(ET) Re: ET mower motor removal...it worked!

[frankenfield <res08b3w verizon net>]

Title: Re: ET mower motor removal...it worked!

Hello,

I got the mower-motor off.  Again, I'm surprised that the manual doesn't tell you how remove motors, to save yourself some grief.  I was doing it on a fairly cold day and feeling full of self-pity.  Maybe it's is in the archives somewhere but,  having gone through several hundred messages, I gave up on that route.  Thanks for the helpful information and encouragement.  
I learned a few things along the way.  Perhaps some of this is supposed to be so obvious any idiot...well you know the rest.  So, for those of us who have to buy the "Idiots guide to boiling water", a suggested approach:


1. Assuming that the electricals are disconnected and the blade is off the shaft:   The bottom flange, below the mower deck on this motor is a split flange: kind of like a lock-washer is split.  Anyway, if you spread this flange very slightly at the split with a screw driver {may be hidden around at the back of the motor and/or covered with crud} the flange separates from the motor housing more easily.
Rust no longer binds it up so much and then you can start to rotate it/work it down and off the bottom of the motor housing.

2.  The upper flange, above the mower housing, is spot welded to the motor housing.  Prying on it will only bend it if the bottom flange is rusted in place or otherwise resistant to movement.  So,...

3.  Ignore the upper flange till the lower one is off.  The bottom one can be replaced or carefully bent back into proper shape.  But if you bend it up I'd clean up the mating surfaces and apply some sealant to keep junk out.  What do you think?  Will sealant only make it harder the next time around?
__________

By the way, I'm thinking of replacing the four 1/4"[?] standard bolts that clamp the motors on the deck, with someting that takes an allen-wrench or otherwise allows you to avoid trying to remove these "soft" nuts/bolts with end wrenches/crescent wrenches etc.  I couldn't get a socket on these fasteners because they were set too close to the body of the motor and I did a fair job of buggering up the paint with the wrenches.  The person who last removed this motor had fought the same fight and left a gouge in the paint that has pretty well rusted through by now.  An unnecessary pain in the neck,  it seems to me.  Has anyone else replaced these fasteners; and with what?

Thanks "trakkies",


Steven Frankenfield