Well, that was staring me in the face and I didn't see it! I have an older Troy Bilt GTX-18 (aka Bolens Duratrac) and need flat-belt idler pulleys (1/2" bore, 5" dia) for the mower deck. After finding them for $22-45 online, I decided to check here for any tips on pulley quality, because I'm kinda afraid of buying junk, also - Kenny's well-stated logic notwithstanding. I did use a drill press to drill through the flat (thinner) side of the rivet after marking the centers with a punch, and then drove them out with the same punch. I also had to drill out five spot welds along the rim. I used the same drill bit even though it was smaller than the spot weld because I hope to use all the same size machine screws to reassemble the pulley. Because of that I had to work carefully around the seam with a small cold chisel to get the halves to pop apart. That's it so far - now to find the right bearing & center bushing.
Buying Advice V-idler pulley
- Thread starter silver1
- Start date
An interesting surprise - the bearings from the PTO idlers I replaced (2-1/2" OD with 3/8" center bushings) are the same as in the 5" flat idler. All I had to do was drive out the 3/8" bushing and replace it with the 1/2" shouldered one from the damaged bearing in the 5" pulley. Everything is bolted back up and ready to be installed.
