bigred_84

Bolens drive belt

I have a older model riding mower and about a year ago i replaced both of the belts on the tractor and it is now slipping again after about 20 or so uses. it drives fine when it is on flat ground but on any kind of a hill it slows down and starts jerking. Also when i first get on it and put it in gear it will sit there and sqeal before taking off after i bounce on it a few times. Any information will be greatly appericated. Thanks.

hopkinsr2

I'm thinking the belt you put on is a generic A or B series belt.. Most lawn equipment use belts specific to their applications,, I wonder if you found an OEM belt, it may work as designed.. Just a thought... Roger

cheese

I agree. If you didn't use MTD belts, it will not work right.

Backachers

I replace belts with Huskee Kevlar (blue) belts from TSC and have had very good luck with them. Most belts designed for automotive use don't work well on lawn tractors.

cheese

While those belts might work well in most lawn mower applications, they will not work properly on the variadrive system used on MTDs. They take specific belts that are not normal widths or lengths and they work together to achieve a specific drive ratio that can't be duplicated by normal 5L fractional belts.

Backachers

Cheese,
Thanks for the info. I assumed from his post this was an older Bolens built prior to being taken over by MTD. I just replaced belts on an older bolens sts 110 with the kevlar belts and it worked great. This did not have the veri-drive system.
DWG

BFHFixit

I did basically a refurb on a Montgomery Wards MTD this summer for a buddy. I explained to him the same as cheese mentioned about MTD OEM belts. He chose to try direct OEM replacement belts by Stens, and so far everything is working just fine.

Just FYI and this is the only success I have had using other than MTD belts on the vari-drive system.