Im trying to put a belt on a hobart 84146
I'll do my best to recall all the steps, I haven't done it in a while. Read instructions fully before starting, as step three may not be necessary, although if performed you'll have much more room for your hands during the remainder of the process.
1. Lay machine on side/back (so that the knife shaft is standing vertically) to access the bottom.
2. Remove bottom cover panel.
3. Remove motor. Two nuts are easy to access, the other two are quite difficult to reach. This step might not be necessary if only changing a belt because you should be able to slip the old belt off and the new one on without completely removing the knife shaft. If the knife shaft must be removed for some reason, the motor must come out to give you room to fit a puller onto the knife shaft (in order to remove the lower knife shaft bearing and lift out the shaft).
4. Take note of the knife shaft pulley. Notice how close to the casting the pulley is. When re-assembling, you'll need to position the pulley at approximately the same location for the black belt to track properly). Loosen two set screws securing pulley onto knife shaft and slide pulley down (don't lose the key for the pulley when you slide the pully down).
5. On the "outside" of the machine, remove the plastic cover where the knife shaft enters the casting.
6. Now visible is a special locknut and special lockwasher (sorry, don't know their names). One of the tabs of the lockwasher is likely bent upward into one of the slots of the locknut. Use a hammer & punch to bend the tab out of the locknut's slot, allowing the nut to turn.
7. Using a hammer and punch, position the punch in one of the slots on the locknut and spin the nut counter-clockwise with sharp blows with the hammer & punch. Have an assistant hold the shaft to offer some resistance to the shaft spinning if you're having difficulty. This may also be easier with the motor and belts still in position, using the motor to partially hold the shaft from rotating while driving the locknut loose.
8. With the locknut removed, spin it back onto the shaft a few threads with the flat side of the nut towards the casting (upside down compared to it's original, installed position). Don't spin it all the way on, you need room to fit a prybar under the flat edge of the nut.
9. Using two prybars, one directly opposite the other, under the now upside-down locknut, pry up evenly on each side of the locknut, and the shaft usually pops out fairly easily.
10. Back on the bottom side of the machine, slip off the belts and replace with new belts and reassemble machine.
11. Be sure to turn the locknut back around to it's proper orientation and be sure to tighten it with a hammer and punch just as during disassembly (special wrenches exist for those nuts, I don't know their name) and bend one of the lockwasher tabs into one of the locknut slots (even if you need to turn the locknut backwards slightly from it's fully tight position).
When everything is reasembled, be sure the flat black belt tracks properly, that is, make sure it doesn't walk off the pulley as the motor runs (just spin the shaft by hand at first to observe if the belt tracks properly.
Good Luck!
