Replacing the drive belt on my LT 35 question

[Ruffneck]

I need to replace the drive belt on my LT 35 manual mill. I have removed the bolt on the shaft that secures the idler pulley arm but the assembly does not slide off. I'd like to get the belt replaced my next trip out, I am thinking of using a puller of some sort to pull it off the shaft. I don't note any rust that could be causing problems, but I've been spraying it with WD 40.
Any hints or pointers on performing the change is much appreciated.

[shakebone]

You don't have to remove the idler just turn the belt sideways and gotta give it a  good pull it'll go right in I'm on my 3rd belt

[Ruffneck]

You don't have to remove the idler just turn the belt sideways and gotta give it a  good pull it'll go right in I'm on my 3rd belt

Thanks, I'll give it a try. It looked tight but I didn't try to remove the old one yet. I wore it out in 200 hours, I'll need to watch the tension a bit closer, I've just purchased the tension  tool to help with that.

[shakebone]

I've watched mine but still can't get more than about 250 hrs out of it ! Good luck

[MartyParsons]

Hello,
Remove the 3/8" bolt and nut. Removed the brake spring. On the engine side you may want to make sure this does not bind when you push the shaft back. I have an aluminum punch and drive the shaft out of the center of the pulley / brake bracket. It would be great to put some grease on the shaft and bushings while you have this apart. Also lube the engine side belt adjustments you will need to loosen these anyway.
Hope this helps.
Marty

[Magicman]

200-250 hours seems to be a very short belt life??

[shakebone]

Mm the belts are really small compared to the 40 needs to be beefier

[Ruffneck]

Thanks so much for all the input. I've just been going for it on my original belt. I know it could break at anytime, but I'm in a race to beat the pine beetle that are flying around me. The only cure for them is fire and the burn season is going to be closing sooner than later.
I've completed the big log deck:

 

I have about seven more logs left to do in the second deck, so I may make it without having to replace the belt, we'll see. I prefer to do any work on the mill away from the sawdust if I can, I have been there once with my butterfingers and it ended my milling day  :D

Under the maintenance section the wear life for the drive belt is listed for 1250 hours of estimated life. Hmmm, I thought it wore fast due to my lack of maintenance.

Hello,
Remove the 3/8" bolt and nut. Removed the brake spring. On the engine side you may want to make sure this does not bind when you push the shaft back. I have an aluminum punch and drive the shaft out of the center of the pulley / brake bracket. It would be great to put some grease on the shaft and bushings while you have this apart. Also lube the engine side belt adjustments you will need to loosen these anyway.
Hope this helps.
Marty

Marty, Are you saying hat I should be removing the assembly in order to do this belt change over?

Thanks again everyone!

[TBrown99]

"Marty, Are you saying hat I should be removing the assembly in order to do this belt change over?"

Good question.

I'm at ~500 hrs and 2nd belt just went.

I changed this once before discovering I could slide belt behind tensioner wheel without removing assembly (which seems frozen on)... (BTW, I thus confirm the 250 hr belt life claim.)

I will give this one more try this morning but I'm not finding enough slack to get belt on engine wheel.

Seeking standard procedure here. I'm pretty sure I don't have to remove assembly (as before) or even loosen it). But I'm at a loss for what to try next. I guess just keep wrestling with it.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I recently removed mine and had an issue with the belt coming off. I removed the pulley and when discussing with WM tech support I am pretty sure they said that was the proper step. Remove the little keeper over the drive pulley up about 10-11 oclock as you face towards the front of the mill and loosen the belt keeper about 8 oclock.

   I ended up fabricating another belt keeper we placed about 2 oclock and that fixed my belt tossing problem. I could never find an alignment issue to explain the belt issue but the new keeper fixed the problem.

[TBrown99]

I removed the whole tension a assembly and found that I had to remove one of the two black wheel "brakes" (?) to fit back in. 

I had to drill a hole in the sheet metal behind the assembly axel and use a long pin from behind to knock the assembly out. I greased it well so hopefully next time it will easily slide out.

The first time I did this replacement I managed w/o removing assembly but I couldn't recall the steps from back then.

Biggest lesson is that the 1250 hrs life of belts isn't running true. Both belts went at around 250 hrs.