Hello,

I have a Craftsman LT1000 lawn tractor (16 HP, electric start, 42" cutting deck"). The engine pulley which drives the drive belt for the rear wheels and the cutting deck has broken (the lower part of the top pulley broke off). I am trying to remove the engine pulley, but I cannot get the bolt off from underneath which holds the engine pulley on. The main problem I think is that I cannot find a way to keep the pulley wheel from moving when I try to loosen the bolt. I spoke to someone at Sears technical support and they said the bolt should loosen clockwise since the pulley turns counterclockwise.

I have tried WD40 on the bolt to no avail.

How can I get this engine pulley bolt off?

Thanks.

Is there room for a pipe wrench to hold the pulley while loosening the bolt?

Hi,
An excellent answer there (or question) since a pipe wrench will actually grip tighter when turned the correct direction.
No amount of WD40 will loosen the bolt. It is torqued in place (an actual stetching of the bolt is what is done.) To illustrate, suppose that it is tightened to 55 ft-lb (a good "ballpark" figure) which is the equivalent of one lb of force of a 55' lever, five lb of force on an 11' lever or 11 lb on a 5' lever.
The tools used must be able to defeat or counteract this torque, so they must be of sufficient size and strength.
Peace,
Clarke
PS I answered this a couple of days ago:
https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/tools-power-equipment/how-take-pulley-off-389074.html

Thanks for the advice.

I did try a pipe wrench to hold the shaft of the pulley, but could not make any progress on loosening the bolt. I also took off the housing to uncover the flywheel, but could not hold the flywheel in place.

I will try to raise the starter pinion to see if that will hold the flywheel in place.

Chances are starter pinion will not work. Maybe try a helper to hold the flywheel,or the pulley.

Hi,
I was using the rag wedging the teeth of gears over 35 years ago building racing motorcycles (referenced post.)
Peace,
Clarke

If you didn't read the link that "crigby" provided, it does say that the best way is to use air tools. I have changed many of these pullies and the air impact wrench has never failed to remove one of these bolts.

And, it does have the normal threads. So, you will need to turn the bolts counter clockwise.