Thanks for sharing this my friend. I spent around 5 hours today putting both upper and lower drive belts on my dad's. With the old belts, it had gotten to the point it would start off okay but then slow down dramatically or even to a stop, especially when turning and/or cutting. First test runs with new belts went pretty good except it didn't go as fast as I remembered it did. I figured it needed adjustment. Proceeded to do so and came to find out I'd either have to remove the WHOLE FREAKING BODY or cut a hole in it just to get to one lock nut holding the pivoting pulley assembly, for enough clearance to remove the "tie rod end like" adjuster. Can't believe they did that !! Cut a 1" x 1" hole, made adjustment and then it was back just like old belts. Figured I'd gone the wrong way even though it didn't seem logical, so I reversed the adjustment and then even worse. Two more adjustments (total of 4 now) and no better. It was time for me to get home then. I had my "tail between my legs" at this point, totally bummed and discouraged I had not fixed and finished it today. Started thinking it might be torque convertor issues and dreading it. I HATE this machine and it's designers now !! I definitely hope your fix is it and look forward to seeing first thing in the morning. Thanks again.
@@jlistdiy Most definitely will sir. Hope I don't have to but I may call on you tomorrow if it doesn't work for some reason. I'll tell you some about it now because I think you and others will be happy to hear this Total Debacle and maybe even be amused somewhat by it. Try to make a long story short here, up front, now...My 82 year old father had this same job done (drive belts) 2 years ago by a well known and used, local dealer and shop.., "Wilson Power Mower". 2 weeks ago he tells me, "Well, I'm going to have to buy a new mower, I had to have prayer meetings with it to get the grass finished and still barely did and its leaking oil BAD". I go look at it and the whole lower mower and parts are covered with oil, grass, dirt and everything else that sticks to that, so bad you couldn't see/tell where it was coming from. I took it home, gave it an initial degreasing & pressure wash and found the engine being held in place by 1 last, halfway backed out bolt, the front, left. That shop, had obviously taken the motor bolts out to shift it around/prop up, to get the belts on & off instead of removing engine pulley (easy way) and forgot to (or didn't care about) torqueing them back. You could tell.., it had wallowed out the other three holes as the engine vibrated and shifted under load. When the 3rd bolt finally came out, the engine was shifting/pivoting/moving enough that the plastic, "quick & easy oil drain" (not a fan of) rested & moved on the belt keeper bolt protruding up through the frame and made it leak badly. I removed engine, cherry picked unit up and thoroughly cleaned both, all over and under. Put pipe & cap in place of stock drain, tap chased motor mount holes (luckily, threads were still decent) & new bolts, fully serviced everything & put new tires on front, all to give it back to him and still have moving issue, so we got belts. Pretty sure rear end/transmission is good. Wheels turn freely in opposite directions jacked up, spinning one. Both spinning with engine running, in gear. Everything is clean so no oil/dirty pulley problem, however they are worn & shiny. If your fix doesn't work, I'd think it could only be pulley's or torque converter/clutch ? Sorry so long man but thought it worth sharing and putting out to maybe help others and not forget to tighten bolts properly.
On my 2012 LTX1040 I did NOT have to remove the "double pulley bracket" to make that tie rod adjustment for belt tension. Using a long flat spanner for a back up I was able to reach in from the back between the body pan and the frame and loosened one of the nuts a bit on the "mounting bracket pulley bolt" and then their was enough wiggle room to turn the "adjustment rod."
Well, that wasn't my problem, but I did see it had a little bit of adjustment left. I adjusted it out all the way and put new drive belts on it. It did spend it up a little bit, but it will still go faster in reverse than it will forward.
Sooo, one other idea... that pedal rod terminates in an oval hole on mine at the hydro transmission linkage. So that the rod can slide back and engage a pressure switch for reverse safety. Long ago i ran my mow deck pto thru an aftermarket switch drilled into dash, direct to battery to bypass safety switches. So that oval hole on trans linkage became "factory slop" for me. I removed the safety switch entirely, and took the rod out. Found a sleeved washer, and dremeled the sleeve into 2 lobes that filled both sides of the oval hole in the linkage and allowed the rod to sit nicely in the middle. That got rid of the factory slop and pretty much created a direct impingement situation. And i gained about .5 to 1mph just from a washer. Those of you with slow reverse... check your frame. Mine broke just forward of the right rear tire. Every time i pedaled for reverse the whole back of rhe tractor would flex away as the pedal linkage pushed the transmission backward. Simple fix was to weld it back together and add a small piece of plate steel to reinforce. Also was able to add a few bolts to that to reinforce so my welds wouldn't fail. Is better than factory spec now, and lots faster, but potentially extremely dangerous without any safety switches. So i wouldn't condone bypassing safety for normal users.
Just watched your video. I have a 2009 lxt1040 that has been running slow for years. Just applied your fix and now it’s speed has been greatly improved! Thanks!
Thanks... My cub LT1018 transmission belt broke. Replaced it ,but now it has a case of the "slows" and can barely climb any grade......Hopefully your "fix" will work for the LT1018 and speed it up.
Hi Jamie, I am hoping you have some input for me, but first, thank you for the video. I have a LTX 1040. I have not noticed it going slow so much but I have a hard time climbing hills with it. When it stop while climbing i release my foot and push it down and and it wll go a little bit, sometimes i have to do this several times to make a hill. I replaced the belt and seemed to fix it for about 15-20 minutes. I will try and do what you have showed in this video but I thought i would see if you have any other ideas. Thank you and thanks again for the video.
I wouldn't say mine is fast by any means, but I wouldn't call it excruciatingly slow either. The problem I have with mine is it makes a very loud whining noise when moving. When I go down a hill with the speed pedal still down, the noise will stop. The tractor in this video almost sounded like it had the same noise. Is what you fixed possibly be a solution to the noise I have? Thank you!
No this wouldn't be a fix for that type of noise , I believe that is the gear slightly wore in causing a vibration in the transmission I wouldn't worry to much about it
Would this issue on the same mower get to the point that it wouldn't go forward or in reverse when you pressed the pedal? I can stick mine in gear but it doesn't pull. New belts, drive belt idler all good linkage shifts on transmission but it just won't pull. Any ideas to what it could be?
I have had a few that wouldn't move due to this issue and I also had a few that had something wore out In the transmission itself best way to test is jack up rear end start the mower and put in drive and press the pedal and if the rear pulley is spinning and the wheels dont spin Then problem is in the transmission
@@jlistdiy Thanks I'll try that now. Should be able to jack it up, pull the battery and stick it in gear and turn the transmission pulley by hand to see if the tires turn...I hope
@@jlistdiy i bypassed seat saftey switch , jacked up the rear end, started it on jump box with battery out and pulley and belts turn when pressing peddle down but no movement in either tire😞
It looks as though its pretty well bent where that rod you bent connects to the cross bar, and if it bends with a screw driver so easily, imagine what our feet are doing with leverage.
@@jlistdiy Turns out that the previous owner swapped out one of the low profile torx style bolts for a regular hex style and the forward peddle was catching on the brake. Fixed that really quick and it was still slow so I then checked the adjuster and it had a full range of adjustment available and now it's a pretty quick machine. I'm finding lots of random stuff with this thing, so one piece at a time. I paid $350 for it last fall so I can put a few hundred into it and still come out ahead.
My mower would fly in reverse but go slow forward. I tried this yesterday and it does faster but will not pull any kind of bank or hill AT ALL. Even slows down to a crawl when I turn left or right lol any ideas
Hey my ltx1050 started making a horrible grinding noise and is really slow getting my fat ass up even a slight hill now. Never did that before. Any ideas?
Hey i thought your trick would get me up and going again. At times the transmission will pull good and then at other times it eill stop and pulleys and everything quit pulley all togther on the transmission.
@@jlistdiy thanks for the response. I replaced the belts unless I was given the wrong belts at the lawn mower shop. A guy that works on them seems to think it's my transmission. But it doesn't grind or anything when it's in either gear . It will go for just a short time and then it will stop . It goes into gear easy as well. The variable speed pulley seems to be working as far as I can tell . I was driving it today and I literally watched the pulley on the transmission which would be the biggest pulley stop turning with the pedal all the way down.
@@timothyfurr6314 if the big pulley stops turning then their Is a slippage issue I would check for oil on the pulley under the engine or its possible the belt is to long by even 1 inch
@@jlistdiy the pulley on the bottom of the engine is dry and it continues to spin as the motor is running . It's just the big pulley on the transmission or transaxle which ever it preferred to be called is the one that stops. I've normally replaced drive belts with no problem but this one is giving me a fit. I just hope and pray it's not the transmission because that's a 600 dollar deal there
Thanks for sharing this my friend. I spent around 5 hours today putting both upper and lower drive belts on my dad's. With the old belts, it had gotten to the point it would start off okay but then slow down dramatically or even to a stop, especially when turning and/or cutting. First test runs with new belts went pretty good except it didn't go as fast as I remembered it did. I figured it needed adjustment. Proceeded to do so and came to find out I'd either have to remove the WHOLE FREAKING BODY or cut a hole in it just to get to one lock nut holding the pivoting pulley assembly, for enough clearance to remove the "tie rod end like" adjuster. Can't believe they did that !! Cut a 1" x 1" hole, made adjustment and then it was back just like old belts. Figured I'd gone the wrong way even though it didn't seem logical, so I reversed the adjustment and then even worse. Two more adjustments (total of 4 now) and no better. It was time for me to get home then. I had my "tail between my legs" at this point, totally bummed and discouraged I had not fixed and finished it today. Started thinking it might be torque convertor issues and dreading it. I HATE this machine and it's designers now !! I definitely hope your fix is it and look forward to seeing first thing in the morning. Thanks again.
Yes definitely frustrating let me know how it goes and hopefully this will fix your issue
@@jlistdiy Most definitely will sir. Hope I don't have to but I may call on you tomorrow if it doesn't work for some reason. I'll tell you some about it now because I think you and others will be happy to hear this Total Debacle and maybe even be amused somewhat by it. Try to make a long story short here, up front, now...My 82 year old father had this same job done (drive belts) 2 years ago by a well known and used, local dealer and shop.., "Wilson Power Mower". 2 weeks ago he tells me, "Well, I'm going to have to buy a new mower, I had to have prayer meetings with it to get the grass finished and still barely did and its leaking oil BAD". I go look at it and the whole lower mower and parts are covered with oil, grass, dirt and everything else that sticks to that, so bad you couldn't see/tell where it was coming from. I took it home, gave it an initial degreasing & pressure wash and found the engine being held in place by 1 last, halfway backed out bolt, the front, left. That shop, had obviously taken the motor bolts out to shift it around/prop up, to get the belts on & off instead of removing engine pulley (easy way) and forgot to (or didn't care about) torqueing them back. You could tell.., it had wallowed out the other three holes as the engine vibrated and shifted under load. When the 3rd bolt finally came out, the engine was shifting/pivoting/moving enough that the plastic, "quick & easy oil drain" (not a fan of) rested & moved on the belt keeper bolt protruding up through the frame and made it leak badly. I removed engine, cherry picked unit up and thoroughly cleaned both, all over and under. Put pipe & cap in place of stock drain, tap chased motor mount holes (luckily, threads were still decent) & new bolts, fully serviced everything & put new tires on front, all to give it back to him and still have moving issue, so we got belts. Pretty sure rear end/transmission is good. Wheels turn freely in opposite directions jacked up, spinning one. Both spinning with engine running, in gear. Everything is clean so no oil/dirty pulley problem, however they are worn & shiny. If your fix doesn't work, I'd think it could only be pulley's or torque converter/clutch ?
Sorry so long man but thought it worth sharing and putting out to maybe help others and not forget to tighten bolts properly.
@@Stucknarutt the bolts coming lose seem to be very common with the kohler courage engines
On my 2012 LTX1040 I did NOT have to remove the "double pulley bracket" to make that tie rod adjustment for belt tension. Using a long flat spanner for a back up I was able to reach in from the back between the body pan and the frame and loosened one of the nuts a bit on the "mounting bracket pulley bolt" and then their was enough wiggle room to turn the "adjustment rod."
I will be trying this tomorrow my friend. I changed the belts clean the pullies and it made no difference. Thanks for this video. God Bless!
Your welcome
Well, that wasn't my problem, but I did see it had a little bit of adjustment left. I adjusted it out all the way and put new drive belts on it. It did spend it up a little bit, but it will still go faster in reverse than it will forward.
@@papawsplace well that's a bummer it's usually the common issues with this model mower
When I watched your video last night, I could not wait till daylight to see if that was going to be the problem. I sure was hoping it was. LOL
Thanks great to see a real, well filmed, solution.
Thank you It definitely is a common problem with this model
Sooo, one other idea... that pedal rod terminates in an oval hole on mine at the hydro transmission linkage. So that the rod can slide back and engage a pressure switch for reverse safety. Long ago i ran my mow deck pto thru an aftermarket switch drilled into dash, direct to battery to bypass safety switches. So that oval hole on trans linkage became "factory slop" for me. I removed the safety switch entirely, and took the rod out. Found a sleeved washer, and dremeled the sleeve into 2 lobes that filled both sides of the oval hole in the linkage and allowed the rod to sit nicely in the middle. That got rid of the factory slop and pretty much created a direct impingement situation. And i gained about .5 to 1mph just from a washer. Those of you with slow reverse... check your frame. Mine broke just forward of the right rear tire. Every time i pedaled for reverse the whole back of rhe tractor would flex away as the pedal linkage pushed the transmission backward. Simple fix was to weld it back together and add a small piece of plate steel to reinforce. Also was able to add a few bolts to that to reinforce so my welds wouldn't fail. Is better than factory spec now, and lots faster, but potentially extremely dangerous without any safety switches. So i wouldn't condone bypassing safety for normal users.
Just watched your video. I have a 2009 lxt1040 that has been running slow for years. Just applied your fix and now it’s speed has been greatly improved! Thanks!
Thanks... My cub LT1018 transmission belt broke. Replaced it ,but now it has a case of the "slows" and can barely climb any grade......Hopefully your "fix" will work for the LT1018 and speed it up.
That's strange is it the correct belt 🤔
@@jlistdiy The dealer said it was the correct belt. Do you think it might be the spring by the idler pulley/?
@@keymedian2 could be possible or it could be routed wrong but never hurts to try this fix and see what it does
@@keymedian2 check for dirt build up too underneith, anywhere the belts go.
Pretty nice work, Jamie! Much better now! 😊
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
I have another video similar to this but didnt show exactly how I did it and i had a few people asking how, so I made this video
@@jlistdiy will this fix also work with troybilt bronco
@@stevehill666 it's possible if it's the same setup but I have only encountered this issue on the cub cadet
@@jlistdiy thanks for the information sir.
@@stevehill666 your welcome
Hi Jamie, I am hoping you have some input for me, but first, thank you for the video. I have a LTX 1040. I have not noticed it going slow so much but I have a hard time climbing hills with it. When it stop while climbing i release my foot and push it down and and it wll go a little bit, sometimes i have to do this several times to make a hill. I replaced the belt and seemed to fix it for about 15-20 minutes. I will try and do what you have showed in this video but I thought i would see if you have any other ideas. Thank you and thanks again for the video.
This seems to be very common with this model I have done this to several so far and has always worked
Mine has the problem the other way around. Once you release the brake takes off like crazy.please help. Thank you
I wouldn't say mine is fast by any means, but I wouldn't call it excruciatingly slow either. The problem I have with mine is it makes a very loud whining noise when moving. When I go down a hill with the speed pedal still down, the noise will stop. The tractor in this video almost sounded like it had the same noise. Is what you fixed possibly be a solution to the noise I have? Thank you!
No this wouldn't be a fix for that type of noise , I believe that is the gear slightly wore in causing a vibration in the transmission I wouldn't worry to much about it
Very helpful video! Thanks
Your welcome
Can you tell me how to install the spring on the upper F-N-R rod? It fell off and I can't get it back on.
If I remember correctly it just attached to the shifter bar and the other end to somewhere on the frame
Would this issue on the same mower get to the point that it wouldn't go forward or in reverse when you pressed the pedal?
I can stick mine in gear but it doesn't pull.
New belts, drive belt idler all good linkage shifts on transmission but it just won't pull. Any ideas to what it could be?
I have had a few that wouldn't move due to this issue and I also had a few that had something wore out In the transmission itself best way to test is jack up rear end start the mower and put in drive and press the pedal and if the rear pulley is spinning and the wheels dont spin Then problem is in the transmission
@@jlistdiy Thanks I'll try that now. Should be able to jack it up, pull the battery and stick it in gear and turn the transmission pulley by hand to see if the tires turn...I hope
@@davidstill754 let me know how it goes
@@jlistdiy i bypassed seat saftey switch , jacked up the rear end, started it on jump box with battery out and pulley and belts turn when pressing peddle down but no movement in either tire😞
@@davidstill754 and it was in gear correct
It looks as though its pretty well bent where that rod you bent connects to the cross bar, and if it bends with a screw driver so easily, imagine what our feet are doing with leverage.
Exactly and that's mainly the reason why is slows down in the first place
They needed to have some adjustable stop on the pedal side to prevent this.
Out of curiosity, why not just adjust the threaded part of the linkage instead of bending the whole assembly?
Someone had already had that fully adjusted as far as it could go , I should have showed that in the video thank you for pointing that out
@@jlistdiy Ahhh, I see. I actually have the same issue with mine and am planning on working on it when I get time today. Thanks for the video!
@@spec8473 your welcome and let me know how it goes 😀
@@jlistdiy Turns out that the previous owner swapped out one of the low profile torx style bolts for a regular hex style and the forward peddle was catching on the brake. Fixed that really quick and it was still slow so I then checked the adjuster and it had a full range of adjustment available and now it's a pretty quick machine.
I'm finding lots of random stuff with this thing, so one piece at a time. I paid $350 for it last fall so I can put a few hundred into it and still come out ahead.
@@spec8473 awsome that's great news and $350 was a good deal for sure
Looks like you sped the video up at the end 🤔 I'll give it a try still.
Did you try it ?
I put new drive belt on now it will creep, it does not go slow the speed is all right will this help that or any idea what could cause that. Thanks
It's possible this fix will help all you can do is try
@@jlistdiy Thanks
@@harolddominy1284 your welcome
great deal !
My mower would fly in reverse but go slow forward. I tried this yesterday and it does faster but will not pull any kind of bank or hill AT ALL. Even slows down to a crawl when I turn left or right lol any ideas
Is the belt wore down or does the belt have oil on it 🤔 those things will cause that issue
@@jlistdiy bought a new belt today, it will be in tomorrow gonna try that one
@@maximumredline97 great let me know how it goes 😀
Hey my ltx1050 started making a horrible grinding noise and is really slow getting my fat ass up even a slight hill now. Never did that before. Any ideas?
Sounds like the transmission is going out
Hey i thought your trick would get me up and going again. At times the transmission will pull good and then at other times it eill stop and pulleys and everything quit pulley all togther on the transmission.
That's strange 🤔 is the belt stretched out or to long ?
@@jlistdiy thanks for the response. I replaced the belts unless I was given the wrong belts at the lawn mower shop. A guy that works on them seems to think it's my transmission. But it doesn't grind or anything when it's in either gear . It will go for just a short time and then it will stop . It goes into gear easy as well. The variable speed pulley seems to be working as far as I can tell . I was driving it today and I literally watched the pulley on the transmission which would be the biggest pulley stop turning with the pedal all the way down.
@@timothyfurr6314 if the big pulley stops turning then their Is a slippage issue I would check for oil on the pulley under the engine or its possible the belt is to long by even 1 inch
@@jlistdiy the pulley on the bottom of the engine is dry and it continues to spin as the motor is running . It's just the big pulley on the transmission or transaxle which ever it preferred to be called is the one that stops. I've normally replaced drive belts with no problem but this one is giving me a fit. I just hope and pray it's not the transmission because that's a 600 dollar deal there
@@timothyfurr6314 the big pulley stops and the belt keeps moving if so then yes it's a transmission issue
Love it much better
Awsome 😀
Well I sure hope this is my problem thx 🙏🙏
Usually seems to be the issue most of the time
Kool tx 🖖🏼
Your welcome
why did this help?
By bending that metal rod it cause the drive belt to get tighter when pressing the pedal increasing your speed
This is a bandaid at best and doesn't address the underlying problem
The problem is that it's a factory defect and should have been a recall on it they should have used hardend steel