Reinstalling drive belt

cosmic_nod

I replaced the walking belt on my nordictrack T5.3 (NTL600101) and while re-assembling I am unable to re-install the drive belt. It is not a model with an adjustment pulley but uses one of those 'stretch belts'. I've tried everything to get that belt on and it will not stretch the 1-1.5" or so to get back on the pulley. I've managed to put some dings into the larger pulley itself trying to use a plastic tool to walk the belt on and the belt itself is getting beat up on the bottom. Is there a trick to these things that I need to know? If I remove the bolt securing the front roller I can get the belt on. I'll include a picture of both.

https://imgur.com/g59eR49

https://imgur.com/pPEqP8R

admin-it

You can try loosen the drive motor bolts some to give you some play.