Yes sir! This was a fun one to get.

Glad to help!

@@garagestory what is your recommended blade for residential use? Tons of leaves in the fall

I don’t know that I have a great answer for that. We used gator blades for years on my Dad’s Grasshopper 223, but are now venturing back into regular style blades.

Sounds like the pivot is frozen up on the tensioner arm! I ran across that being a fairly common issue when I was dealing with the belt being routed wrong.

@@garagestory I've got to replace the deck belt today. I'll try to figure out the pivot on the tensioner arm at the same time. I looked around for a belt diagram for this model and haven't found one.

Thank you for watching!

The Z246 I’m working on now has very loose handles that I’m probably going to have to fix. That’s a definite difference between most residential mowers and commercial mowers, how quickly the control levers get sloppy.

Great!!

@@garagestory And it did help heaps. Cheers.

Good to hear!

No, unfortunately I don’t. I might show that in a future video on a similar Husqvarna.

Yes, the idler pulley should turn freely.

Hmmm. Maybe your steering dampeners are bad?

I have not messed with that yet, so I don’t think I can help unfortunately.

I wonder if you have some pulleys that are not aligned properly? I doubt the tension spring is too strong unless it’s not the original, or the belt isn’t being routed the right way. Have you checked to make sure there is nothing touching the belt except pulleys?

@@garagestory Good call! The idler arm had loosened off, even with a nylock nut, and the pulley had dropped just under a 1/4 inch. This caused a wobble that had the pulley tracking up down ... wearing off the rim and throwing the belt. Fixed that problem. Still thinking that the idler arm back tension is way too much and your suggestion that the spring may not be the original rings true. Will try replacing with OEM and see if that makes a difference with belt tension and durability. Thanks for the diagnostics! (Btw ... belt routed as per Husqy shop manual).

Nice! Sounds like you might have it resolved!

I’m not sure what exactly it is. The guy I got it from used it to repair large TV’s back in the day. It’s kind of like an electric over hydraulic pallet jack, but it has a platform instead. I’d prefer that mine had longer reaching legs and platform so it would be more stable to handle larger objects

I think the pivot point in those can seize up. I’m not sure exactly what is going on with yours, but I’m pretty sure when everything is functioning properly that you should be able to tighten down the bolts and everything still move freely.

@@garagestory Solved. The idler spindle that goes into the idler arm was seized and the large washer that goes between it and the engine plate was missing. I bought the mower used 4 years ago and it's been like that since I've had it. Got everything apart, cleaned and polished, installed a large washer and I can tighten the nut snugly and arm moves freely. Thanks for your help.

Great! Glad to hear you got it working!

Sounds like something might be bent.

Ok I'll check it out

I agree! One more light has been added, and I’m thinking I will be adding more when it starts getting dark earlier again.

Two easy things to check: 1) make sure the transmissions are not in bypass mode for being rolled around. 2) check your drive belt to see if it has enough tension and is routed correctly. The tensioner arm can freeze up on these sometimes and then there may not be enough tension on the belt for it to turn the transmissions.

Are your blade spindles and idlers pulleys all in good shape?

@@garagestory one of the pulleys was replaced and the others spin ok. Not nearly as good as the newer pulley. Free spinning they stop quicker than the fresh pulley. I was thinking possibly the tensioner spring needed replacing.

Spring tensioner might affect the belt jumping around, but I don’t think it would make the engine die. If everything turns loosely, then you might have an engine issue. If it’s a twin cylinder it could be running on one cylinder.

@@garagestory could a weak battery be the possible cause for engine dying? Thanks for all the responses.

I kind of doubt it. But you could hook up some jumper cables to another battery and see if it still does the same thing.