Noise after replacing pulley on transaxle, any ideas?

[bkm48198]

My old Craftsman II had a rusted out pulley on the trans-axle so I replaced it and now have other problems, it is making a kind of grinding noise while in gear which it did not do before, it then acts like it has lost power then jerks ahead. It was dark out when I was putting it back together and didn't drive it much just need to know if there is anything I should look for. I did use my torch to heat the old hub and used a puller to remove the old hub and pulley and tried not to heat the shaft too much, just not sure if I could have damaged a bearing or if the new pulley is rubbing on something. I did not have a retainer clip to put on top of the new pulley, it was out of stock at my local parts store so possibly the new pulley might have moved at an angle up or down and rubbed something, not sure exactly what is going on but any thing I might check that you know of would be helpful. Thanks. Model is 917252500 , no noise while engine is running until it is in gear.

 

[gfp55]

My old Craftsman II had a rusted out pulley on the trans-axle so I replaced it and now have other problems, it is making a kind of grinding noise while in gear which it did not do before, it then acts like it has lost power then jerks ahead. It was dark out when I was putting it back together and didn't drive it much just need to know if there is anything I should look for. I did use my torch to heat the old hub and used a puller to remove the old hub and pulley and tried not to heat the shaft too much, just not sure if I could have damaged a bearing or if the new pulley is rubbing on something. I did not have a retainer clip to put on top of the new pulley, it was out of stock at my local parts store so possibly the new pulley might have moved at an angle up or down and rubbed something, not sure exactly what is going on but any thing I might check that you know of would be helpful. Thanks. Model is 917252500 , no noise while engine is running until it is in gear.

You just about covered what could be wrong with it. In the daylight look to see if you did anything wrong with the installation of the pulley. Look to see if the shaft that the pulley is bolted to is not pulled out. Look to see if its hitting on anything.

 

[Carscw]

Don't remember if this reared has the star or a round shaft. If the round did you put a new key in?

 

[bkm48198]

Don't remember if this reared has the star or a round shaft. If the round did you put a new key in?

It has the round shaft and I left the old key in place, it seemed to slide down on the shaft after I lined it up with the key but it was dark and the key might have moved, the old pulley was rusted on tight and I hoped the key was also. If I get lucky maybe the key just pushed out and the new pulley is catching sometimes and slipping other times. I'll check it out after work tomorrow and see if that's the problem or if I can see something else that could be wrong with it.

 

[bkm48198]

You just about covered what could be wrong with it. In the daylight look to see if you did anything wrong with the installation of the pulley. Look to see if the shaft that the pulley is bolted to is not pulled out. Look to see if its hitting on anything.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Look to see if the shaft that the pulley is bolted to is not pulled out." Do you mean pulled out of the pulley or the trans-axle?

 

[gfp55]

It has the round shaft and I left the old key in place, it seemed to slide down on the shaft after I lined it up with the key but it was dark and the key might have moved, the old pulley was rusted on tight and I hoped the key was also. If I get lucky maybe the key just pushed out and the new pulley is catching sometimes and slipping other times. I'll check it out after work tomorrow and see if that's the problem or if I can see something else that could be wrong with it.

First off, don't work in the dark. Use a good light or do your repair in the daylight. If you don't have a good light wait till daylight and look and see before you might have, kinda, somewhat, almost, not sure think about something.

 

[bkm48198]

First off, don't work in the dark. Use a good light or do your repair in the daylight. If you don't have a good light wait till daylight and look and see before you might have, kinda, somewhat, almost, not sure think about something.

Normally I try to have enough light to work on things but after work today I stopped at a gas station and when I went to start my car it wouldn't start, I checked it out and found the battery cable that attaches to the starter had broken and I had to replace it, that was more important than the lawn mower. Once I had it fixed I pulled the old hub off the trans-axle just as it started getting dark and I lined up the new pulley and tapped it down on the shaft using a work light to see, but since it is still on the tractor and there is only a small hole where the battery box came out to work with it wasn't as bright as I would have liked. It seemed to go on ok so I put everything back together and tried it and heard the noise and shut it off. Since it was dark out I didn't take the battery back out and got on here to ask for help with anything I might have overlooked. I have no problems working on cars, even built my motor this spring from a bare block, my lawn mower is not something I have had to replace the trans-axle pulley on before so I was asking for help from others that have done this job before. I have rebuilt the deck, installed a 17hp motor on it in place of the old 12 or 13 hp motor it came with, replaced the belts, and many other parts have been replaced, but this was my first time with the trans-axle pulley so I asked for help. Sometimes you have to work on things in less than ideal conditions, such as not as much light as you could have, and since it is going to be 2o degrees colder tomorrow I wanted to try to get this done today while it was still warm outside.

 

[bkm48198]

Don't remember if this reared has the star or a round shaft. If the round did you put a new key in?

The problem ended up being that the key had fallen out so the pulley was just catching on the shaft due to tension from the belt. I pulled it apart and found the key was missing, I looked on top of the trans-axle hoping it was stuck in the grass and dirt that had accumulated under the pulley but it wasn't there, I then looked around where it was when I pulled the pulley off and couldn't find it, I was about to go buy a new one and checked around one last time and luckily found it. I checked the key to see if it fit in the pulley but it wouldn't fit until I took a file and knocked down the slight amount of rust that had built on the key, then put everything back together and it worked great with no noise, actually seemed like it ran better than it has in years.

 

[Carscw]

The problem ended up being that the key had fallen out so the pulley was just catching on the shaft due to tension from the belt. I pulled it apart and found the key was missing, I looked on top of the trans-axle hoping it was stuck in the grass and dirt that had accumulated under the pulley but it wasn't there, I then looked around where it was when I pulled the pulley off and couldn't find it, I was about to go buy a new one and checked around one last time and luckily found it. I checked the key to see if it fit in the pulley but it wouldn't fit until I took a file and knocked down the slight amount of rust that had built on the key, then put everything back together and it worked great with no noise, actually seemed like it ran better than it has in years.

Glad it was a easy fix.

That dang key always falls out. I have done it more then once.

 

[gfp55]

Good, glad you were able to get your tractor working again.