I'm thinking of giving up on the JD 420

[olcowhand]

A busted cord can and will do crazy stuff. I would go ahead and get a new belt. By what you've told us, you've ruled out any other cause.

 

[BTS]

I'll order up a Kevlar belt this weekend
Thanks

 

[BTS]

Thought I'd come back and say the new belt fixed it. It looks like the old belt stretched out a inch or two when I compared it to the new belt.

Here's the belt I bought, seems like really good quality, much better then the John Deere belt but no surprise with JD's quality anymore

EXACT OEM SPEC BELT FOR JOHN DEERE M140021 60" DECK ON 420 430 755 855 955 | eBay

 

[4getgto]

Glad to hear. And good to know...

 

[101 senior]

Still having nothing but trouble with the JD 420 mower deck, I can not keep a belt on it for the life of me. Nothing is bent, nothing is out of alignment, all the bearings are good in the spindles and in the gear box. Everything is greased, I put a new belt on about 15 mowing hours ago (bought the belt from JD). All was mowing fine until the belt jumped off, now whenever I start up the blades at a idle, the belt is very shaky and when the engine is throttled up it pops right off. I also looked over every square inch of the belt and I can't find anything wrong with it. The tension spring still feels tight and it's quite the pull to get it hooked up so I'm guessing it's tight enough?.

I've thought about buying a new belt, but to be honest money is running short and I don't have a spare $50+ to spend on one.

I'm thinking about just selling the garden tractor cheap without the deck, any ideas?

I had a deck, belt problem like that once. It frustrated me. It turned out that the deck was not level which caused the belt to ride at an angle on the pulleys. Your belt issue sounds like maybe 2 issues. Are you able to tighten it more to get rid of the wable? If not can you get one size shorter to work.Do you have the right width belt. Don't know if this will help. Good luck.

 

[chieffan]

Glad to hear to got the problem solved.