Over the past few days I have been fixing up my 33" HiVac with 14HP Kohler. I changed the grease boots, short linkage, and inspected and greased entire underside. When I went to test it, I found the spinning aluminum engine plate was scraping the chain case or small transmission near the very edge. At first look, it would seem like the rubber drive wheel was not keeping the transmission far enough away from the engine plate. I did not have this problem prior to my maintenance. I tried to adjust the engine plate up and down. When I moved it up the scraping was gone, but then the tractor would not pull. In inspecting the drive wheel, it has at least 1/4" of rubber on outside and the lining inside is in good shape. I did remove the chain drive to put the new boots on, but there appears to be only one way it can be installed, and there does not appear to be any adjusting. It moves freely with the clutch and with the shifting. The only other thing I did was to lightly wire-brush the drive wheel as it had a little shine to it.

Do anyone know if the wheel should have more rubber to add clearance to chain case? Since the wheel and chain case move as one, I can only guess maybe the drive wheel is worn, but it seems like I have worn them down further than this in the past and never had the disc scrape the chain case. Am I missing something here?

Thanks in advance for your help. Thanks to Walt for previous advice and will send photos.

Best regards, Tommy