1811 possible mule drive pulley seized ruining crankshaft seal?

[Eslenk]

Originally Posted by ironman

Multiple replies to your question, including my own, have stated that they don't believe your theory of an engine overheated by sluggish mule drive pulleys ruined a brand new crank seal.
Yet you have convinced yourself that you are correct and refute anyone who differs with you.

So I'll throw another theory at you to refute.....
You say in your opening post that the oil that exited the motor made a "BIG mess", and yet multiple times you said the oil level in the motor was "barely low, if at all".

How can that be? Just maybe you overfilled the oil to begin with.
Too much oil, too much crankcase pressure, extra oil gotta go somewhere.

But that makes no sense because you have a seized mule pulley.

There is a fan on the flywheel spinning as fast as the flywheel that blows air, and anything else in that air, dirt, clippings, or drops of oil forward which being oil will let gravity determine where it will go once out of the air stream.

Oil level was checked before mowing to be correct and after this just barely and I mean barely below the line.

I fully expected to see it lower but as stated above the fan blows it and gravity takes over once out of the air stream.

[Eslenk]

Originally Posted by SS5150

I'm still struggling with the correlation of the two issues.

Regardless, another thing I thought of later, is a member on another board put an M20 crank seal into his M18 by mistake. The inner diameter is slightly different. In his case he grabbed the wrong part by accident. I'm wondering if you maybe got a mispackaged seal. I believe his situation was similar, mowed his lawn and then rechecked later and had an oil drip.

I know the part numbers on the recent seal I installed are the same numbers I've used through out the years with no problems. All bought from a Cub Cadet dealer.
I tell the parts person what seal I want, they tell me they have it, I ask them for the part number only to verify it is the same number in my records.

I never say I'm looking for part # ******.

It's probably a long shot but I suppose a wrong seal could have been packaged from where ever the seals were made.

The numbers on the seals are so small that with magnifying reading glasses and a 3" magnifying glass in different light I can't make out the numbers from the original seal that was working before I removed it after cleaning the engine.

I tried to compare the two numbers on the seal BEFORE I installed the new one but could not see the numbers.


(Edit) In my first sentence I said "I know the part ON the recent seal" but what I meant is the part numbers on the bag of the new seals.

[Eslenk]

Originally Posted by ol'George

A new idler pulley that has enough lube to last a lifetime, will have lube of the consistancy to allow it to turn freely, but not spin several turns,---- 1/2 turn usually,--at room temp.
Some pulleys are rebuildable if they have a separate ball bearing, instead of the cheap ones that have the actual pulley stamping as the outer race,
the riveted ones can be drilled out and new bearings put in and the pulley halves are then bolted back together using Allen bolts /nuts.
But usually, the pulleys "V" has worn into a "U" shaped groove where the belt rides, and that condition causes premature belt wear,and should not be reused.
Next time you mow -or anyone,
stop the mower and quickly touch the belt, but caution ,as it is very hot!!
The heat is generated by the 1/4 turns and bending around pulleys, also look at the PTO pulley,
you will notice the "V" groove is most always very worn and looking like a "U" not a vee.
just some info into belt life.

I'm sure you know that the amount of revolutions a new pulley will spin is directly related to how hard you spin it.

Out of curiosity I marked the new pulleys, not installed yet, and spun them at different force.

A light spin netted me 1 to 1.5 revolutions.
I can easily net 4-5 revolutions with not too much effort.


The point is , if your pulley can not spin freely with the slightest effort, that pulley is offering resistance that will increase over time.

The engine, with the aid of a belt is the only driver of the pulleys, be them mule drive pulleys or deck pulleys.

[green407]

WOW, what a read.

Do I think a seized pulley would allow an engine to overheat enough to blow out a seal, no, I would expect a head gasket to blow first.

I think your seal blew out before your pulley seized.

What would blow out a seal on a working engine is a plugged crank case breather.

Yes I read the theory about the wrongly packaged seal, and it is possible but I would still check the breather. If your breather is plugged, you're going to blow out seals.

[SS5150]

Yeah, I'm kind of over 'theory' here too. I reached outside the box for possibilities.

It's time to take the engine out and figure out what really happened.