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White (MTD) 1850 Change Drive Belt

14 years ago

I need to change the drive belt on my White (MTD) 1850. I can pull the electric clutch but there's three steel flanges preventing me from pulling the drive belt off the pulley. Do I have to pull the engine up or pull the pulley off the shaft with a puller? While the shaft has a key way, it's pressed on. I guess I could take a grinder and remove the three flanges. This is crazy. Am I missing something? Thanks.

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Comments (4)

mownie
14 years ago
It would be ideal if you could get the pulley to slide off the crankshaft, but sometimes it does not want to turn loose. DO NOT cut or grind the flanges or tabs. n If you cannot get the pulley to come off, you will have to use the alternative route, which is (as you already suspected) to remove the engine mtg bolts so the engine can be withdrawn just enough to get the belt off and the new one on. Exhaust sometimes has to beremove from the cylinder head to raise the engine up enough to extract the belt.
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portcall24
Original Author
14 years ago
Mownie, Success. I didnÂt even try pulling the pulley. I felt like too many bad things could happenÂbreak the pulley or not be able to press it or a new one back on. Therefore I pulled the engine up enough to clear the tabs with the belt. I did have to remove the headers from the engine. I tried leaving the motor mount bolts barely in but eventually had to remove three of the four to have enough space to raised the engine out of the pulley hole and clear of the tabs. Thanks for the help.
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mownie
14 years ago
Glad you had success. Sometimes I will exchange a couple of really long bolts for a pair of the OEM engine mount bolts. Then just remove the two remaining bolts. Having two long bolts in place premits you to raise the engine and place temporary blocking objects between the engine and frame and assures that the engine can't possibly "get away from you". It also makes realigning the bolt holes easy when dropping the engine back down.
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hwouthuis
6 years ago
Wow, what a chore to change a drive belt on my ZTT1850. It has been a great machine and served me well for the last 16 years but the belt issue leaves something to be desired. My drive belt broke and pieces jammed in bad places which I was able to remove but after reading a little I see I need to remove the electric PTO. How do I accomplish this? When I wrench on the center nut that holds it on, it just turns the crank. How do I stop the crank from turning?
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