On many of the MTD riders, there is a metal plate that wraps around the engine stack pulley. This keeps the belt from jumping off the top drive pulley. It also keeps you from changing the belt. Look closely and you will find the plate is removable. 4 sheetmetal screws hold this item in place. If your mower is designed this way, the 2 hour job you were anticipating just turned into 10 minutes.

Thanks larryf. How I wish your words were reality! The Parts Diagram found here

http://manuals.mtdproducts.com/mtd/DocGetter?doc=769-01612a.pdf

on page 12 shows how they have incorporated that plate you mention into the frame and have simply stamped a hole for the motor shaft and pully through the frame. And as you say ... the belt keepers, which are now part of the frame, keep the belt on and prevent you from changing the belt.

Bummer.

The stack pulley is held in place with one bolt that threads into the crankshaft. Try removing the bolt and see if the stack pulley drops down a couple of inches. If the pulley is rusted or frozen to the engine crankshaft, it may be very difficult to remove without damaging. Do not pry against the sheetmetal pulley or the pulley will be bent.

You will also note that the hole in the deck is oblong,
so you can remove the engine bolts and let the engine move
back an inch, and change the belt, which is what you need to do.

Fish

Thanks Fish ... Thst was the easy way.

For anyone reading this to change the belt...
Mower in Park.
remove ....
Spark plug wire, battery and two brackets, Belt keeper rod under engine pully, two hex screws on exhaust pipe to engine, 4 motor bolts and slide engine back, extension spring from variable speed bracket under battery, variable speed belt, deck belt from engine pully, drive belt from variable speed pully but leave in place, tape new belt to old and pull both through toward front.

You should have the idea from there ...

Roger

So you agree with me????
You have detailed a bit more, but the same......

Hi:

I'm a bit late, here but I wanted to comment on this. I have a Yardman mower which I think is made by MTD. Anyway, I have the 17 hp Briggs engine with a 42 inch mower deck. The unit is about 6 or 7 years old and I just broke the drive belt for the first time.

And, just like you, I found the pulley right below the engine is frozen tight on the engine shaft. I drilled out the key and used PB Blaster and penetrating oil but that didn't help.

I finally had to resort to using a heavy duty reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade to saw thru the pulley, vertically. Of course, this destroyed the pulley. But it finally did come off the shaft. I have a new pulley supposedly being sent by UPS.

Curiously, unlike what the instructions in the owner's manual said, I did NOT find a washer separating the pulley from the PTO clutch when I removed the clutch. I DID order a washer from the supplier along with the new pulley and slot key.

If you use a pulley puller, grab the bottom half of the pulley with the puller, the pulley will separate and allow u to get the belt off.

Hi, daleg:

The pulley puller idea was a complete waste of time. All that did was bend the pulley all over the place. In terms of the pulley being frozen on the shaft - it did absolutely nothing.

I'll go ahead and make a sequel of this post. After I got the pulley off and replaced with a new one, the new belts went on fine. I fired my engine up, put it in forward gear - and nothing. I put it in reverse gear - still, nothing - no movement in either direction. That's when I realized that the transmission, itself, must be broken.

I removed the thing and took it to a repair shop where I'm still awaiting the results. So far, the place says I have a broken clutch collar and that parts for my machine are now longer available. They are investigating the possibility of canabalizing old parts from somewhere. New transmissions on the Internet list for anywhere from $300 to $425!

I'm pretty disgusted at the moment.

My transmission had a broken clutch collar. The repair shop canabalized one from an old transmission and fixed mine. Cost = $168 ($68 parts + $100 labor).

Mower now all reassembled and running like new.

Thanks for all the helpful info! I am at the bending the pully stage. But now realize a new pully, cleaning the shaft and some never seeze will be very helpful for future belt changes. I thnk if an application of never seeze was used during OEM build this would not have been a big deal.

I have a similar problem with a tiller. I have an older, probably 1970s, 3.5 MTD front end tiller. No model number but it may be a 112-100. The motor that came with it was siezed so I found a new one and tried to mount it yesterdday. The problem is that I can't get the motor pulley to go onto the belt. It appears the belt is too short but before purchasing a new one I thought I would ask the experts. You guys.

So my question is how to slide the motor on so that it engages the v-belt as the motor slips into place. The motor is mounted to a thick steel rectagulare base that once in will not slide forward or back. There is no access from the bottom but there is from the handle/pulley end. I thought there might be some kind of tool to help pull the belt over the pulley.

Any advice? Thanks in advance.

I have a mistake in the last post. Model number is 214-100A

Hope you can help.

I got the drive belt installed as suggested above on the MTD mower but now have a problem. The spring on the idler pulley was hanging off the idler bracket and I can't find a spot where it connects on the other end. I did find a hole in a plate forward of the pulley that was real shiny around the hole but can't get the spring into it. Does it go into that hole or is there another location?

If it looks like that is the logical place for it, roll the belt off, hook on the spring and roll the belt back on.