Farmall A Crank pully reinstallation

Thanks for all the good info. I have one other question. How do you put the crank pully back on without beating it to death?

Warm it up good. Not so hot you hurt the seal. Put in in the over, or boil it for a while in water.

Gene objected mildly in your earlier thread (when you were taking it off) to heating the pulley. His objecton is NOT unfounded. You can get it hot enough to damage the seal.

But at more moderate temperatures, heating can make it a cinch.

Clean your pulley up good, not just any gunk and paint at the ends of the center hole, but all the surface of it so that your next batch of cookies doesn't smell like grease and mouse nests, and put it in the oven at 250-275 degrees. At that temperature, by the time any heat transfers from the pulley to a shaft and seal at normal ambient temperatures, it won't make for temps any higher than the oil the seal usually has to deal with. Some folks (including me in the past until I learned my lesson) recommended temps like 450 or 500. NADA.

While the pulley's heating up, go back out and take nothing more aggressive than a plain old kitchen Scotch-brite to knock any scale or paint ridges off the shaft that might obstruct the pulley going back on smoothly. Remember, it's a tension fit, so all the material on both surfaces is of value for a good fit.

At the risk of this sounding like one of my posts over on Tales, for the oven trick to work, it helps to have the tractor as close to the kitchen as you can reasonably get it. Make note of where the key on your crank is situated and grasp the pulley (don't forget the hot pads or oven mitts -- another reason for having your pulley clean) in a way so that it will be close to lining up when you get there, and RUN to the tractor with it. It cools down quick!

It should go on by hand, but might benefit from a few tunks (not wallops) from a soft-faced hammer of medium weight, like a two-pounder.

If, in the end, it doesn't go all the way onto the crank and doesn't line up with your fan pulley, you can heat the pulley, applying the heat way from the center, and draw it down with a washer under a bolt going into the thread in the center of the crank.

Scotty, LOL!
I heated mine to 200 degrees, and same deal, used oven mitts, had the door open, and ran like a fool to the shop. I also was careful to have no witnesses!

I had my crank cleaned and reground by my machinist, and the pulley had also been cleaned because a small crack on an outer edge needed to be welded, so they both were spotlessly clean.

I used this rig with a bottle jack...



...and my pulley slid on smooth as butter, but I'm not saying it's the way to go, as you don't want to do any damage to the rear thrust bearing. Scotty's way, pulling it on with threaded rod in the crank end, puts no stress on the bearing whatsoever.