Craftsman Lawn Tractor?

Question

I have a LT 4000 Craftsman Lawn Tractor, I think it is about 10 to 15 years old. I keep burning deck belts. I dropped the deck and the pulleys turn but I was wondering how freely they should turn. I was also wondering if there are bearing i can replace and how to do it. Please help.

Answer 1

Without the belt the pulleys should spin freely including the belt tensioning pulley without any noise or sideways motion. There are two bearing in each of the blade spindles. You have to remove the nut and pulley. The shaft will come out of the spindle. There is a bearing top and bottom in the spindle. You should be able to drive the bearings out and replace them. If you were asking about an owners manual, it will not show how to work on the spindles. If you go to parts at sears.com and type in the model number it will show an exploded view of the mower deck and give the part numbers for the bearings.

Answer 2

The quills or blade supports should turn very freely unless they have a brake on them to stop them when you disengage power to them. There are bearings inside them but you may want to take the deck or machine to a repair place to have the work done. In most cases you should have a bearing press to remove the bearings and a pulley puller to remove the pulleys or blade adapters. It is not a real hard job but in most cases you need the special equipment to do this job.
Another reason for the burned belts may be misaligned belts, guides, dull blades, too tall grass or brakes that are not releasing. Hope this helps, Roy.