The pulley turns smoothly and the slop seems uniform The quarter inch of free rotation is measured at the outer edge of the pulley.

I'll take pictures when I open the gearbox but it won't be any time soon.

My Bad, I read it as a 1/4 turn, not 1/4"
if 1/4" that is ok prolly minimal wear inside.
On the zerk, can't remember if it is driven in or threaded, just a heads up. Somebody will be along that remembers.:bigthink:

Yes, the pins point OUT on the wide frame 42" plow. :Shocked:
That's how it goes when I try to do things without readers now days. :Forgot:

PeterJ :beerchug:

I opened up the gearbox and it was full of the runny grease. It was clean but I noticed fine metallic specks floating in the grease so I cleaned it out and picked up the correct corn-head grease from JD. It cost $4.50 for a 14oz tube. I just dumped the whole thing in which filled it to the top. I tapped out the 1/4"20 holes for the lid so I could use longer screws instead of the factory thread-cutting bolts. I don't trust them not to bugger up the threads. I de-burred the holes as well. The cork lid gasket was pretty thin so made a new one using the old as a template.

I removed the driveshaft and cleaned it up a bit before greasing the u-joint fittings which seemed to be tight. The zerk fitting for the internal splines is broken off so I removed the retainer cap and applied some bearing grease directly and reassembled. The shaft that touches the seal is a little cruddy so I may take it back apart to polish the shaft and replace the zerk. I'll wait until I can find a new seal and retainer.

I inspected and greased the sprocket bracket. Bearings, bolts, and pivot pin are fine and the aluminum hasn't corroded or seized to anything. I do have a question about the sprocket contacting the bracket. There is a thrust washer only on the right side of the sprocket and I wonder if another on the left side would prevent the bracket from wearing.

What does the crowd say about another washer?

Any trick to adjusting the two chain tension bolts? I assume the sprocket will ride to one side if the bolts are adjusted unevenly.

If there is room, add another washer. Won't hurt anything, just so long as it doesn't make things tight.

As far as adjusting the screws, just try to keep them even. Yes, it will tend to pull to one side if they aren't, but they are coarse thread.... I PROMISE you, you won't get it perfect. It will pull to one side of the other all the time. Every time you lift it, the shaft telescopes, so it will push and pull the sprocket side to side. There are no seals in those little needle bearings. Honestly, that whole drive bracket was poorly engineered in my opinion. Best advise you can get: Grease the crap out of it all the time. I grease mine every few hours of use. If I run it all day clearing drives for people, I carry a grease gun in the wagon. About every 3 hours or so, I grease it. Also oil the chain about 2 times a day. Lube won't hurt a thing, just makes it dirty. But you can wash it all off before you put it away for the season.

QA42A pulley alignment
 

I received the 5/8" X 36" belt for my QA42A thrower today so decided to align the pulley to the PTO. I removed the housing to just mount the gearbox and here is what I found. The PTO and engine appear to be tilted back causing the belt to hit the gear box collar rather than the shaft. The thrower pulley isn't tilted. Even if I flip the pulley around and move it all the way toward the gearbox I'm not sure the belt will be lined up with both pulleys. The QA pins are locked in and the bracket slots are slipped onto the shoulder bolts correctly.

The thrower came off a 1250 if that helps. What am I missing?

Add some spacers behind the gear box.

Washers.


Use a couple of washers ( all the exactly same thickness ) on the bracket that holds the gearbox. That will space the gearbox closer to the snow thrower to gain you some room.

If you don't want to use the washers permanently, I can make some spacers for you at a good price once you figure out how thick they need to be.

OK, I thought maybe I had the wrong mounting brackets but it looks like lots of people have had to shim the gear box to get the pulleys to align. I will opt to add spacers to the mounting plate so the gearbox stays flat on its mount. I'll try to tilt the plate to match the engine.