Help with mower deck

[RedMF40]

Thought I’d check here for suggestions about my Cub Cadet riding mower deck.

All was good, cutting normally and plenty of power. Now it bogs down as soon as I engage the electric pto.

Tractor seems to lose at least 50% power, really struggles with the blades spinning. Vibration, too. Not so bad that it feels like everything will fly apart but it’s definitely noticeable.

I took the deck off, cleaned around the spindles and everything else. Lubed what needed to be lubed. One pulley, I think it’s the idler, is a bit cocked, not in the same plane as the others. But all blades turn freely and the deck isn’t rusted through. Don’t know what to check next.

The tractor itself runs great by the way.

Thanks for any suggestions
Gerrit

 

[RedMVa]

Did you check the electric clutch? Might want to look at that if nothing on deck is binding

 

[Eric in IL]

I suspect a bearing that is on the way out, but not gone yet.

Worn enough that chatter is occurring at operating speed but not detectable when spinning the shaft by hand. You should be able to feel some slop in the shaft.

Bearing chatter takes up considerable horsepower.

 

[RedMF40]

Thanks for the replies. The noise and vibration definitely sound like they’re coming from the deck. I’ll look at the electric clutch but it’s engaging normally far as I can tell. Not looking forward to taking the deck off again, but at least now I know how to do it.

 

[Charlie M]

Maybe before you take the deck off you can remove the drive belt and turn the blades by hand. To have it bog down the tractor like you describe they should turn pretty hard and probably make noise if its the mower deck.

 

[old]

Thought I’d check here for suggestions about my Cub Cadet riding mower deck.

All was good, cutting normally and plenty of power. Now it bogs down as soon as I engage the electric pto.

Tractor seems to lose at least 50% power, really struggles with the blades spinning. Vibration, too. Not so bad that it feels like everything will fly apart but it’s definitely noticeable.

I took the deck off, cleaned around the spindles and everything else. Lubed what needed to be lubed. One pulley, I think it’s the idler, is a bit cocked, not in the same plane as the others. But all blades turn freely and the deck isn’t rusted through. Don’t know what to check next.

The tractor itself runs great by the way.

Thanks for any suggestions
Gerrit

My Craftsman rider started doing that and then taking out the drive belt. It had a bad spindle bearing that ad to be replaced

 

[RedMF40]

My Craftsman rider started doing that and then taking out the drive belt. It had a bad spindle bearing that ad to be replaced

Thanks, if I remove the deck again and decide to replace the spindles I’ll just do all of them. I’ll check a little more to make sure there isn’t some debris stuck in there.

 

[DaveBN]

If your engine is not running good it can mimic a bad mower. I would try loading the engine some other way than the PTO. Maybe start off in high gear or going up a steep hill. My Gravely tractor had a similar problem last spring. Turned out to be a clogged fuel filter. It ran good when not under a load but struggled when starting off in high gear.
Dave

 

[kfgoeckner]

I would check the idler pulley that you said was locked. The bearing in it is probably going out and with speed and tension is draging.

 

[PJH]

Thought I’d check here for suggestions about my Cub Cadet riding mower deck.

All was good, cutting normally and plenty of power. Now it bogs down as soon as I engage the electric pto.

Tractor seems to lose at least 50% power, really struggles with the blades spinning. Vibration, too. Not so bad that it feels like everything will fly apart but it’s definitely noticeable.

I took the deck off, cleaned around the spindles and everything else. Lubed what needed to be lubed. One pulley, I think it’s the idler, is a bit cocked, not in the same plane as the others. But all blades turn freely and the deck isn’t rusted through. Don’t know what to check next.

The tractor itself runs great by the way.

Thanks for any suggestions
Gerrit

Lots of good advice!

If your mower has a 2 cylinder engine, it could have a failed ignition coil. A 2 cylinder engine running on one cylinder will have an even miss, unlike a three or four cylinder engine. It will also have a very noticeable loss of power that really shows up when you engage the deck clutch.

 

[RedMF40]

I’ll check back with any news. I’m pretty sure the problem is with the deck itself but I’ll try to rule out the engine. Thanks again for the replies.
Gerrit

 

[Phill Tibbetts]

I’ll check back with any news. I’m pretty sure the problem is with the deck itself but I’ll try to rule out the engine. Thanks again for the replies.
Gerrit

I bought a Kawasaki Mule that had no power, Started right up and ran smooth, idled fine. Got checking things out and a dead coil. Replaced it and it's a whole different machine, lots of power. Take a plug out or a plug wire off and see if it runs any different. I will put my money on a coil if it is 2 cylinder.

 

[MCOHIO]

I had 2 of these mowers that had the exact issue that you described. Check for a bad ignition coil. I replaced them and it solved the issue more than once.

 

[RedMF40]

One of the plug wires had come off. I’ll go and hang my head in shame now.

On a more positive note, the deck really needed a deep cleaning I couldn’t have done without removing it and at least I didn’t do it a second time.

All back to normal now. Thanks again for the help.
Gerrit