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I searched the forum and found info suggesting PBS Blaster, pullers, and a tie rod removal tool could be used to help get a pulley off the crankshaft. I checked my owners manual, parts manual and the motor manual and cannot find any info on the pulley.

I have removed the old engine and am replacing it with a new to me engine and I want to use my old drive pulley. The one on the used engine looks bent to me.

Any more suggestions on removing this pulley. The engine is on my work bench, drained of oil. Can I turn it upside down and put penetrating oil in the well formed by the pulley and hope that loosens it up?

That's exactly what I would do. Let it sit for a couple of days to let the oil work.

Ok will do. I believe PBS Blaster is not available here, but I have a product called Innox that seems to work well. Will give it a try.

get a 3 way pulley puller / gear puller what ever u call them. It has three arms and a center pusher you use an impact gun and pull it off. sometimes you have to carefully put the bolt back into the crankshaft so you have something to push has worked for me plenty of times harbor freight has them and they work well

Be very careful if you try to use a puller on this pulley, if you bend it, you may be replacing. Soak it, then tap it good against the shaft, then slowly and carefully try to drive it off. A puller is always my last resort.

I also use a adjustable metal ring for pulleys i forgot to mention it distributes the force over the whole pulley rather than the 3 spots.

Thanks guys. I am not worried about the pulley that is on the crank as I have a replacement and the one that is on the shaft has a bend in it now. I also have a puller but it is the type that uses threaded bolts to connect to what you want to pull and I can't see how to hook it to the pulley. There are no holes in the pulley, but I suppose I could make some to get it off. I will continue the soak and tap method before moving to the puller. Thanks for mentioning putting the bolt back in to protect the threads. I may not have thought of that.

Using 2 hammers, simultaneously tap the tubing ( if there is enough space between pulleys ) on opposite sides working around the tubing. This will often break the bond. Avoid the key area if the tubing looks as if there was a stamped key at manufacture time rather than an inserted key.

SandburRanch said:

Using 2 hammers, simultaneously tap the tubing ( if there is enough space between pulleys ) on opposite sides working around the tubing. This will often break the bond. Avoid the key area if the tubing looks as if there was a stamped key at manufacture time rather than an inserted key.

Click to expand...

I do have room and will try the two hammer thing. She seems stuck pretty good, so I'll soak it and tap on it for a few days. I can cushion the bottom of the engine with a 2x4 and pry up on the pulley with another 2x4. I swear it is moving slightly but will not come off. Just have to take my time and do no damage.

This is how we removed pullys from grain augers and both electric and gas engine shafts. If there is a set screw remove it and spray your lube in the hole as well as both sides of the pulley. Take a drift punch and a hammer and drive the pulley farther onto the shaft just a little. Now clean that portion of the shaft exposed with emery cloth, add more lube and either drive it off or use a puller. If it hangs up coming off again just drive it back, clean up the shaft and start removing it again. If no set screw concentrate plenty of lube around the key as you begin to move it. I have removed at least 30 that way one winter rebuilding grain fans. Now if it is a tapered shaft it does not work lol.

I have been soaking the crank/pulley for two days and it will not move at all. Still as tight as when I started, but I ain't giving up yet. I am in no hurry and will be away thru the weekend, so I think I will let it soak till Tuesday. If it won't move then I will drill holes in the pulley and put my puller on it and see if I can pull it that way.

Possum, I don't think I can drive it in any further. There is a spacer between the pulley and the bottom of the engine so there is no way to drive it down further. Also, the pulley extends up beyond the end of the crank, forming a little well that I can fill with PB Blaster (yes, I did find some locally) so there is no way to drive it on and clean the end of the shaft. Thanks for the suggestion, I wish it would work.

I'll get this thing yet.

Hang in there, we're here to provide encouragement.

Best thing to use is heat. get you a small propane tourch and get it hot. Use your hammers to tap the sides and keep a small amount of tension on the puller and it will come right off.

Be careful with heat as it damages seals weaker metals and mostly everything </3 heat

If the pulley is rusted in place the only thing I would say is heat. Most of the pulleys are made of just light duty steel and will bend very easy. So that would rule out a puller useless you can pull on the hub. Yes heat will do damage to the seal but as I recall that isn't very hard to change that seal. I have never come across a engine pulley myself that wouldn't come off with a good socking of penetrating oil and some hammering on the hub. But I don't know how bad your is rusted. But I have come across some things that are rusted so bad I have had to cut them out with a torch or cut off wheel.

I sure hope it doesn't come down to cutting it off. I'd ruin something for sure. The thought of putting the puller on it is worrisome enough and I hope I don't have to heat it because I don't want to ruin the seal or the crank itself. We'll see. In the meantime, I keep spraying it with PB Blaster and tapping away at it. Will see what next week brings.

I do appreciate your suggestions so keep them coming. It has to come off, and maybe after soaking a little gentle heat might help.

Couldn't you make your own puller? I don't know what your PTO looks like but if it has any hub that extends down you could make a steel clamp and use a steering wheel style puller. You need to spend some time studying how the pulley is made.

Its going depend on what you heat it with. Acetylene torch with a rose bud might be way too hot but a propane torch will know way it be too hot to do any damage but might be enough heat to loosen it. Yes for sure use heat as a last resort. It just depends how rusty things get in the mowers environment.

Suspend the engine over night by the pulley an inch or so above something valuable ( the wife's diamond maybe ) and it will probably be loose by morning.

Well, I give up. Been soaking this thing in PB Blaster and Liquid Wrench for 6 days. I put my puller on it and it mushed the end of the puller and bent the bolts. I tried lightly heating it with a propane torch and still it is a no go. Very frustrated at the moment, so I am walking away from it.

I am looking into using the pulley that is on it, but I will have to cut the bottom of the tractor to get it down thru. I don't think this is a very good option. I just don't like cutting that tractor.

I can't understand why this will not come off. I have looked everywhere for a set screw and can't see one. I have read a lot of posts that say they have success with soaking it in various kinds of pen. oil but that doesn't look like it is going to work.

Frustrating!!!!!

I was just struggling with this pulley and was looking for answers when I decided to try two pry bars. Turns out the pulley has a stub shaft for the PTO clutch. I was using a bearing splitter and a balancer puller but the pulleys were never going to come off that way...


I know it's an old thread and I'm not sure it's the same issue but I figured it may help someone out.

It was on a Toro zero turn.

I know this is an old thread but I thought I would post an update.

Late last summer my B&S 14.5 HP engine started smoking like crazy when I mowed downhill or side hill. Checked this site and Youtube and I figure it is a blown head gasket. I limped thru the remainder of the summer with it smoking and kept a close check on the oil level. I pulled the engine out of the tractor in January thinking I would bring it home and do the head gasket repair. The mower lives at my cottage all year so removing the engine was the simplest approach to completing the repair.

I thought while I had the engine out and was tearing it apart to do the head gasket, that old pulley was going to have to come off. It is the pulley that came with the engine when I bought it used to replace the original engine that broke its connecting rod. The used engine pulley is the wrong size for the belt used on the tractor. I had kept the original pulley when I did the engine swap a few years ago. When I started this thread a few years back I was seeking advice on how to remove a frozen pulley and despite my attempts I never did get it off. I decided this time it was coming off.

So I watched a few more Youtube vids on pulley removal and tried their techniques. I drilled two holes thru the deck pulley close to the drive shaft and put my puller on it. Cranked it down as tight as I could and it was a no go. Then I turned the engine upside down so the pulley was facing up and started soaking it with Liquid Wrench for a few days. Put the puller back on and it was a no go. Then I tried to soak it in acetone and transmission fluid for a few days. Put the puller on it and it was a no go. So I decided I would make a pulley puller that could utilize my 20 ton hydraulic jack and see if that would take it off.

This puller pushed up on the drive shaft while pulling down on the spacer between the engine and the pulley. The pulley did not budge. The jack simply bent the 2" x 2" x 1/4" angle iron I used to make it up with. Pulley removal, still a no go!

I tried heating it with a map torch every time I put a puller on it and it had no effect at all. That was the most heat I could apply. No oxy/acetelene here for me to use.

So I finally decided I would have to grind it off. (Sorry, no pics of this process. I was afraid I would ruin the drive shaft and was concentrating on what I was doing as opposed to taking pics). I started with a thin cutting blade in my mini grinder and I cut the main portion (bell) of the deck pulley off. Then I cut the drive pulley off leaving me with just the pulley shaft that was frozen on the drive shaft. Next I cut a slot up the pulley shaft right above the key way on the drive shaft. I could hold the cutting disk above the key way and cut thru the pulley shaft without damaging the driveshaft. Then I put a small cold chisel in the slot I cut and drove it up the key way trying to open the slot wider. Nope that didn't work. I went to a point on the pulley shaft that was located 90 degrees to the key way. Using a grinding disk I started to thin the wall of the pulley shaft. I knew the inside and outside diameters of the drive shaft and the pulley shaft and kept checking the depth I was grinding into the pulley shaft with my calipers. When I was about 1/100th of an inch wider than the drive shaft I stopped grinding.

Then I went to a point on the pulley shaft directly opposite where I was grinding (i.e. 180 degrees opposite to where I first thinned the wall of the pulley shaft). I ground that spot on the pulley shaft down till I was about 1/100th of an inch wider than the drive shaft. So, at this point, I had cut a slot up the pulley shaft and weakened it in two places that were about 90 degrees each side of the key way. I put the cold chisel in the slot I cut in the pulley shaft and started driving it up the key way. The slot started to open up. Then I put a couple pry bars in the slot, pried the slot a little wider and the pulley shaft started to pop off. I kept prying and it finally let go. I hope my descriptions helps explain what I did. Without any pics it is hard to explain.

It probably took me about an hour and a half to cut the pulley completely off the drive shaft but I was going slow and careful with the mini grinder trying not to damage the drive shaft. After all that I wished I had simply cut it off to begin with and not wasted days on penetrating oil and pullers.

Oh well, the update is complete and it's time to do the head gasket. Hope this helps someone in the future.

Edit: it does not want to show the pic I have of my home made hydraulic jack puller.

Welcome to the real world of small engine technicians
Many a time drive shafts have to be heated red hot to get them off
And the story is the same for rear wheels
Many times I have to pull them while heating because once cool they just won't budge .
Nice job with the cut off , same way as I do here when needed ( and it is ) .
Before you put the new pulley on polish the PTO shaft and give it a good coating of anti-seize , filling up the key way so when the key goes in it will fill the key way on both sides at the top .
I like to replace the key with a longer one that goes full length .

When servicing a customers mower I remove the pulleys & grease the shaft every 2nd drive belt or 4th blade belt to avoid repeat performances .

I have some Allan bolts that are kept with the air tools and these are used for the air hammer to bang against.
Things that are rusted on respond much better to 20,000 little taps / minute than I big heavy one, or slow hydraulic loading .
Done in a similar fashion, support the pulley and hit the shaft .

Now as for photos
The forum only accepts images that are JPEG format
Most phone store in RAW format.
When the forum computer sees a small RAW image it reads the data as being massive so rejects it
Thus to put images into the forum they have to be opened in some sort of photo editing app then SAVED as a JPEG / JPG to Windoze users .There is also a maximum size so I resize photos to 12" along the longest side @ 72 DPI and save this image as a JPEG. These load easily and display well .

Another attempt to show my home made puller. Thanks Bertsmobile for the explanation on the need to compress the picture first.

bertsmobile1 said:

Welcome to the real world of small engine technicians
Many a time drive shafts have to be heated red hot to get them off
And the story is the same for rear wheels
Many times I have to pull them while heating because once cool they just won't budge .
Nice job with the cut off , same way as I do here when needed ( and it is ) .
Before you put the new pulley on polish the PTO shaft and give it a good coating of anti-seize , filling up the key way so when the key goes in it will fill the key way on both sides at the top .
I like to replace the key with a longer one that goes full length .

When servicing a customers mower I remove the pulleys & grease the shaft every 2nd drive belt or 4th blade belt to avoid repeat performances .

I have some Allan bolts that are kept with the air tools and these are used for the air hammer to bang against.
Things that are rusted on respond much better to 20,000 little taps / minute than I big heavy one, or slow hydraulic loading .
Done in a similar fashion, support the pulley and hit the shaft .

Now as for photos
The forum only accepts images that are JPEG format
Most phone store in RAW format.
When the forum computer sees a small RAW image it reads the data as being massive so rejects it
Thus to put images into the forum they have to be opened in some sort of photo editing app then SAVED as a JPEG / JPG to Windoze users .There is also a maximum size so I resize photos to 12" along the longest side @ 72 DPI and save this image as a JPEG. These load easily and display well .

Click to expand...

I have to admit that I was afraid to heat it too much. I don't have much experience with that and I wanted to save the seal in the bottom of the engine so I was gentle with the heat.

I have polished the shaft and will put the anti-seize to it when I put the pulley on.

Now I have a new problem. The new pulley won't slip on to the drive shaft. It goes on about 1/3 of the way then stops. I think I will have to file the punched in key on the pulley shaft in order to get it to slide on.

I'd love to know how you replace the key with a longer one. The old pulley and the new pulley have a key that is simply a punched indentation in the pulley shaft. When I look inside the new pulley you can esily see that the key is punched more to one side as opposed to strait down the middle. They have to find ways to make things cheap, just to make it so that the job is harder to do.

Berniebac said:

I have to admit that I was afraid to heat it too much. I don't have much experience with that and I wanted to save the seal in the bottom of the engine so I was gentle with the heat.

I have polished the shaft and will put the anti-seize to it when I put the pulley on.

Now I have a new problem. The new pulley won't slip on to the drive shaft. It goes on about 1/3 of the way then stops. I think I will have to file the punched in key on the pulley shaft in order to get it to slide on.

I'd love to know how you replace the key with a longer one. The old pulley and the new pulley have a key that is simply a punched indentation in the pulley shaft. When I look inside the new pulley you can esily see that the key is punched more to one side as opposed to strait down the middle. They have to find ways to make things cheap, just to make it so that the job is harder to do.

Click to expand...

Not all pulleys are made that cheaply
Some have a key way broached into pulley as well as the milled slot in the crankshaft .