How do you change the drive belt on a ariens ezr 1742?

Answer 1

With lots of time and patience. This may not be the easy way or only way but here is what I did:

1. remove mower deck

2. placed jack stands under each of the 4 corners of the mower

3. removed side fenders

4. removed wheels

5. removed transaxle sub-assembly

6. removed engine to jack-shaft belt

7. removed electric PTO clutch

8. removed transaxle drive belt tension spring

9. removed and replaced transmission drive belt

10. replaced electric PTO clutch

11. replaced engine to jack shaft belt (after all this work I replaced all 3 belts)

12. reinstalled transxle sub-assembly, wheels, fenders and mower deck.

DONE, purrs like a kitten.

Answer 2

whoever wrote the top answer is an idiot...

all you do is unhook the tension spring (vice grip and some brute force) remove the old belt, install the new one and rehook the tensioner spring - it's a 5 minute job laying on the ground in my lawn where the old belt gave out - why anyone would disassemble most of the machine and make it take hours is beyond me (I didn't remove as many parts as the "top answer" says when I did the engine swap on mine)