When I bought it I tried cutting the grass and blew 2 belts in about 5 minutes of cutting time. I took the deck off for winter use and when reinstalling the deck this year I noticed some problems.
It was incredibly difficult to attack the quick connect plate to the pins on the from due to the twisted ( I believe ) bracket. I imagine that's what is causing the belts to break.( Used a 1/2" x 70" kevlar belt as the original 9/16” belt isn't available).
When lifting the deck, the right ride would lift well above the ground but the left side would barely lift.
Where the bracket attaches to the middle of the deck with the 1/2” pins, the left side was very twisted which made me think the attachment point on the deck had been bent up.
This is where I think I made a mistake. I used a hammer to make both attachment points the same height. But that's not possible due to the small plate welded to the height adjustment bar at the back of the deck. Hopefully these pictures will make sense as it seems even to me I'm rambling here!
Left and right sides meaning from the perspective of sitting in the seat.
Tim
no more mow it's time to blow 
I have read that the older Case deck pulleys are made from a better material than the newer RM series pulleys and are more resistant to putting from rust.