2166 deck problems
 

Well I looked it over, ran it, cut short grass with it, it seemed fine, took it home and the deck belt broke within 50 feet. Not sure if it was operator stupidity or not, I should have eased into cutting but I headed straight for the tall stuff. I had the deck on its highest setting but maybe didn't have enough throttle and overstrained it, I dunno. Or maybe I made a big mistake. Hope not. Doesn't look like it cut much at all, if at all, before blowing the belt.

will any old 1/2 x 62" belt work? Wasn't planning to shop for parts so soon so I know nothing...:bash2:

Ok, yep nevermind, found the manual...62 x 1/2. There goes another 30 bucks. Turns out the belt that was on there was only 60 inch so I'm going to blame the belt.

I had to replace the deck belt on the one I bought it was totally shot. Picked up a Kevlar belt on eBay for $12 or you can get the official MTD/CC belt for like $40. Either way make sure it’s Kevlar and not rubber. And yes 1/2” x 62” was the one that fit mine, I guess all the 42” 2000 series use the same.

My only option locally was a Gates 6862 for 30 smackers. On the bright side it was a breeze to change, once I got the rusted spindle cover screws out. the original bolts had apparently rusted out completely and someone had drilled new holes and put in heavy sheet metal screws. On the other hand the rear pulley (under the PTO pulley) is bent, but its bent up and outward not inward so hopefully it won't be a source for future problems. Evidently a sign of previous problems though, that i hope do not recur.

Also the Gates sits very loose at rest, so we'll see what happens when I try to mow. Maybe there is a reason it had a 60" belt before...I'll double check tensioners and such but unless activating the deck adds the needed tension I may still have problems.

Maybe check the tensioner springs, on mine with the 62” belt is “just right” then when the PTO engages it tenses up to turn the blade pulleys.

When I lower the deck I get a bad sound from a pulley or bearing. The belt is heating up and that middle (double) pulley is getting really hot.

Jiminy Christmas, this is exactly what I didn't want, another headache. The guy said people were lined up 6 deep just for the engine, if he's not a liar maybe I should unload it now and cut my losses.

Depends on how much you want to work on it. But that middle pulley being hot isn’t good, almost like it’s locking or need grease. On mine there are grease fittings on the blade pulleys but not on the middle PTO pulley not sure if yours is any different but it’s worth a shot before that new belt gets worn out

Honestly i didn't want to put ANY work in it this year, I would have been happy if I could have cut the grass once or twice without incident. I made it a few feet.

The first thing I checked was for a grease fitting, there is kind of a cylinder near that double pulley. I'm not sure what it greases. I shot a little grease in and some oozed out the top of the cylinder almost immediately. I don't know if that is normal when its fully greased (The guy said he had greased it) or if that is a problem. All I know is i wish I had never seen this thing.

I’m sorry, it’s always a gamble when buying off Craigslist you never know if someone has it barely working long enough to sell…

It clearly has been neglected or abused some but it also has less than 600 hours on it. Thats not a whole lot, is it? I dunno 30 hours a year for 20 years so I guess its a fair bit.

The engine and tranny seem solid. I wont give up yet, but I won't start sinking money into it willy nilly either. I need to learn more about it before declaring a disaster.

Like I just read that the reason I can only lower the deck about 3 slots before hitting the ground may be the smaller tire size that are stock on these. And that's where the pulley or bearing noise begins. However, when I engage the deck at full throttle with the deck raised, its quiet but the blades barely move. I'm not sure if that's by design or because I need more tension. Lower the deck to the ground and the blades spin normally, so the belt tension has obviously increased, but the screeching starts.

I should probably read the manual before doing another thing.

My manual says the double pulley should be greased twice yearly or every 50 hours, although I haven't spotted the fitting (I haven't looked since reading that). Replacing the pulley and bearing would be about $125, which I'd like to avoid but could stomach if i was absolutely sure it would fix the problem. Most of that cost is pulley, so maybe mine is salvageable.

The fitting I greased was the idler arm assembly. Is that supposed to ooze grease out the top when its full? I have now looked and can find no grease fitting on the double pulley

Mine doesn’t have a grease fitting on the double pulley either, only on the blade pulleys. Unless they mean just to remove the pulley and grease the shaft?

Maybe. That hadn't occurred to me. But I may have found the source of the noise in a bad spindle bearing. Or at least I hope its just the bearing. One spindle makes a definite metallic sound. The other one is quiet, but spins slowly. And the deck has the wrong idler spring. yay.

So my choice is to fix this one, fix my 108, or let the lawn overtake the house. I don't think I want to fix the 108 so that leaves 2 choices which I'm still mulling over.

If you’re gonna replace the spindle bearings do both sides together. I tried only replacing one (since the other seemed fine) and still had bad vibration/noise. Replaced the other and now it’s fine.

Some of the double pulleys have grease fittings and some don't. I use a needle adapter to grease the sealed bearings in those that don't have a fitting. I've also found that the bearings are a very loose fit in the double pulley.

How would I know if the bearings are all that's bad? Would I just be looking for wear in the raceway or? I've been lucky and never had a bad bearing or spindle on my 108 in almost 20 years.

I meant the spindles

That’s what I mean. The bearings inside the spindles can be replaced without replacing the entire spindle.

But I’d shop around. Mine shipped with two 42” deck models - one you could gets entire spindles (with bearings already installed) for $30-40 each on eBay, but I just happened to have the one where spindles are $130 EACH so it was cheaper to just replace the bearings.

At $70 for a 2 pack of new spindles it almost doesn't make sense to mess with bearings. https://www.amazon.com/8TEN-Spindle-...dp/B07D9Y8P4S/

If only I could find the double pulley for that price, or less.

Looks like the 2166 only had one deck model so that’s good the spindles are cheap. As I said mine had two different decks and I just happened to get the one with expensive spindles :bash:

They are twice that price if I order MTD spindles...

Turns out the spindles are fully functional, even if one bearing is getting a bit loose. I replaced the double pulley and even reused the old pulley bearings, and replaced the idler arm spring and that's all it took to solve my problems. It now mows fine, and doesn't make any noise. So it was the pulley and spring all along.

I’m glad you got it all figured out. I wonder how those incorrect parts ended up on there in the first place?