Repair Threads on Drive Shaft

I was changing belts on my MTD 600 Series. I had to lower the main drive pulley to clear the belt. I removed the bolt but had a rusted on pulley. I used the air hammer with a socket extension to vibrate against the shaft, and the pulley came off like a charm. Unfortunately, I should have left the bolt in place, because I goofed up the threads on my bolt hole. I can't get the bolt started back on the threads. Do you think I can correct this by using a tap with the same thread size? I'm hoping that just the mouth of the bolt hole was cobbled up, so maybe it would only take a few turns with a tap to break through to the good threads. Any thoughts?

Sounds like the thing to do.
Make sure that you use a starter tap as the tapered lead in should get you into the threads properly.

I wish my drive pulley came off so easily.........

BY all means, double check the thread "pitch" and be DAMN sure the tap is straight and true !! ..:thumbsup:

If you have access from the back side just run the bolt in from that side. It will clean up the threads.