SS12 Drive Belt or Brake setting issue???

25+ year owner of a SS12. Only use it for blowing snow. All at once the other night, in the middle of blowing snow, went to shift into a different gear and gears grinding. Figured I needed a new drive belt, so went about installing a new drive belt, with the same model that I have used for years. Same problem. In looking at the tractor, I discovered that the front half frame had broken apart, in the spots that I had had welded 11 years ago.

Spent a day separating the front half of the tractor from the rear half. Had the broken parts welded. Spent another day putting all back together.

Still same problem. Drive belt continues to move when clutch/brake petal is fully pressed down.

Is this a matter of adjusting the brake? Have never adjusted the brake linkage in 25+ years. Does the brake act as a stopper of the drive belt?

Would like to have the answer before I spend a bunch more time. And more snow is on the way.

Thanks for any help somebody can give me.

HI DAVID
SURE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR MORE ABOUT BROKEN FRAME, CAN'T BELEIVE ANYTHING ON THE FRAME COULD BREAK. ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION IS NO THE BRAKE WOULD NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH STOPPING THE DRIVE BELT. BRAKE ADJUSTMENT WILL EFFECT THE TRAVEL OF THE CLUTCH-BRAKE PEDAL. IF YOU PUT EVERTHING BACK LIKE YOU TOOK IT APART YOU SHOULD HAVE THE SAME AMOUNT OF TRAVEL IN THE PEDAL. ONE PLACE THAT IS EASY TO MESS UP IS TO MISPLACE OR PUT ON WRONG THE SHORT LEVERS ON THE LONG CLUTCH ROD THAT GOES FROM SIDE TO SIDE. DID YOU CHANGE BRANDS OR SIZE OF BELTS, SAME BRAND DON'T MEAN SAME BELT THAT YOU BOUGHT YEARS AGO. EVEN A HALF INCH SHORTER BELT CAN CAUSE YOUR PROBLEM. DID YO CHANGE ADJUSTMENT ON THE FLAT BELT IDLER BACK NEAR THE TRANS. IF NOT MOVE IT UP A BIT. IS THE BELT GUIDES-GUARDS  ON THE ENGINE AND TRANS IN PLACE. DON'T RAKE THOSE GEARS, IF YOU NEED TO OPERATE THE TRACTOR PUT IN GEAR AN HOLD DOWN CLUTCH ON EVER START & GEAR SHIFT. SAW ON ANOTHER POST THAT YOU ARE USING NAPA GATES BELTS, I BELIEVE THAT BELT HAS RUBBER GRIPPING SIDES THAT MAKE CONTACT WITH THE PULLYS IF SO THAT BELT WILL NOT WORK AT ALL. ONLY USE WRAPPED BELTS SUCH AS ROTARY # 12-7626 KEVLAR WRAPPED SAME AS SEARS 6474H, SAW SOME WRAPPED BELTS AT ADVANVE AUTO HAD YOU PROBLEM A FEW TIMES. HAVE COLLECTED AND RESTORING 20 SEARS SUBURBANS. GOOD LUCK WITH THE OLD BABE AND HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS. JIMMY
GEORGIA SS IN SOUTH GEORGIA

Drive Belt Issue. From your reply, I now think the answer has to do with the drive flat belt idler. I do not remember how it was set when the problem started, or after I changed the belt that night. I know it was really cold that 1st night, and it just started happening all at once, when I was half way done with the driveway.

I guess this is what happens when you get older, and it is late at night and you do not think about it enough. I currently have the idler set all the way down, when I need to try it all the way up. Most likely will be Christmas night, if we get snow, or Thursday before I am able to try it.

I will check into the Kevlar wrapped belts. Just bought new drive and snow blower napa ones to have as spares.

BROKEN FRAME. Metal breaks about 8"'s in from the end of the front half, that bolts onto the back half. Right where the metal is bent. This time it broke right along the previous weld line.

The 42" snow blower is heavy on the front end, and once and a while I run into some retaining block walls with it.

Thank you for your reply, and hopefully this also helps somebody else.

Dave

Tractor is all fixed and throwing snow great. To close the loop, and maybe help somebody in the future, hopefully this is my final post for this issue.

I think what caused the drive belt problem to start all at once, was that shortly before the problem started I caught one side of the blower on a block retaining wall. Shortly after that I backed up, and then when I went to shift, the problem started. I think hitting the retaining wall broke the frame on the old weld, and maybe is was actually cracked before. When I backed up this caused the front end to pull away from the back end. Thus stretching out the drive belt.

My 1st replacement drive belt was either put on wrong, by the idler pulley, or the frame was still "stretched out".
After the frame was welded, and all put back together, the problem was that I did install the drive belt wrong on the idler pulley. Thanks to "Georgia SS" for his reply, as it helped me from going down the wrong path of thinking it might be the brake.

I am going to try his suggestion of using the Kevlar belts for both the drive belt and the snow thrower belt. I found them on ebay, which is far easier than messing with stores that are not around my area. Found a seller who has one listing that lists a large selection of sizes. Just search for Kevlar 7626.

Dave

The Kevlar 12-7626 drive belt is working GREAT. Easily available on ebay.
dave

Glad that davidderouchey is back in the drifts, but in reply to Georgia's request for more info on broken frames, my SS16, and one of my GT19.9 have also broken the front frames just in front of the bolts holding the front and rear sections together. Both tractors have been used with the snow blower, and the 46" dozer blade, both worked in commercial applications, have been run in a lot of things, especially with the dozer blade, and all three tractors have thousands of hours on them. The saving grace on the third frame is that tractor has traditionally been used for the mower, and also to drag a wagon, a sprayer, or a flail mower.