as it did before?

As for the poor cutting, I had this problem too. check that the blade carrier and/or blades aren't bent - my mower had bent 3 of the 4 blades and one arm on the blade carrier up after hitting a pine tree root. just rotate the carrier and see that each blade tip sits about the same height at the front of the cutter deck.
I read on the contractors forum that these don't cut tall grass well because the blades sit just below the cutter deck front lip so the lip bends the tall grass over and the blades go over the top only skimming it. some fixes include:
1. cutting a bit more lip out of the front of the cutter deck so the bottom of the lip is a bit higher than the blades
2. using Cox blades as these are the same size but step down so they sit lower than the cutter deck front lip
3. mow the lawn more often so no tall grass.