Snapper series 6 Briggs model 191707 type 251501 Having trouble removing drive pulley .

[slomo]

Check out Jim Jackson on youtube. He has a ton of great videos on these RER machines.

 

[Snapper series 6 1987]

Again, thank you to everyone. I wound up having to use wax, wd40, ATF, Blaster, propane, 3 lb mall, soaking over night several times. Hitting a socket resting on top the crank shaft until it was almost mashed by 50%....and FINALLY IT CAME OFF!!! The shaft was completely covered in rust. First time it's been off since 1987. The shaft was not damaged since the socket was softer metal and in the beginning 20 strikes would give a 2 hundredths of an inch of travel. Not fun, but it's off.

 

[Auto Doc's]

Don't expect the puller to be in the Briggs and Stratton manual, they did not build the mower, just the basic engine.

The manual that Snapper has basically showed operating and basic maintenance along with exploded view parts diagrams.

As I recall from being in an actual small engine shop back then, many tools were usually fabricated by the repair shops.

We used to remove the 2 set screws and then place a bolt in the center hole so it would contact the tip of the engine crankshaft. From there a 3-jaw puller would be used to apply light pressure. If there was rust, it took patience and lots of soaking to work them off.

Clean the crankshaft end then apply anti seize to the crankshaft end during reassembly.

These do have a height sitting for them to work correctly and work properly. I will see if I can locate my old repair information and/or a Jim Jackson you tube video that I watched not long ago.

Jim Jackson has a hobby/business working on these:

snapper series 6 friction drive wheel - Search Videos

www.bing.com

 

[Snapper series 6 1987]

I did see some of Jim's videos and quite a few others. I did find a Briggs manual and got a few ideas from that as well. It just took a lot of "all the above" to finally get it loose. As it turns out I think the intake valve may have been sticking since it was really covered with carbon. Gonna polish the crankshaft ends and put a lot of anti seize on them. Valves and camshaft look fine, got lucky on that. Had to order a valve spring compression tool, it seemed too risky to try to pry the caps out so I went ahead and spent the $. The whole idea is to not have to buy one of those zero turn monster mowers. No one makes anything like the Snapper and the least expensive Zero Turn was $4000 and up. They did the same thing with riding mowers they did with "pick up" trucks. This forum has been a great resource. Wish I had known about it years ago. I did take some very exacting measurements on where the pulley was on the shaft. One thing I did notice after the pulley was off...it looks like none of the sprays or wax I drenched it with got more than a few 32nds of an inch below the surface. Probably if I had used acetylene torch it would have gone faster. We don't have anyone within 50 miles of here who work on these old Snappers. All the dealers want to do is sell one of these "land tank mowers" that all weigh more than 600 lbs. Thank you for your help!!

 

[slomo]

Honestly penetrating lube, does nothing but lighten your wallet. As you found, most of the time, it doesn't get past the rust. Those induction heaters for stud removal are cool.

 

[Auto Doc's]

Hello Snapper 87,

I have had the best luck with Acetone and ATF mixed 50/50. The Acetone leads the ATF deep down into the rust.

It's the same mix I have used since I was a restoration body man back in the 80's. Conventional spray can stuff is just a wallet flush in most cases. WD-40 works very well, but it takes days for it to sit and creep in.

No, they don't build anything anymore that can hold a candle to one of these old Snapper series 6 mowers.

They are great for small yards. I also have a couple of Cub Cadet zero turn mowers that I acquired and rebuilt over the years. I use them to cut much larger areas.

 

[RevB]

Hello Snapper 87,

I have had the best luck with Acetone and ATF mixed 50/50. The Acetone leads the ATF deep down into the rust.

It's the same mix I have used since I was a restoration body man back in the 80's. Conventional spray can stuff is just a wallet flush in most cases. WD-40 works very well, but it takes days for it to sit and creep in.

No, they don't build anything anymore that can hold a candle to one of these old Snapper series 6 mowers.

They are great for small yards. I also have a couple of Cub Cadet zero turn mowers that I acquired and rebuilt over the years. I use them to cut much larger areas.

Most don't know about this mix.....they usually thing it's just some backwoods retard that invented it. They always mention that they don't "mix" (immiscible is the proper term)....so just shake it up so that both materials are present on application. The one caution is acetone will burn at much lower ignition temperatures (869f) so be careful when applying to very hot surfaces.

OT - Penetrating Oil

In a thread in the antique machinery forum, there was a discussion what to use to free up a part. Southbendmodel34 had mentioned a study in Machinist Workshop stating that Automatic transmission fluid and Acetone mixed was the best. I just received a newsletter today from Tim Carter mentioning...

www.practicalmachinist.com

 

[SamB]

Hello Snapper 87,

I have had the best luck with Acetone and ATF mixed 50/50. The Acetone leads the ATF deep down into the rust.

It's the same mix I have used since I was a restoration body man back in the 80's. Conventional spray can stuff is just a wallet flush in most cases. WD-40 works very well, but it takes days for it to sit and creep in.

No, they don't build anything anymore that can hold a candle to one of these old Snapper series 6 mowers.

They are great for small yards. I also have a couple of Cub Cadet zero turn mowers that I acquired and rebuilt over the years. I use them to cut much larger areas.

I have a couple of these RER Snappers and have owned several more. I have fixed just about anything that can or could go wrong with these great rider mowers. The OP had me a bit confused about a 'drive pulley' as there isn't a drive pulley on a RER Snapper. Drive plate maybe. Or bladedrive pulley, maybe? However, I'm glad to see the issue is fixed for OP. The drive plate does screw onto the belt pulley mount, which really needs to slide up and down when the set screws are loosened a bit to properly set clearance to the driven 'tire' on the axle. Anti-seize on a clean shaft is critical here, as the drive plate may need to be moved up to install a new blade belt and then back down to properly clearance it to the drive disc. Too wide a clearance there will cause premature on that driven disc and maybe a lack of hill climbing ability, due to slippage.

 

[Auto Doc's]

I recall when I was a kid, one of my uncles had a Snapper walk behind mower with a similar friction disc drive. He was amazed when I tightened the drive tension spring on it.... I did it out of necessity because it was too heavy to push if the drive was constantly slipping. He never did understand anything mechanical. LOL

My series 6 Snapper has not been run so far this year, but I need to. Machines that set too much can be as bad or worse than machines that are abused. I got this thing from an elderly friend who has now passed away, but he loved talking about it. I think the only reason it got parked was due to a stripped blade bar. I have since reconditioned most of the machine and worked a lot of the kinks out of it.

I might get energetic and even paint it someday soon. These machines were built simple and built to last.

 

[Gord Baker]

Guessing she is rusted onto the crankshaft. Two set screws are all I know about securing it on the crank. I couldn't get mine off either.

There is an adjustment needs to be made. The depth of the steel drive disk TO the rubber ring, driven disk. If yours doesn't pull a hill then you need more contact here.

Several ways to remove it. Candle wax and a propane torch. MAP gas is no longer made. It was only 50 degrees F hotter anyway. Everyone swore by MAP gas LOL. Basically the same burn temp as propane. Air hammer if you can get on it. Soak it in PB Blaster for a couple weeks no joke. Spray it down daily.

MAP gas is still obtainable and is much hotter than Propane.