Startrite Mercury Pulley Removal

[sgpstar]

Hi Chaps, recently picked up another old Startrite pillar drill to replace the one I had stolen a few years ago. My question is about how to remove the front pulley from the top of the shaft as I need to do the bearings. I have taken out the 2 grub screws and even heated the alloy pulley up as well but it just won't budge and really don't want to break it from hitting too hard in case there is something I am doing wrong, thanks in advance.

 

[snowcat]

die cast pulleys are some of the worse to remove as they oxides between the steel shaft and pulley, In all honesty if you've tried the usual suspects IE wd40, heating and rapid cooling, likelihood will be that your brake it............ even the cast steel ones are normally an impossibility to remove after a few years.... I always build anything with taper-lock pulleys, with the hindsight that it might be me removing it oneday....

Good news is tho a standard pulley blank if worse comes to worse is not going to brake the bank....

 

[JimM]

I used a 3 legged gear puller to remove the rear pulley from the motor when I swapped mine out - haven't looked at the set up but guess it would work with the front pulley as well ??

 

[fingers99]

You might try a puller or taking it to somewhere with a hydraulic press. I'd not it it wiv an ammer! Worthwhile trying to freeze the steel shaft and getting a good few expansion contraction cycles through it.

 

[sgpstar]

Thanks for confirming that for me, I will just have another go at it with a bit more force now as I never thought the pulley would be easy to obtain if I broke it, thanks for your help :-)

 

[snowcat]

trouble with pullers is they tend to crack the pulleys, ditto with pressing them out, unless it wants to move it wont.... but then a pulley on a drill will have worked in much kinder conditions than most of the stuff I end up refurbing.....so you might be in luck,

BTW if you can pull (or press) and shock something at the same time it works much better, Iv often put stuff in the press cranked pressure on it, heated the walloped it and just at the last its gone.....

If you crack it a pulley blank that size should be about £10-20 a good bearing shop should be able to get you a match.....

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

can you get under the centre part of the pulley with a puller rather than pulling on the outer edge? Standard pullers seem to be made for removing pinions, ie, solid lumps of metal rather than 'wheels'.

It always seems to me when I've worked on tapered shafts that pulling on the outer edge of the pulley forces the hole in the middle to grip the shaft even more.

I currently have one to remove from an engine and I can't shift it with heat/cold, releasing oils, etc and a standard 3-leg puller. Fortunately I can get at the rear of the pulley next to the shaft so the next attempt will be a home-made puller using angle-iron and threading.

In fact the actual puller I'm thinking of using is one for removing rear brake-drums off cars. It's basically omega shaped with a 17mm bolt in the middle and would normally clamp on two of the wheelnuts.

Regards
Peter

 

[snowcat]

I have a hydraulic set of pullers with bearing pulling tools there not bad, Theres little tho that I get to shift by just pulling, Heat and a few blows is normally needed, even taper locks have a habit of freezing especially on concrete crushers.....as you say standard jaws pull in the wrong points really.......

 

[shenion]

Have the same issue with small engines. Put the puller on and just tighten it a bit. Heat pulley and whack the bolt on the puller. It will move a tiny bit. Repeat many times until it gets loose enough.