OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Greenfield Ride On Mower Frames Greenfield Evolution 13/32 - Rolled Drive Belt

Yesterday I bought a Greenfield Evolution 13/32 ride on in "as new" condition and 28 hours on the clock. Got it home and started mowing. On occasions thought I could smell belt smoke and at completion when cleaning it up discovered the drive belt was rolled. Re- installed it 4 times but each time it almost immediately rolled again.
Is rolling of the drive belt a common fault? What causes it? At $48 a pop I hope it is not a regular thing. Once rolled is the belt permanently damaged?

On the bright side I now have a good understanding of the workings of my new ride on, and can change a belt in around 10-15 minutes!!

Jim

The belt rolls because of wear or because the drive is incorrectly set up. It isn't the rolling that damages the belt primarily - but if it has been run in a rolled condition long enough to smoke and smell, it is probably ruined. More likely it was ruined in the first place and that is why it rolled. Check whether the belt is bottoming in any of the pulleys, whether the pulleys are worn out, and whether they are in proper alignment with each other.

The Greenfield treats its propulsion belt rather oddly, in running it around a couple of right-angle changes of plane - the clutch pulleys have horizontal axes while the engine pulley has a vertical axis - but I haven't read any reports of members here having problems with that belt. Sounds as if it may be a problem with the pulleys, or the wrong belt (too narrow and hence bottoming in the pulleys) or lack of belt tension.

Thanks Grumpy. Will instal a new belt and see how I go. As I mentioned, the machine is like brand new so wear in the pulleys is not an issue and mis alignment out of the factory is most unlikely. I suspect mis use by previous owner is most likely the cause.

Be careful to ensure the new belt is the right section (i.e., width). We have had some mowers where a narrower belt has been fitted by somebody, and it bottoms in the pulleys for that reason. The lesson is, always find out what belt it should have rather than what belt it has when you buy it second-hand.

Reluctantly went to the dealer today and bought a new genuine Greenfield belt. Also confirmed whilst there that the "rolled" belt was the correct one and in fact it was also a Greenfield belt.
Asked what causes it to roll and was told it is generally due to lack of tension. It seems this dealer does not rely on the "automatic" tensioner fitter but sweats up with a lump of wood against the tensioning pully to get a few more notches on tensioning ratchet rod!!!!

Maybe we can get some other comments from Greenfield owners who are members here. I don't recall anyone commenting on having to take special measures to get enough belt tension, and I don't believe you should be operating the mower with the automatic tensioner bottomed out (spring fully compressed and tensioner not able to operate normally). However I suggest you keep the old belt - it may be usable as a replacement once this problem is sorted out. I have encountered problems like this on self-tensioning belt drives (not on mowers) when someone had assembled them backwards, and ended up either with the tensioner on the tension (driving) side of the drive pulley instead of the slack (return) side of the drive pulley, or alternatively put the tensioner pulley on the wrong side of the belt itself so it couldn't apply tension. Are you sure the tensioning system is correctly assembled?

Anyone out there with experience of this problem, especially on a Greenfield?

Yes it is as it came out of the factory. It is located in a "neutral" position on the belt equally between the two main drive pulleys and at the extreme opposite end to the motor drive pulley. Having just spent the last couple of hours installing and re-inatalling the new belt,(because it keeps jumping off)I am now convinced the cause is the extreme lead on to one of the guide pulleys.

As you know the Greenfield uses an extremely long belt which transitions from the horizontal plane on the vertical engine shaft, to the vertical plane on the horizontal axle shaft. During that transition it passes over two sets of guide pulleys. The front set consists of one V and one flat pulley to cater for the back and front of each run of the belt.

It looks to me like the lead on to the "flat" pulley is too great causing the belt to jump off and eventually roll.

Will try to realign the flat pully to give it a better lead on and report back.

Agree with you Grumpy, once the problem is sorted out the old belt may be reusable as a spare.

Jim, is this the tensioning pulley?

The picture is from this thread:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/u...4&Words=greenfield&Search=true#Post21467

Yep that is it. After passing over the two big clutch pulleys the belt passes over two sets of guide pulleys before going around the drive pulley on the crankshaft.

HOWEVER it is fixed!!!!!!!!!

My silly mistake. The next two guide pulleys down underneath and just forward of the two big clutch pulleys are also flat pulleys requiring the back of the belt to pass over them. I had it passing under them thinking they were V pulleys. Now the belt aligns correctly over the other guide pully further forward an everything works beautifully. Thanks for your efforts Grumpy.

This is a great site, wish I had found it earlier.

Jim

A great outcome, Jim, and if you count a spare belt as a capital asset, it didn't cost any expense money at all.

That top rear position would have been a terrible place for a spring-loaded tensioning pulley, because it takes a lot of load: the spring would be handling double the belt tension, so it would need a massive spring that might be dangerous to handle. For practical design it has to be fixed, not sprung. You could use it as the adjustable pulley, but not as an automatic tensioner. My growing faith in Greenfield's design work is undamaged after all.

Please feel free to start another thread if you have any problems or notice something interesting about your machine, Jim. I'll close this one.