# nh 488 belt replacement



## captjack (Sep 30, 2009)

Are there any tips or tricks to replacing the belt on an old 488 haybine? The one on there is old and has some chunks out of it. I want to replace it before it breaks while mowing.

The engineers at NH must have gotten fired after designing this ! It blows my mind that they would have you take the gear box off to change a belt! its some kind of cruel joke. haha

i am soaking all the bolts in oil in hopes that i dont break any taking it apart - if anyone has any tricks to this job im all ears


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## mike10 (May 29, 2011)

It is not as bad as it looks. Loosen the belt. Remove the two chains. Remove the shield over the slip clutch on the gearbox. Remove the set screw holding the pto shaft to the gearbox and remove the slip clutch assy from the gearbox. You could also just disassemble the slip clutch so the drive shaft is not connected to the gearbox. If you follow the output shaft of the gearbox, the one running left to right, you will see a bearing mounted to the frame right behind the upper roll. Remove the three 3/8 flange bolts. Now on the outside of the machine remove all but one the 3/8 bolts that hold the large side plate to the machine. This plate is the one the gearbox is bolted to. Now go down to the wobble box. Remove the knife bolt. At the bottom of the wobble box is a plate that goes up into a bearing on the bottom of the yoke. Remove the three 1/2 bolts that retain that plate to the bottom frame. After the bolts are removed there is a 1/8 shim plate under this plate you just unbolted. Remove this shim. Now rotate the plate 180 degrees. This will give you room to slide the belt under the plate. You will probably need to turn the pulley to find the spot with the greatest clearence. Once the belt is off the wobble box go back up to the gearbox plate and remove the final 3/8 bolt. Now you can pull that plate away from the frame about 2" and you can get the belt out. Sounds like a lot of work but I can do it in under and hour.


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## NEHerdsman (Sep 23, 2009)

Folks with these older NH haybines sometimes put an extra belt around the output shaft of the gearbox while they have the machine apart, tied up so that it's out of the way. Saves some time when the next belt replacement is needed...


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## captjack (Sep 30, 2009)

[quote name='NEHerdsman']Folks with these older NH haybines sometimes put an extra belt around the output shaft of the gearbox while they have the machine apart, tied up so that it's out of the way. Saves some time when the next belt replacement is needed...[/QUOTE

I actually thought about that - with by luck it would break free and cause some damage when it dislodged the two chains ! haha

I only have about 120 acres worth of mowing a year so this belt should last a good while.


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