Thanks for the reply. Well, I'll have to take it off to be sure, but follow me on this. If the shaft were bent, the pulley would wobble up and down, not left to right from center. Make sense? Anyway, it's all academic. I'll take it off tomorrow to see what's up. It's encouraging that you think I can straighten the pulley somehow though. My wallet has already taken a beating on this project (long story), so $75 back to me is a win.
42" Snowthrower
I'm working on a 42" Snowthrower, and the auger is belt drive. Under the black cover on the side of the housing is a large auger drive pulley, an idler, a drive pulley, and a belt. I took the cover off to see the condition of the belt and I noticed that the large pulley is warped. It wobbles when the auger is spun. Not just a small wobble either. I'd say it travels 3/8" to 1/2" either direction of center during one revolution. It's so bad that it cut a groove/hole in the side of the black plastic cover. The pulley in question is part # 18 in the diagram below.
My question is, since this is a $50 part ($75 from mother Deere), is there any way to straighten a pulley or am I out of luck?. I'd let it go but from the look of it the belt will wear fast in it's present state. I think the unit must have taken a hit to that side at some point to do this, or maybe the auger hit something and the pulley took the punishment because it's in the drive train.
My question is, since this is a $50 part ($75 from mother Deere), is there any way to straighten a pulley or am I out of luck?. I'd let it go but from the look of it the belt will wear fast in it's present state. I think the unit must have taken a hit to that side at some point to do this, or maybe the auger hit something and the pulley took the punishment because it's in the drive train.
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So I got the pulley off, and I took a straight edge and held it against a solid surface and measured to the top , bottom, and both sides of the shaft while spinning the auger and I could not see any deflection. I even put a straight edge on the middle of the shaft end over the key-way and spun the auger.....no deflection. I have no idea how to test this pulley for true-ness or even if I could, I have no idea how I'd fix it. It's a pretty substantial piece of steel. I guess I need to go on faith here and just order one up. I can always return it I suppose. About the pulley being on a slant...I was thinking about that one. This pulley is keyed, so if it is slanted the pulley itself is slanted. There is zero tolerance on the shaft itself. I had to really pull to get it off it was so tight. Anyone have an AM124298 pulley that I could borrow for a couple of days to test? 
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