Mower maintenance is important, and most lawn owners know how to handle the standard procedures. Tasks like oil changes, replacing filters, and sharpening blades can all be done every couple of weeks or months and become a familiar part of our lawn care practices. But I learned that belt tension and even the idler pulley can be adjusted to give your mower a considerable boost.
Belts and engine parts are often looked at as outside of the general scope of non-mechanical tinkering, but there are some parts that can easily be tightened that drastically improve the performance of your mower and prolongs your lawn mower deck belt. Trying to tighten a loose belt can be daunting, but this article will help you figure out which belt routes your mower has and how to safely adjust deck belt tension.
Should a Mower Deck Belt be Tightened?
A lawn mower deck belt can be tightened to put off needing to buy a replacement mower deck belt. The belt tension of the lawn mower deck belt should be tightened as a loose belt may slip, break, or reduce the efficiency of the mower blades. The deck belt tension loosens over time, and a quick adjustment can keep your machine running well year after year.
Knowing that I needed to tighten this part to avoid a replacement mower deck belt was good information for me, but I still had to figure out when to tighten it and how much it needs to be tightened. I decided to look at belt behavior on a new mower and judge the tension to see where mine fit.
By looking at the belt strand and following the length of the deck belt span, I was able to work out how tight I needed to make it and how to do it.
A properly adjusted replacement deck belt should hold the blade tightly when not turned on If you try to manually turn the blades and it moves more than a quarter turn, you have a loose belt and should tighten it. Once the belt route is clear and the replacement mower deck belt is tightened, it should still have some give.
Using one or two fingers, find where the belt meets the cable pulley. Without any tools but your fingers, you can try to pull the pulley with one or two digits. If your fingers can move the cable with one or two pounds of pressure, it is tight enough. If you cannot move it easily, it could lead to more problems like damaged belts and pulleys.
A belt that needs an adjustment will not run as efficiently. It will use more time and resources to engage the blade with enough power to mow the lawn. The grass may be damaged during cutting, and the belt span may slip, making the blade stop abruptly.
To check that your belt strand is correct, turn on the mower, rev the engine, and switch the mower deck level to engage. If the blades reach top speed in half a second, you have the right deflection rate between pulleys.
Types of Mower Belts
Most belt-run machines have multiple belts and pulleys to run different functions. A lawn mower is no different and has 2 sets of belts. A replacement deck belt can help your mower and blade work in harmony. A drive belt is what will allow you to move across your lawn while cutting the grass.
If either system has a loose belt, you will have a hard time mowing your lawn without damaging your turf. Below is more information about the two belts that run mowers and where to find them.
| Name | Location | Purpose |
| Mower Deck Belt | Underneath Mower Deck | Connects the engine and the blades |
| Drive Belt | Engine to Tractor Drive Pull | Controls the movement of the mower and powers tractor attachments |
Mower Deck Belt
This part of the mower is operated by a belt between pulleys with a cable and a belt lever. When the mower deck belt is engaged, the engine turns the mower blades and allows the mower to cut the grass. A broken belt will prevent the blade from operating, whereas a loose belt will only hinder the operation slightly.
A loose deck belt cannot be shortened, but the bracket that attaches it to the pulley can be moved to tighten the tension spring. Eventually, the belt will wear down, and then the correct belt for replacement will be needed. Adjusting the belt several times can give you much more use out of each part and keep your blades running optimally for much longer.
Drive Belt
This is a larger belt than the deck belt size and runs the mower allowing it to move and drive like a vehicle. The lawn mower drive belt will also wear down but needs to be adjusted in a different way. The drive belt is also called the PTO belt and serves other functions for larger tractors.
A PTO (power take-off) drive belt can be attached to other machinery like wood chippers and harvesters. The drive belt needs to have the proper belt routing and belt size to run machinery and needs to be replaced when it starts to wear down.
How to Tighten Mower Belts?
Tightening a lawnmower belt isn’t too tricky, but you need to follow the correct process and do everything intentionally to avoid injury to yourself or damage to your tools and equipment. The deck belt can not be shortened like other belts, so the tightening comes from moving the bracket that attaches the belt to the pulley. Below is the process to tighten the cable that engages the drive belt by pulling the engagement spring coil tighter.
Turn Off Engine
Kill the engine to make and allow parts to cool down and let off built-up heat. Realizing the belt is loose usually happens after trying to cut the grass, and the affected parts may be dirty and hot. Clean the areas you need to adjust and wait until it is cool to continue.
Remove or Ground Spark Plugs
Make sure that the engine can fire and start at no point while you are working on the mower. The only sure way to achieve this is to remove the spark plugs or ground them so that ignition is impossible. Doing this can prevent any accidental firing of the engine and save you from injury.
Disengage Mower Deck Switch
Switch the mower deck lever to disengaged to give yourself the slack needed to adjust the belt. If the deck is engaged, you will not be able to work with the bracket enough to loosen it and make the spring tighter.
Locate Spring
Find where the deck belt cable meets the engagement spring and check the tension. This is where you will notice the most slack and where you can locate the bracket holding it tightly. The bracket will be bolted to the mower deck, and this is where you will work.
Loosen Bolts
Find the size of your bolts (around 10mm) and get the right tool to loosen them. Once you loosen the bolts, keep track of them so you can replace them in the correct place.
Move Bracket
Slide the bracket away from the spring and toward the pulley system. Keep moving it until it is tight but not leading to stretched belts. Once the bracket is in the right position, create a place for the bolt to set.
Retighten Bolts
Place the bolts back into the bracket in their new position. Tighten the bolts until the bracket can not be moved by wiggling it aggressively with your fingers.
Test Tension
Engage the lever and use either the finger test, the hand turn test, or a practice run to see if your belt is adjusted correctly. If the belt has cracked due to overheating, you may need to replace it instead of adjusting it. If you adjust it as far as you can, but it is still too loose, then it is time to replace the mower deck belt.