Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

   How does the belt drive pulley on a Poulan rear engine rider model WELRV1 come off?

   The parts list shows a 1 piece pulley attached by a bolt in the usual way in the center of the crank end.  This one seems
to have a one piece collar with 1/2 of a pulley on the end.  The other half of the pulley is also the drive plate for a
friction disk.  [This thing has a drive section just like a snowblower.]

   There was no allen set screws in the collar part. 

   There were three bolts on the inside part of the pulley which screw into the other half, the drive plate part.  I assumed
with the screws out the drive half would come off.  It would not. 

   The drive half is fairly thick so I tried tapping from the back with a brass hammer but it would not budge. 
I tried a couple of pickle forks and no movement.  I heated it up and hammered in the pickle forks with stiff blows. 
It still would not budge. 

   This thing has me puzzled.  Since the collar does not have allen screws what holds it on?  On the collar part of
the pulley there's an impression on the outside like for a key.  But since it's on the outside there's nothing that
goes over that slot or could mate to it. 

   What's up with this pulley?  How does it stay on and how does it come off?
  
   This machine if only a few years old and had been garaged so no rust and looks like new.  The drive plate
looks funky but that's due to the heat applied.  There's no rust on this machine and I don't think the pulley sections
are rust frozen.

   [The engine is hosed and I'm taking it apart to see what happened.  The cam went for some reason and in a
weird way.  When the fly is turned to work the valves (Briggs 8.75hp OHV) the two valve rods move together.  That is
they open the valves at the same time, then close them so no intake exhaust action.  One valve also clicks with 1/16
inch jumps.  I don't see how a messed up cam could work the valves like that so opening it up to see why?  The
flywheel will only go in one direction but the rod seems fine moving the piston up and down at it should. 
   The engine had issues and I fixed those then took it for a test drive.  It ran for about 15 minutes then stopped without
any noises and developed the valve issue. ??]
 

    So it was a cap, rollerbearing and under that the bolt which held on the pulley. 

    All in all a somewhat clever design if you leave out trying to repair this arrangement.   Poulin made the, not MTD.
Poulin's customer support does not know about this design so does not know how to deal with it or give customers
advice.  Taking this off or replacing a pulley is not in their service manual per the Poulin service department.  Neither
them or their field service dealers know how to deal with this design (three dealers here in eastern Mass). 

   This half of the pulley is the inside view.  The three holes are for attaching this half to the half that goes on the
crank shaft.  That half has the other half of the pulley and a keyed collar for the slot in the crank.  The bottom crank
bolt holds it all together. 

   The middle boss is to make room for the roller bearing and cap.  The other side is flat and the friction disk side.



   The next two are of the hole for the bearing and cap.  From what I could tell the bearing is in there with so tight a fit
that it would be impossible to get out.  

jrtrebor,
   I'm not sure about the way to get it out with saving the part.  The top cover is mated to the bearing and I'm not sure
if it could be pulled out by screwing something in there.  You'd probably destroy the cap in the process.  Same with
welding.   What you suggest may be cleaner than what I did which was use a Dremel tool with a diamond disk. 
There's still a lot left in there that maybe can be cleaned up but very time consuming already.

For the cam part I've started a new thread.