Recommended way of installing belt, 3600 mower?

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Recommended way of installing belt, 3600 mower?

Corksailor
My YT 3600 threw the belt off yesterday when I engaged the clutch.  I suspect this might be an occasional thing, though it hasn't happened too often (once before this summer, I recollect).    Just wondering if anyone with a manual for it has a recommended way of getting that long belt (clutch to the mower) back in place... I ran for a while yesterday with one of the springs on the little bottom front pulleys still not in place, but when I put it in place first, I have a wicked job getting the belt on to the clutch pulley to complete the install.  The whole exercise is a dangerous one for fingers, as I came close to losing a couple of guitar playing ones yesterday while prying at the little pulleys to give some slack and trying to get that spring in place.  Is a person better off to release some of the connections holding the mower unit when installing the belt, or will that just produce a fight in that area to get them re-connected?  I suspect the company must have had a recommended approach to installing that belt.  I'm tempted to try making some pry tools to engage the little corner pulleys in some way to produce some slack, or look at removing the cowling and the front muffler assembly to get at the clutch better.  Any advice would be appreciated.

Still have my fingers... hope to keep them.
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Re: Recommended way of installing belt, 3600 mower?

YamaDog
The last pulley to put the belt on has to be one of the two small pulley with springs on them.  no easy way i found
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Re: Recommended way of installing belt, 3600 mower?

Corksailor
That may be the case... certainly hard to get your fingers effectively into the area of the clutch pulley.  I did get the belt back on with all springs attached, by following up on an idea I mentioned in the initial post.  I ran a bolt (loosely) through the hole above one of the small pulleys, a hole through the mounting bracket of the pulley, and ran that through a hole in the end of a pry bar.  Using that, I was able to pry and move the pulley against the pull of its spring, and get more slack in the belt, and using that ran it onto the clutch pulley.  I think I'll refine that to two bars with bolts attached and sticking out, which I can insert into the holes in bothpulley brackets, and be able to run both pulleys against their springs, producing more slack.  Seems to be the way to go, since these two pulleys and their springs are the only options for producing slack in the belt run.... that's their job, taking up slack.