OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions On Ride On Mowers Questions on Rover Ride On Mower Rover Ranger 52155 - Cutter Deck

Hi all, new to the forum. Background in electrical, so may be able to assist at times. My issue is with this older Rover model. Could be an xc, but not too certain, the model number above is from the side plate. I cant seem to work out how the cutter deck is meant to engage/disengage from the motor drive. The only thing I can see that is linked to the engage lever is the little brake pad mech that engages onto to cutter pulley when the lever is put into the stop mode. It would appear to me that the drive belt is simply linked from the rear engine pulley direct to the cutter pulley. How that can be disengaged by the lever is beyond me, as there is no sign of a tension pulley along the belt or anything else. I have just acquired the mower, so I trust there is nothing missing from it. It looks straight forward to me, yet appears that the cutting deck would be spinning all the time, from the engine. Any help be great. Regards. Geoff

Hi Geoff, welcome to Outdoorking.

There is an illustrated parts list for the Rover Ranger XC 52144 in the manuals section, and it appears to cover the 52150 and 52155 as well. (The main difference seems to be the engine size.) If you have the same model, the cutter is engaged by pushing a lever to the left of the driver's seat downward, then across to the right. The movement to the right locks the lever in that position. You need to trace the mechanism connected to that lever behind the panel. I think you may find that the lever operates a push rod that moves the whole cutting deck backwards, thus tightening the drive belt. The illustrations do not show the control levers or linkages so this is not entirely clear, but it looks as if that may be the case. When the same lever is moved to the left then allowed to rise, the belt is loosened and the brake is applied to the rotating parts.

If you post pictures of the mechanism behind the engagement lever, and its linkage to the system that supports and cutting deck and controls its movement backward and forward, we can talk about it in more detail. The owner manual describes the cutting deck as "fully floating", and considering that it moves both backward and forward and up and down, that seems almost accurate. The owner manual also says that the cutting disk is driven by a "V belt clutch", which seems to conform to my guess as to how it all works, in the previous paragraph. It describes how to adjust the belt so that the clutch system works correctly.

Thanks for that, yes, on further inspection I found exactly as you said should be the way it works, but then found the reason that it wasn't doing it. All the deck mounting pins were either badly worn, or about to wear through. Every bolt/pin was rusted and seized. Dropped the whole deck and reworked it all. Yes, it now slides forward/backward with the deck engage lever. This mower has became a long headache for me, as the 11hp briggs was a throw away also, with the counterweight bushes gone, and no longer available. Have sourced a nice honda engine for it, so it is looking more up now. Never again will I buy a non running machine though. Oh...and the steering gear and shaft was missing, and had to be made up also. Regards. Geoff

Hi Geoff, and a warm welcome to the OutdoorKing forum.
It is always great to welcome a new member onboard; especially one whose background is in electrical.
We often have members ask questions about electrical issues with ride-on mowers, and it would be great to have someone like yourself, be able to give good advice to their questions.
Once again Geoff, and I look forward to reading posts in future.

Geoff, ride-on mowers seem to need a fair amount of maintenance, like reel-type mowers and English sports cars. You have to expect to spend your weekends dispensing oil, grease, tweaks to adusters, and TLC generally. I think if you look after the bits that wore out and went rusty, those specific problems need not recur. It sounds as if the previous owner didn't look after the moving parts, and probably didn't maintain the oil level in the engine either. Sometimes non-runners can be worthwhile so long as the price you pay is in proportion to the work you have to do, and you personally enjoy fixing things and making something out of nothing.

Glad it all worked out. If you have further problems or questions, just come back and ask. Meanwhile I'll close this thread. If anyone needs to post to it, just send a PM to a moderator.