Modified Massey MF 1655 54

When I bought my 1655 10 yrs ago the person who had it before hand had cut the blades shorter so that they wouldn't hit each other. The original cogged pulleys had been changed to 4" cast sheaves and he had put v belts to drive the spindles. Well there was noway it would cut grass like that so rather then pay dearly for pulleys and belts, I decided to modify the deck.


It was also a rear discharge deck so I changed that to a side discharge as well. I cut out the front of the deck and sort of vee'd the front. Had to move the center spindle ahead 7" to get the proper blade overlap. I also had to have the gear box's shaft turned down on a lathe to accommodate a double 4" sheave on the drive's shaft in order to run belts to the mower spindles.The belt cover's had to be modified as well in order to cover the belts.



The left side and center spindle are driven by one belt and the right side spindle is driven by another belt. The reason for that is that when I put the turbo grass catcher on I drive it by the right side spindle that has a double pulley on it. This way there's never more then two spindles being driven by one belt. Its been working excellent since changing it over this way 10 yrs ago. I haven't taken any pictures of the belts yet but can do if anyone wants to see how there set up.