sourcing smaller lawnmower pulley to speed the thing up

[misterroy]

I don't mind cutting the grass, but the lawnmower goes at crawling pace, I have taken off the drive pulley and its inner diameter 1.31 inches , 2.125 inches outer diameter 0.5 inch diameter. Its a v belt and at the moment the belt does not rub on the centre of the pulley. It looks like a 10mm hole in the centre, but with two flats to locate on the shaft. I want to put a smaller pulley on so the mower approaches walking speed, but google is not my friend. The present one is two pressed bits of steel riveted together.

any sources of pulleys?

[Bob Minchin]

Google for Bearing Boys.

V good mail order supplier but you will have to make your own flats in the internal bore as that is non standard. Relying on two grub screws will soon end in tears so don't even think about that as an alternative.

Local engineering shop might put the specific hole in for you for beer tokens.

Bob

[Ronald Raygun]

Is this the type of mower where the motor drives the cutting blades and also (but independently) drives the wheels? If so, and if the V belt you mean only affects the propulsion and not the blades, then could you not simply leave the existing pulley alone, but leave the V belt off? This would mean the mower is no longer self-propelling, so you would need to supply the horizontal force yourself, but could do it at whatever pace you pleased.

A word of warning, though. The thing is probably designed to have a certain ratio of moving speed to cutting speed, and if you move too fast, the cutting quality may suffer and look rough.

Consider getting a cheap and cheerful hover mower instead.

[Jules Richardson]

Are you sure the belt (or any kind of tensioner) isn't at fault? Or that nothing's contaminated the pulley and is making things slip?

(the ones for my lawn tractor don't touch the middle hub portion of the pulleys, by the way - all the friction comes from the 'sides' of the belt and the inside edges of the pulley)

I do sort of know what you mean, though. I only used one of those self- propelled small mowers once - it was really heavy and did seem to go far too slowly for the speed I wanted to move at. Give me the tractor and a plain old push-mower any day!

Do you have a farm supply place nearby? My local one has all manner of farm / garden implement pulleys on the shelves.

cheers

Jules

[misterroy]

Because its got a drive, which can be disengaged, the friction in the drive gearbox generated pushing, you wind up slower than when you use the drive. There must be some EU legislation stating the max speed of a mower is somewhere near the speed at which I cease to function.

[The Natural Philosopher]

tyry adjusting the giovernor.

[The Medway Handyman]

That will put a greater load on the motor - will that stand it?

[John]

The motor may not have enough torque to cope with a higher ratio - a bit like expecting a car with a small engine to pull away in third gear.

[Jules Richardson]

Well, assuming you care about your clutch, too ;) But you're right...

The lawn tractor got pretty bad when the belt started going - it was OK one week, next time out it'd slip badly in third and wouldn't move in higher gears at all, time after that it had problems moving even in first. Not sure if that's typical of those kinds of belt drive, that they're seemingly OK one minute and then fail very quickly.

cheers

Jules

[misterroy]

It's a 5.5 hp mower, when the grass is getting a weekly cut it sshould handle the extra effort for the increased speed. Been at the governor already, tricky operation, did get the speed I'm after but the engine was revving its head off, the governor is now back in its original position.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes it is. Once they start to slip, they get very hot very quickly, and the rubber turns into a gooey lubricant.