A-C 616 engine swap question

[mattallis]

I recently aquired a Allis-Chalmers 616, the original 16hp twin engine is missing. I swapped in a 12.5hp I.C. Briggs from a Crapsman that I have with a bad transmission. It is all together, everything works great, it has plenty of power and mows better than any mower I've ever owned - I'm VERY impressed with it. Here's my problem: The pulleys on the Briggs engine seem to be a little bigger in diameter than the originals so the mower deck won't disengage and the blades are always turning. I know I could probably get a belt that's a little longer and make it work, but I would prefer to use the correct pulleys. Would this be a hard item to find? would it work on the engine I have mounted? How do you remove these pulleys from the engine? I do have a couple of old 11hp Briggs engines with pulleys - would these happen to be compatible? Any insight on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!! Matt

[HubbardRA]

Matt, Make sure that you have the two belt guides mounted and almost touching the pulley. If those are not there, the belt will not disengage, regardless of size.

[mattallis]

I have the two belt guides mounted, I'm sure the pulley is bigger because I had to trim the hole in the frame slightly to get the pulley to go through when I mounted the new engine, I should have mentioned that in my original posting.