Started the tractor this afternoon and head to the lawn Engaged the PTO and poof, the drive belt was broken! Been 13 years, so I don’t blame it. Ran up the road and got a set of belts and started in on it it. Realized the I need to pull the clutch to do it. OK. One 5/8 bolt holds it on. But when I turn it, no movement on the bolt coming out. It turns, but I’m turning the motor! Gets hard to turn and then I feel the motor lope over and then it’s easy turning. Thinking I need to put in a piston stop to get the bolt to unthread and replace the clutch. I can say that when the tractor is running and I engage the PTO, there is only very slow and slight movement of the PTO pulley thoughts or assistance?
I’ve always had good luck just hitting it quickly with the impact wrench to loosen it. A mower engine should have enough compression to offer enough resistance for it to pop loose. For torquing the bolt back on, if you want to do it correctly, pull the flywheel cover and put a wrench on the flywheel nut to keep the engine from turning over while torquing down. Admittedly, I retighten on mine by just setting the impact to 100 ft/lb and hitting it until it is tight. Since the engine rotation snugs it up when running probably fine and I haven’t lost a clutch yet.
