Farmall M Belt Replacement

Thanks to all who talked me through the belt replacement on my Farmall M. Loosening that split pulley proved to be quite an ordeal and I couldn’t have done it without your help.

Also learned a few other tricks along the way;

1. An impact screwdriver is a good tool for breaking loose a stubborn setscrew. (I've since replaced the slotted screw with a square head screw.)

2. After weeks of soaking in PB and tapping with an oak dowel the pulley wouldn't budge so tried operating the tractor with setscrew removed while monitoring the pulley at frequent intervals. After about an hour of heat and vibration it finally broke free on its own.

3. Since I couldn't find a "brass drift" I was using my oak dowel to try and open the pulley further which didn't work very well. Upgraded to a 3/8" mild steel rod from Lowes which did a better job. After about an hour of tapping on the hub, the rod ends had "mushroomed" but no apparent damage to the hub and the belts were off!

4. In hindsight, applying some paint remover to clean paint from the threaded hub probably would have made the job much easier.

5. In the final stage of tightening the belt I found that a quick jerk (ccw) on a fan blade seemed to work better than tapping on the hub.

Now it's back together with all new belts.

Hi, Melvin. Thanks for the observations.

In my experience, the original-type slotted screw is the way to go. With a square- or hex-head screw, it's possible to get enough torque to twist off the screw down inside the flange casting; then things get really ugly. I don't think I could twist a slotted screw that hard without breaking the slot first.

Then there are things like the last one I worked on, where the previous owner had installed a regular recessed hex-head set screw...and followed up behind it with an identical set screw in the same hole! But maybe that's a story for another time.

Mark W. in MI