44A Speed-up pulley swap!

[Maxwelhse]

I'm very excited... I got my speed up pulley a few days ago and I think tomorrow night I can finally get it put on.

So... A couple of questions.

It appears that I can just run the nut off of the spindle with an impact, put a 3 jaw puller on the old pulley, pull it off, collect the key, install the new pulley, replace the key, and tighten the nut back down.

Is that all there is to it? Am I missing anything? Anyone have a torque value for what that nut should be tightened to?

[CTRUEX]

That's all there is to it. Don't forget the different belt! I just put them back on with an impact, so I cannot answer your question about torque specs.

[Maxwelhse]

Yep, I've got a shorter belt on the way! Probably going to be some trial and error to find the exact length I will need.

One other question, are the grease zerks on the the spindles threaded or pressed in? If I need to use a puller to remove the old pulley, I'm going to have to remove that grease zerk (or maybe find a socket that will fit over it?). I really hope it's not a press in...

Oh... I lied, I have another question. Any idea what size the spindle nuts are? My selection of impact sockets isn't great so I may have to pick one up.

Thanks for your help!

[darkminion_17]

Spindle nuts are 1 1/8 that hold on the blade.

[Maxwelhse]

I'm asking about the size of the nut on the other side of the spindle. It looks like a nut anyhow...

[sawdustdad]

I think the upper spindle nut is 1-1/8 too.

[fleetlines]

Thanks for the wright-up.
I would think extra care is required for flying rocks and debris.
I wonder if that and ?gator blades? would work with a regular bagger. I like the nutrients from the clippings to go back into the soil but I'd like to get a bagger for when I need to cut some very high grass.
Good job.

[Maxwelhse]

Originally Posted by fleetlines

Thanks for the wright-up.
I would think extra care is required for flying rocks and debris.
I wonder if that and ?gator blades? would work with a regular bagger. I like the nutrients from the clippings to go back into the soil but I'd like to get a bagger for when I need to cut some very high grass.
Good job.

I'm not too worried about chucking stuff out of it. It's pretty low to the ground. I did run some math today while day dreaming about how sweet my 50A will be when I get it up and running. Assuming blade lengths (I didn't have a handy source to look them up), a 5" pulley on a 44A should see tip speed of around 60mph... 50A and a 4" pulley should be near 90mph!! I CAN'T WAIT (call those numbers +/- 5mph since I was guesstimating on actual blade length).

In regard to bagging with mulching blades, my lawnboy does that trick just fine. However, if you want it to do a really good job you'd probably wanna swap blades between the two jobs. A couple of 2x6s screwed together into ramps and an impact gun can make that happen in about 5 minutes.

Or... even better, just get a second cub.

[CADplans]

Originally Posted by Maxwelhse

I'm not too worried about chucking stuff out of it. It's pretty low to the ground.

This speedup pulley does not make the Cub Cadet dangerous, it just brings the speed up to what the competition runs!!

My Cub Cadet dealer finally admitted he was always jealous of the cut the competition could produce, , he admitted it when I sped up a 44" deck.

[Maxwelhse]

Originally Posted by CADplans

This speedup pulley does not make the Cub Cadet dangerous, it just brings the speed up to what the competition runs!!

My Cub Cadet dealer finally admitted he was always jealous of the cut the competition could produce, , he admitted it when I sped up a 44" deck.

I agree entirely... The speed up pulley appears to be 1:1 to the engine RPM and most modern tractors I've seen appear to run the deck "overdriven" vs. engine RPM.

In my opinion, the 44A is still too slow... The quick math I did on the 50A makes me happy though!