im having some problems with belt wear on my MB sd. its a 31hp briggs, no cluth, no trim. last fall on opener here in WI the belt slipped and basically got ate up by the two gears. after contacting MB and getting a new belt, instructions and there tensioner tool i put everything back together following the instructions to the tee. after about 4 hours on the new belt, i went to recheck the tension and make any adjustment as needed. i retensioned to the factory specs, and then decided to pull off the upper cover just to check the new belt out. low and behold, there was already significant wear on the chevron pattern (a few of them were missing). I now am afraid to run it, because i dont want to get stranded out on the river (mississippi) has anyone had a problem like this or now of a solution?

You need to get the updated belt and sprockets. I don't think the goodyear worked very well. Upgrade to the gates.

thanks for the tip. do i order the sprockets and belt straight thru mb or can i get them somewhere else?

get it from mb, I would get the clutch update also,my .02