55 Rancher

[danl]

I managed to wrap some nylon hay twine around my sprocket on my new 55R, and discovered that the sprocket doesn't come off like my 038. The owners manual says to properly mantain it, but not how to remove it. Any suggestions before I start using hammers and cutting torches?
Thanks
Dan

 

[HUSKYMAN]

Never had my clutch off, but you probably need a piston stop to go in the sparkplug hole. Then when you remove the clutch be sure to turn it the OPPOSITE of normal when you take it off. In other words righty loosy lefty tighty

 

[mikek711]

Dan,
If you have an impact wrench,just tap the trigger a few times making sure it is set to turn counter clockwise and it should come right off.
If you dont have one,pick an electric impact up,you will never regret getting it.
Mike.

 

[danl]

threads

Are they left hand threads ? I couldn't tell by looking at the nut and there are no threads exposed to look at.
I havn't had enough coffee yet this morning, but I think each of you are telling me it removes in the opposite direction.
Thanks
Dan

 

[glens]

I got the impression they are left-hand-right-hand threads too.

I don't have a 55R (or any Huskies), but crankshaft threading is typically RH on the starter side and LH on the drive side - so the threaded devices will (at least attempt to) self-tighten unless you get the Ultimate Backfire From Hell.

I'm a fan of using a piston stop.  If the idea is to spin the starter side clockwise with the impact (or to use a wrench on the nut to prevent crank rotation) I'd be afraid of tweaking the pieced-together crank.  If there's a nut on the clutch hub itself, simply spinning it clockwise with an impact might be safe and effective enough.

I prefer inboard clutches for just this type of reason.

Glen

 

[Dennis]

Yes, the threads are left handed on that clutch. Turning to the right, or clockwise will remove it. I use impact on 99% of them...very rare it doesn't work...

 

[treeclimber165]

Yup, Mike was confused. Turn the clutch clockwise to remove it, the same direction as the chain travel. I do not have an impact so I pull the plug and stuff some small rope into the cylinder to stop the piston.
When putting it back on, there is no need to honk down on it to tighten. Hand tight is fine. Simply running the saw and cutting wood will more than tighten it enough.

 

[danl]

thanks

Thanks for all the advice. I'm really glad Brian through in the part about not honking down on it, cause thats where I have doubts about how tight is tight enough.

BTW, I have cut wood for 30 years and never hand sharpened a chain until I started visiting AS. I was getting the impression if you don't hand file you must be a moron, so I made myself learn, I aint great yet, but I'm getting the job done.

Again thanks
Dan