how to take off a mcculloch flywheel

[ted johnson]

West Bends come without puller holes. I took two hardwood 1" dowels and flattened one end of each like a giant thick screwdriver. Run a spare nut so it is flush with the end of the crank, get a friend to pry on the two giant screwdrivers and whack the nut SQUARELY with a brass hammer. Take the flywheel nut off, remove the flywheel and RUN to drill and tap two 1/4-20 holes through the flywheel 1-1/4" apart, centered on the crank hole. Get or make a puller so you don't ever have to do this again to this engine. The wooden prybars prevent scratching the rim of the flywheel. That perimeter is moving pretty fast at 10K RPM, and a flywheel explosion at that speed from stress can be a bad day for a driver. Ted

[Ludovico Prelogar]

Thanks all for your thoughts. I'm not in a time crunch anymore (was going to send it to Sam Bennet to get burnished) but didn't make it in time with his scheadule and wanted to get the parts ASAP to put them on in time for Newcastle. Still got a lot of work to do.


I will reassemble the flywheel to the correct torque value with the starter cup and soon break in the engine.

PS:

How do you break in one of these engines?

Thanks everyone that helped me out and will use these tips in eh near future.

[Scott Elkes]

Thanks all for your thoughts. I'm not in a time crunch anymore (was going to send it to Sam Bennet to get burnished) but didn't make it in time with his scheadule and wanted to get the parts ASAP to put them on in time for Newcastle. Still got a lot of work to do.


I will reassemble the flywheel to the correct torque value with the starter cup and soon break in the engine.

PS:

How do you break in one of these engines?

Thanks everyone that helped me out and will use these tips in eh near future.

PLEASE - Start a new thread as a separate topic. It is a worthwhile topic and I'm sure with many, many different opinions deserving its own post/thread.  

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West Bends come without puller holes. I took two hardwood 1" dowels and flattened one end of each like a giant thick screwdriver. Run a spare nut so it is flush with the end of the crank, get a friend to pry on the two giant screwdrivers and whack the nut SQUARELY with a brass hammer. Take the flywheel nut off, remove the flywheel and RUN to drill and tap two 1/4-20 holes through the flywheel 1-1/4" apart, centered on the crank hole. Get or make a puller so you don't ever have to do this again to this engine. The wooden prybars prevent scratching the rim of the flywheel. That perimeter is moving pretty fast at 10K RPM, and a flywheel explosion at that speed from stress can be a bad day for a driver. Ted

Great tip with the wood dowels. I cringed when doing this the first time with my McCulloch with real screw drivers if I would damage the flywheel or shroud.

Exploding West Bend flywheels as Ted mentioned were real when the 820s were introduced in 1962. I was educated on this topic from vintage kart friends, West Bend immediately put a fix in when learning of the issue. The flywheel had a metal ring reinforcement near the outer edge. I was also informed you can see the ring reinforcement, if you don't see the ring, it should not be used.

[Scott Elkes]

Deleted. Duplication