Mowing Engine pulley frozen on LT1018 mower

[uracus]

I need to change my drive belt but the pulley is frozen to the drive shaft and won't drop out of it's housing (engine is B&S 18.5 hp). How can I free it up and is there a special grease I can use to prevent this from happening again?

This is the second time this has happened; the first time we had to cut the pulley off with a torch. The mechanic put on special grease when he replaced it and assured me that it would slide down easily if I needed to replace the belt. But its frozen to the shaft.

 

[Stimw]

They make a lub called Anti-seeze. It is available at auto parts and hardware stores.
I take an air chisel with a flat punch and rattle things to free them up.

 

[JTKub]

.. I take an air chisel with a flat punch and rattle things to free them up.

Good tip! Those are the cats azz. Also works like a champ to release rusted on brake rotors and drums.

Joel

 

[1olddawg]

My all time favorite is Aero Kroil. Best rust penetrator I have ever used. Many years in the oil industry had me trying everything on the market. As already stated, after using whatever, do a little tapping on it to loosen it up. Next time, put a product called Never Sieze on the shaft. Works great for a long time...1OD

 

[gravybones]

Whaaaat? What is whith all the torching and cutting and anti-seize? This is a simple job to replace this belt, people. I like that the pulley becomes fixed and seated in to the shaft. With a little thinking you can come to the conclusion all you have to do is lossen the 4 motor mount bolts from the underneath. Then tilt the engine up to one side and place the belt on the pulley and feed it down through the hole on the engine support plate. Voila! The whole job takes me 20 minutes to do. It is nice if you have an impact wrench for the bolts.

Again, doing it by the manual is hard, I agree, but doing it with a little ingenuity is better. In fact, given the oblonged cutout for the pulley on the engine support plate, I would say this is also how they do it at the factory when assembing these units.

20 minutes hassle free job.