It appears the new belt may have been too narrow and was bottoming out on the sheave causing the shiny surface and excess heat.

 

I'm not seeing the shiny surface you guys are referring to. Are you seeing the white spider cobweb in the pulley in the 3rd photo I posted as a shine? The belt definitely wasn't bottoming out, as it didn't even wipe this cobweb away.

 

Ah, looking closer I see that the surface is not shiny, just some kind of cob web.
Ignore my previous post.
As mentioned, belt was possibly defective, wrong size, poor quality or was somehow damaged during the short run time.

 

Yeah. the belt looked fine to my human eyes when I installed it so I'm not sure how it could fail SO quickly, but obviously it did so Ill just replace it and hope for the best.

This machine is only going to be used in the Winter so that cold air should help keep the temperature down anyway.

 

I'm with @Ziggy65, the belt was either too narrow and sitting too deeply in the pulley or the pulley is worn wider and the belt is sitting deeper. The bottom of the belt is then being worn by the narrow part deep in the pulley. I think the pulley should not be polished smooth, either.

Your belt looks like it has been slipping and the narrow part of the belt (inside of the belt) is slipping and wearing.

 

Just going to throw this out, from your recent video you posted. Still having the hot friction disc drive wheel and trashed drive belt.

I had this problem before on MTD & AYP/Husqvarna units. The bearing inside appears to be functioning normally when (COLD)with minimal drag or no side slop.

Soon as unit runs, then it warms up if makes that far before breaking a belt? or trashing friction disk rubber ring. The Friction disk wheel is screaming hot to touch. 1) the wheel disk bearing is dragging or semi seizing. I have had a few where they didn't make any noise ether. Sometimes they will have an intermitted chirp.

When those bearings are press into that wheel disk from factory they are so tight! So the steel case of the bearing dissipates heat onto aluminum disk and if there is any deformity in bearing it heats up and drags over time.

I have also had these bearings walk out partially off the wheel disk causing a belt alignment issues.

The clue i heard in video is the bearing is dragging almost like its dry. The previous damage when got it, was from worn friction rubber drive ring that ground into wheel drive disk. With additional return springs missing it put all that wear & heat onto drive wheel disk & bearing over time.

When ever I see marks on wheel drive disk, I just flat out replace it. If I don't and the unit comes back its on your coin and pocket and the shop reputation.

 

Ok here's where I stand. I'm currently trying to install the new blue belt. I'm having a very hard time getting it on there. It is super tight. Even holding the tensioner pulley as far as it will go, the belt just isn't long enough to get both pulleys.

It appears to be the exact same shape and size as the first belt that failed.
So I can see why that first belt got so hot, and why this one probably will too.

Is there a trick to getting these belts on? I'm about to watch a few belt replacement videos so I may find the answer on my own momentarily.

I'm more concerned that this new belt is as short lived as the last one. I REALLY don't want the person who buys this machine to be coming back complaining about problems.

Edit:
Wow ok i just watched my own video of me installing the first belt, and this new belt seems even tighter than the old one. If its shorter its only shorter by a fraction of an inch but enough that I'm not sure if I can pry it on but I'll give it a try.

Edit 2:
I just watched donyboy73 replace a belt on an MTD machine. Different setup but his belt still went on with bare hands, it was way looser than my belts have been.

The can of worms is worming overtime tonight.

Edit 3:
One thing I'm noticing is that MTD lists it as a 30.2" belt, while all the 3rd parties list it as a 30.0" belt. That 1/5" could be making a big difference here possibly.

 

Helped a gentleman who had issues with his belt replacement that he was replacing, he mentioned the old belt was fine he just wanted to get ahead on maintenance. The old belt and new belt were the same size next to each other but he had no end of trouble getting it to go on. When i looked at it i determined that he went around the tensioner pulley incorrectly and that one simple routing issue solved his dilemma instantly.

The 0.2” on the package wouldn’t be the issue IMHO, on that concern it would only be an issue if the belt listed you ordered was incorrect for that particular machine. Do a double check for belt length on a couple of parts diagrams from a couple of different order sites as one site may be incorrect on their parts diagram, so a double check against another site and their schematic parts diagram may be in order to rule out that issue.

Double check and confirm belt size & routing, if it is neither then might have to try out a larger belt however i am still thinking something is amiss unless a pulley has been changed and is incorrect.

Cheers.

 

We all try to install belts by looping them over the pulleys and prying with a screw driver or other tool to 'stretch' the belt over the pulley's rim. V belts, especially the blue ones, do not stretch. You should have enough play if the idler/tensioner wheel is fully retracted and not making contact with the belt at all. If not, the belt is too short or too thick and is sitting higher in the pulley(s) than the old belt.

 

I was able to get the belt on but it definitely touches at all times. And it is definitely the right size according to parts lists. Hopefully some cold winter temps will stop it from overheating and maybe it will just break in and loosen up just enough to not self destruct.

 

Its also possible, that the (belt itself) was labeled with the correct Part Number, but labeled to the wrong belt. Not uncommon in todays aftermarket & O.E parts. With MTD's practice of odd size belt lengths, can influence operation. Hope your troubles are behind you now.

 

So last year I was fixing up this old MTD machine. Its drive wring was worn almost completely away. No biggie, they're easy to replace. So I replaced it with a brand new one. Then packed the machine away for the Summer. This Winter, we've had four smallish snow storms. I fired the machine up and used it to clear my driveway. Its not that big of a driveway, I live in the suburbs, not out in the middle of nowhere.

So here are the results, pure madness:

View attachment 237866
The original worn out drive ring that needed to be replaced ^

View attachment 237867
The new replacement drive ring installed and looking ready to go ^

View attachment 237868

The new drive ring after four small snow storms, about 4 total hours of use! ^

What the hell??? How does this even happen? These drive rings are supposed to last YEARS. This one failed spectacularly after just a few hours. Yes, it also gouged the hell out of the friction disc. Those strips are, I assume, the rubber. It didn't wear out, it just peeled away into these strips.

Has anyone seen this happen? This seems like complete madness to me!

Also if you noticed, the first two pics are youtube screen captures. I actually made a video about the repair process. MEANING I have a very detailed history of exactly what I did and how I did it. Although I can't think of any possible way to mess up, that would cause this??

I don't even know what to do. I mean I can replace the rubber again, but will it just look like this again after just a couple of hours of use?

I know this is a slightly old thread but wanted to chime in.
This EXACT same thing happened to me a few years ago in my Ariens 824. I purchased a non-OEM friction disc which self destructed (rubber tore off) the first time I ran the snowblower. It scored the drive plate badly. I called the supplier of the disc and was told they had a bad batch of friction discs. They sent me a new disc and drive plate. Times like this I wish I spent the extra $$ for the Ariens part which was 3X the cost.

I change speed ALL THE TIME while moving, nothing wrong with that and it should not cause this kind of damage.

 

Hopefully that was my problem too. OR hopefully my problem was the missing return springs. Both of those problems are fixed so if it was either one, I"ll be good to go next Winter.

Hopefully that problem was NOT how hot the friction plate was getting. I don't know why it was getting so hot, and of course it will be a lot cooler when its running in the winter vs the summer. But I'll be sad if it turns out the rubber failed because it was essentially cooked by the hot plate.

Either way i've made a ton of videos on this machine on my youtube channel so I'm really ready to be done with it. If it keeps breaking, I might just junk it even though I'm $200 in to it. I'm pretty sure the videos have made more than that already!

 

Hopefully that was my problem too. OR hopefully my problem was the missing return springs. Both of those problems are fixed so if it was either one, I"ll be good to go next Winter.

Hopefully that problem was NOT how hot the friction plate was getting. I don't know why it was getting so hot, and of course it will be a lot cooler when its running in the winter vs the summer. But I'll be sad if it turns out the rubber failed because it was essentially cooked by the hot plate.

Either way i've made a ton of videos on this machine on my youtube channel so I'm really ready to be done with it. If it keeps breaking, I might just junk it even though I'm $200 in to it. I'm pretty sure the videos have made more than that already!

Did you ever run the machine at idle (Traction not engaged) with the NEW belt installed to determine if the metal friction plate was still getting hot?

 

Not yet. I'm going to do a "how to summerize your snow blower" video in the next week or two and I'll check that then.

 

Update: I "summerized" the machine today (technically it IS still summer!)
I ran it for a few minutes, drained the gas, ran it again until it stalled.

So not the full 15 minutes that I did previously. But it wasn't hot to the touch at all this time.
Its too bad my plan is to get rid of this machine, only because I'm curious how its going to look inside after a few snow storms. But I have 3 other snow blowers in my basement and shed so this thing has got to gooooo
I'm thinking its fixed.

 

So is the conclusion that the old belt was slipping and causing the drive plate to heat up and eventually destroy the friction disk?

 

I woudln't think the old belt was slipping. It was very tight and there was no load on it. But it was also falling apart with very few hours of use. It was probably a combination of no return spring plus the belt causing the metal disk to heat up. And the rubber ring was rubbing against that even when idling. I tell you, a great way to test this out would be to go snow blow a foot of snow off my driveway Thanksfully thats many months away.