QUICK AND EASY!!

Tools Needed: Not much -- one foot length of 1/2' nylon rope, vise grips, and large ratchet wrench with 5/8" socket

Now you can spend a lot of time trying to figure this out on your own -- there are a lot of ways to skin this cat -- But do it this way and you'll be done in 10-15 minutes with a little practice.

1. Loosen deck deck belt so that it can be removed from PTO pulley by "rolling" the belt off the PTO pulley (or spindle pulley). From rear of mower reach underneath with both hands and pull belt with left hand downward and rearward while turning PTO pulley to right. Maintaining downward tension while turning PTO pulley edge belt off the pulley.

2. Remove old transmission drive belt. Typically will already be broken or hopelessly worn so from rear of mower, section with knife and discard.

3. Lower PTO assembly from rear of mower to thread new transmission belt onto engine pulley. NOTE: This is necessary as there is an anti-rotational bracket that is welded to the framework and prevents the belt from being positioned in place otherwise. To lower the PTO assembly you must loosen the 5/8" bolt at the bottom -- but to prevent the flywheel from rotating while loosening the bolt you'll first need to remove the spark plug and feed into the spark plug hole a foot or so of 1/4" nylon rope. The piston will come up, hit the rope and lock up the engine. This will allow you loosen the bolt at the bottom of the PTO assembly. And the nylon rope will not hurt the piston or head -- just remember to leave enough rope out to remove the rope afterwards.

Once the PTO assembly bolt is loosened slowly unscrew ONLY ENOUGH so that the PTO assembly drops below the anti-rotational bracket and the belt can be put into place. Use the notch where the anti-rotational bracket engages the PTO assembly to facilitate placement of the belt above the engine pulley. Once belt is in place retighten the PTO assembly bolt making sure the anti-rotational bracket is aligned with the notch on the PTO assembly. Remove nylon rope from spark plug hole and replace spark plug.

4. Finish placement of belt. To complete placement of belt you have to remove tension on the transmission idler arm. So begin by detaching the spring from the mower frame to release the tension on the idler pulley so that the belt can be placed. Read below on methods to replace spring.

From the rear of mower FIRST thread belt around the right transmission drive pulley and then onto the left transmission drive pulley. The transmission drive belt is then positioned onto the engine pulley at the top of the PTO assembly and then on the drive idler pulley. Tension is then reapplied by reattaching the tension spring.

NOTE: Replacement of the tension spring is a "simple yet a hard to master" move. Using a pair of vise grips placed right at the base of the spring's hook and oriented so the hook is at 90 degrees to both the hook and the hook's latch on the framework the spring is pulled into position and hooked onto the latch. Adjustment and placement of the vise grips is critical to prevent near misses and frustration. And unless you have the upper torso of a gorilla, position your body so that you are using your legs and not your arms to pull back the spring.

For those less inclined to use their legs and biceps you will appreciate the use of a wire cable or ratchet drive to unload tension from the spindle arm! The manual describes the use of 3/8" drive long-arm ratchet being placed in the square hole of the drive idler bracket and used as leverage for releasing tension on idler pulley; others have left the spring in place and pulled the idler arm back by threading a wire cable into the square hole in the idler arm and extending the wire to the underside of the framework to the right side of the mower where it could be attached to fulcrum and secured.

5. Replace deck drive belt. First place the deck drive belt on all mower blade pulleys and spindle pulleys. Then sitting at rear of mower looking forward reaching underneath grasping the belt with both hands pulling back and sliding the belt back onto the PTO pulley.

6. Remove rope from spark plug hole and replace spark plug.

Job done.

I would think---if somebody had the moola to buy an expensive machine like that, why in the world would they go to the trouble of trying to replace a belt, if it took that much work?
You make it sound easy. OHH , YES! Especially for an amateur mechanic.
I, who has worked with cars, trucks, lawn mowers, lawn tractors, and related stuff in the mechanical world, shuddered when i read just how hard it is to do that job!
Several years ago, i tried replacing the two drive belts on an old lawn tractor. It had the variable belt type. Never having done one, and being the adventuresome type, i set to. Well, after several nights of work, i finally got it all back together. Backed it out of the garage, parked it, got off, and it caught fire, from a rubbing belt, and that was the end of that! But, i fixed that ungrateful beast--i removed its engine, and used it in another, more convential machine!
As i remember, it was a Montgomery-Ward.

Good enough write up except for the possible #7 which is diagnosing a bent valve from using the rope trick in an OHV. It can happen!

The newer Cub Cadets have some of the stupidest designs ever created.

You must first remove the deck belt. Then the PTO clutch so that the transmission pulley on the engine can be lowered enough to install the belt around it. Then everything put back in place. After that is done you can then route the belt around the left and right side transmission pulleys.

Most of their lawn tractors have those same "guards/tabs" stamped into the frame and you can not get a new belt on one without damaging it unless you remove the PTO clutch for the deck belt.

Everyone I encounter that is set up that way. I cut-grind the two tabs off once i remove the pulley. Makes the next drive belt change simpler.

Hey rustyj14, I'm going to tell you something that your parents should have told you years ago...If you don't have anything to contribute STFU. Some of us saved up for a long time to buy a decent ZTR mower. We don't want to have to continue to pay a bunch of money for maintenance on what should be a relatively easy to replace part. To everyone that actually contributed something worthwhile, thank you! I think I'll just try and bend that annoying piece of metal out of the way and hope I don't break it.

Hey this the way I do it.

1/ Remove the deck belt from the motor pulley clamp it so not to lose tension and drop of the blade pulleys.

2/ Remove Old Drive Belt

3/ Remove the idler Tension Spring

4/ Loosen the bolt on the Belt tension pulley until it can slide it out the way.

5/ Bend the anti rotation bracket that is welded on so it just enough to squeeze the belt on, no need to bend it back afterwards.

6/ Put the new belt on and reverse the above.

The hardest part is putting the tension spring back on.

I just did the drive belt replacement and instead of running rope in the spark plug hole. I used a pipe wrench to stop reverse torque on the shaft and removed the pto bolt. Small pipe wrench and ratchet and socket. Much easier and simpler!!

Update: I've had to replace mine twice. Never had to remove the clutch, you just use a screwdriver to bend the metal stopper away enough to slide the belt off, then bend the stopper back into place. No unhooking the electrical clip, no air tools. Super simple. Also a tip to replace the spring, hook a bit of aircraft cable through the little hole in the frame to the end of the spring, then use vise grips to pull the wire and hook the spring on its mount. Kudos to SilentKnightSaga for this tip. You can use the same method to get the spring off. Here's the link to his video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrC3xAttEno