Engine Pulley Flip

Hi all,

I want to flip over the front stack pulley to use the deck drive pulley as the ground drive pulley. I’ve seen it done by drilling thru the engine shaft and bolting through, but I don’t want to do that. If it comes to that, I’ll just buy a correct pulley to put on there. But in the meantime, is there some other way to make it work without modifying the shaft?

Yes, but it's fairly difficult for me. I haven't done it in a while. I think it'll be easier for me just to do a kwuick (please excuse the "kw") video on how to do it.

Engine Pulley Flip Pt. 1
Engine Pulley Flip Pt. 2

Hopefully that helps.

Awesome. Thanks for the video. I have the stack pulley off my LT2000 which I think has the bolt hole at the very bottom, but I also have the stack off my Craftsman II which bolts on about halfway up in there so I think that’ll work. I’ll get going on it this evening.

No problem. Yeah the one with the bolt hole definitely will not work. Hopefully you get it though... Can be a bit of a pain sometimes. And when you do get it, be prepared for the unexpected... The pulley flip makes a HUGE difference in speed.

Alright, I’m getting ready to cut the stack in half. I have one question, how do you get this pulley to engage with the key way on the shaft? Is that the purpose of cutting a notch into the washer type thing that comes out?

I don't remember. I think I just put a big washer (like an inch and a quarter) over the bottom and just tightened it down real good. It's been a while since I've done it.

I always cut the bottom pulley off and welded it on above the stock drive pulley where the shaft would reach the key. I recall murray and mtd drive pulleys making this easy as the ends are turned down with pulleys welded on so if you cut the welds and knock the pulley off, it fits right on over the other side and you cam just weld it right on.

Got it!!!!

I cut right below those notches in the middle (that holds the washer that secures bolt), and then put the washer thing on the bottom of those notches so I could bolt it on. Then, cut off as much of the very top of shaft (above stock drive pulley) and welded that to the other side of the new pulley to give me proper spacing and a keyway. I first placed 4 tacks on it and test fitted, and it slid on perfect. After welding though it didn’t want to go on. After about an hour with a file and burr bit i got it knocked down, and it slides on and fits perfect. Bolted right up with the original bolt. Sorry if that doesn’t make sense, it would be best explained in a video.

Did some calculations and cut a belt down to 90”, and it seemed to fit good. I’ll be picking one up tomorrow and we’ll see what we get out of it.

I’ve heard of people adding stronger clutch springs after swapping the front pulley, have y’all ever had to do that? If so, what kind of spring did you swap in?

Thank you Murraymountain - without your help I probably would’ve never thought of this. Best part is, it didn’t cost me a penny.

No problem! If I had a welder that's probably what I would've done. Glad to see you got it!

Yeah sometimes people do stronger clutch springs. I could probably use one myself. For a stronger spring, I would just use good judgement on the amount of tension it gives. Too little and you have belt slip. Too much and you burn your belt or pulleys. Another thing you could do is just put another spring just like that one on. In other words, you can just double it up. But keep and eye on that spring... I've had those wide body Craftsman springs snap before because of the way they're hooked on.

Let us know how it preforms!

Will do. Tractor Supply didn’t have a belt in stock so I got it ordered. Fingers crossed it’ll be in tomorrow. Also ordered a stronger tie rod from gopowersports.com. Hoping it performs better than stock... that thing is garbage. It’s bent right now, toe out like crazy. I assume that’s not gonna be fun with even higher speed now.

When I went up to a big pulley on the front of mutt i ended up spending a lot of time fighting the clutch to make it work. I ended up building a new clutch farther back, made life a lot easier. I think i remember putting two springs on my stock clutch though.

I think this clutch will work fine. It may need another spring, won’t know until I get a belt on. I cut a belt down and held it together with a zip tie. Figured I might as well try and see if it would hold. The moment the clutch dropped it snapped, but it seemed to engage well.

The problem wasn't tension so much as it was having enough travel to disengage the belt.

Gotcha. Mine comes very close, but from what I can tell it will go all the way without hitting the pulley.

I totally agree about the tie rod. Everything on a Craftsman LT front end is trash half the time.

Agreed. I’ve had the ball ends on the steering linkage pop out of their sockets twice now I think. Just about made me lose it. I drilled a hole straight through and bolted it on.