Gt 2550 PTO not engaging??

[ArkCadet]

So I got my mower out tonight to mow and I pulled the PTO lever and there was a very minor pop (just slightly louder than the normal engaging sound) it will engage for a second and start to spin up and then it will sound like it loses the gear engagement and disengage. Any ideas??? 😦

[cooperino]

Sounds like the pto is going bad. I would pull the belt and see what happens with no load. While your at it make sure everything on the deck spins freely.

[ArkCadet]

so I came inside to do some research after my initial issue (also posting this thread). Then I went back out to take a video of what it was doing so I could share. I took belt off and it worked fine. ha figures. So i put belt back on and it still worked fine. No idea why. So I started mowing. Mowed about an hour and the belt snapped. When I picked up a piece of the belt it was REALLY hot. So, I think I have a pulley that is frozen and which was probably tripping the PTO the first couple times and then when it did work, the belt friction over the frozen pulley probably caused the belt failure. So, I'll check all that out. Would love a new mower. ha Tired of all the stuff I've had to do with this one. But, I got it for $500 from the previous owner of the house so not a bad deal. Just had to replace some pulleys on it and the front steering rod ends. But seems like its always something I guess. Repairs so far are MUCH cheaper than a new mower. (although a zero turn would make for much faster cutting of my few acres.)

[cooperino]

Originally Posted by ArkCadet

so I came inside to do some research after my initial issue (also posting this thread). Then I went back out to take a video of what it was doing so I could share. I took belt off and it worked fine. ha figures. So i put belt back on and it still worked fine. No idea why. So I started mowing. Mowed about an hour and the belt snapped. When I picked up a piece of the belt it was REALLY hot. So, I think I have a pulley that is frozen and which was probably tripping the PTO the first couple times and then when it did work, the belt friction over the frozen pulley probably caused the belt failure. So, I'll check all that out. Would love a new mower. ha Tired of all the stuff I've had to do with this one. But, I got it for $500 from the previous owner of the house so not a bad deal. Just had to replace some pulleys on it and the front steering rod ends. But seems like its always something I guess. Repairs so far are MUCH cheaper than a new mower. (although a zero turn would make for much faster cutting of my few acres.)

Pull your deck out from under the tractor. Find out which pulley feels hard, rough or does not turn at all. If you need some help finding part post a picture here of which one it is. This should not be a real expensive fix. Probably just a bad bearing.

[J-Mech]

Originally Posted by ArkCadet

I took belt off and it worked fine. ha figures. So i put belt back on and it still worked fine. No idea why. So I started mowing. Mowed about an hour and the belt snapped. When I picked up a piece of the belt it was REALLY hot. So, I think I have a pulley that is frozen and which was probably tripping the PTO the first couple times and then when it did work, the belt friction over the frozen pulley probably caused the belt failure.

Ok... so, couple things.

If you have a frozen pulley, you wouldn't have mown for an hour before you burned the belt off of it. It might have lasted oh..... 45 seconds at WOT before it would have started squealing and screeching and smoking then possibly even getting close to fire before it broke.
Second, the belt was hot. Well bud, that's normal for a belt that makes a couple bends and is driving a deck. They do get hot. That's how friction works.
Third... if you do have a locked up pulley, or one that is going out, it probably just failed. Once the bearing starts to go it won't last long at WOT. Should be a pretty simple thing to diagnose. I'd be checking the spindles too. Does it have greasable spindle bearings? Do you ever grease them?