When I first began working on golf carts, one of the first real challenges that I ran into was that of trying to remove the drive clutch off of a cart. At that time, I was set up as a dealer for a major golf cart parts supplier, and they offered a variety of “clutch pullers” for different makes and models. When you look at a typical drive clutch from the side, it has a rather large bolt head in the center. That bolt attaches the clutch to the end of the crankshaft of the engine (which is threaded to match that of the bolt). That bolt needs to be removed, and depending on the direction that the engine spins, it might have either a right or a left- hand thread. So, you need to be sure which way the engines spins during operation. Just engage the starter/generator for an instant and note the direction of travel. If the engine (as you face the side of the clutch) rotates clockwise (top moving from left to right), then the bolt will move counter-clockwise to tighten and therefore clockwise to loosen (left hand thread). I know it can get confusing, but just remember that to loosen the nut it must be turned in the same way that the engine rotates. In this case, that means the bolt has a lefthand tread and must be rotated toward the right to loosen it. Like-wise if the engine’s rotation is counter-clockwise, the nut must be rotated counter-wise to be loosened. Of course, you will have to hold the clutch in place as you remove the bolt. The easiest way to do that is to use an impact wrench, if you have room to get one in there. The impact wrench applies its energy in such short bursts, that the clutch and crankshaft don’t have time to pick up enough momentum to get to moving along with the bolt. I bought a very shallow right hand impact wrench for the job and it works fine. If you don’t have an impact wrench, you’ll have to improvise, perhaps with a large strap wrench, the help of a neighbor, or whatever to keep a hold on the clutch as you loosen the bolt.
Now that you have the bolt that held the clutch on to the crankshaft out, you can see that the hole that the bolt went through in the clutch to reach the end of the crankshaft has a threaded surface. The bolt was sticking through this area but wasn’t threaded into this area. This threaded surface doesn’t have anything to do with keeping the clutch on the crankshaft, but is there to accommodate a clutch puller.
A clutch puller is basically just another bolt, sort of like the one you just pulled out, but it’s special in that it has an area way up toward its head that is threaded, but no threads on the end of it (at the crankshaft end). The threads up by the head, match the threaded area on the clutch that we just talked about that the bolt stuck through. These threads are always normal right-hand threads (“righty-tighty, lefty- loosey”). So, if you screw the puller bolt into the clutch’s threads, the end of the puller bottoms out on the surface of the crankshaft end. The puller is usually rounded on the crankshaft end so as not to damage the threads in the end of the crankshaft. As you tighten the puller bolt, it pushes on the end of the crankshaft and tries to push the clutch off of the end of the crankshaft. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty! Sometimes the clutch is so stuck that it refuses bitterly to cooperate, and you can even strip the threads out of the clutch (or your “cheapo” puller) if you try too hard. So, what next?
Having had this happen more than once, I became frustrated with pullers altogether and started trying a different approach. I forgot about the puller altogether and resorted to my caveman instincts and got out the big hammer. Of course, I didn’t want to beat the clutch to death by beating on it directly, so, I found a small piece of 2 x 4 and placed it at an angle that matched that of the clutch pulley, in the groove of the clutch as shown below:
Then I gave it a good whack with a large hammer and nothing seemed to happen at all. But when I repeated the whacks, while rotating the clutch around in about 30 degree increments, the clutch finally popped right off. I’ve been using this technique for several years and have never yet failed to get one off (yet).
Some mistakes that I see people doing when trying this process is as follows:
People are tempted to use a long piece of 2 x 4 and beat on the end of it, way up higher than is pictured above. That might make it easier to hit, but too much of the energy from the blow of the hammer is absorbed by the 2 x 4, and it just doesn’t work well at all.
People try the technique with too light of a hammer. When I say whack, I mean WHACK! Don’t even try it with a carpenter’s hammer. It just won’t work. Get out the “BIG WHACKER”.
People give up too quick. In order to get it to work, you might have to rotate the clutch around four or five times, whacking it every 30 degrees or so. Be patient, it will come off, eventually.
When I first started using the “whack technique”, I used to leave the puller in place and try to tighten it a little bit after each round of whacking the circumference of the clutch, but now, I believe that it works better just getting the puller out of the picture altogether. I don’t use the puller at all. It seems to let the clutch move a little better without having the puller holding the clutch so rigidly centered. Well, there it is. That’s how I do it. Good luck, Ron.
Ron Staley has published the following books, and you can get more information about them by just clicking on each title below:
Electric Golf Cart Repair 101 (and a half)
Techniques, Tips, Tools and Tales
Gas Golf Cart Repair 101 (and a half)
Techniques, Tips, Tools and Tales
4-Stroke Golf Cart Engines Explored
What Makes Them Tick
By an old Slot Machine Mechanic