I need to remove the boss from a Power torque, I've heard it's easy to crack the flywheel whilst doing so. So what is the best meathod? With the full cranks I always just hit each side of the boss with ball pein hammers. Can I just do that on the power torque? I don't really want to take it to a mower shop because I live hours from one.
The back of my vice has a crook in it just above where the slide bit goes out the back. Its a similar radius to the boss but not real deep. I sit it on there and hit it with the pein hammer.
Advice would be too keep checking to see if its loose, too many hits in the one spot and the boss will split.
Bob, if that is a classic Dawn vice (which has just such a curve as you describe), it is made of cast iron and despite its age it is worth more than the Victa engine you are working on (if it is a 6" in good condition, at least $200). I'd suggest you switch to a more disposable, or less destructible, anvil. For similar jobs I grab a large piece of steel that already has plenty of dents in it, and use as big a hammer as I can fit into the space. My favourite is an old sledgehammer that I shortened for one-hand use. However people have removed car ball joints for decades just with a couple of two pound hammers and a fair amount of strength and persistence. My own preference is to use overwhelming force so you don't beat the thing into an entirely different shape by using a prolonged cold-forging process.
One more thing, I've also got a power torque with a pulley on it(was on a self propelled mower) that I want to remove, how would I go about doing that? Those that have seen it will know why I'm stumped!
Could you post a picture of it please Hayden? Without a picture, the only people who can answer are those who've removed one previously, remember how they did it, and are sure that yours is the same as theirs.
There is a nice parallel part of the boss that coincides with the taper on the crankshaft. The biggest challenge is to hit the parallel part hard enough without raining blows on the pulley and wrecking it. I think I'd use an intermediate block of steel between the hammer and the boss, so that the hammer's contact surface is just above the pulley diameter. That will dull the blow a bit and make it harder to get it off, but it should protect the pulley. You need a really heavy anvil, a really heavy hammer, and good square hits on the boss. It might help to rotate the boss a bit every few hits. It would also help to have someone else hold the crankshaft (by the far end of course) to keep it exactly square to the anvil. Otherwise you'll need a really good support for the far end of the crankshaft. The key success factor is to get square, solid hits on the boss - anything that dulls the blow keeps the process from working.
Hayden, I think you've put that pic on a members only site. Could you post it on Outdoorking, using the fifth icon from the left in the "Quick Reply" header?
iv'e had a few at times pretty stubborn, but plenty of crc and supported well as grumpy said, good heavy square on blows with a good heavy hammer has always moved them
